First of all, an invoice is an accounting and legal document that certifies the purchase of a good or service. In this way, it governs the commercial relations between a seller and a customer. This document includes several details, namely the quantity, the nature and the price of the product or service in question.
In addition, certain legal notices must appear on all of your invoices. These fusion data include, for example, the name of the company (trade name), the date of the invoice, your company's SIRET number, VAT or Value Added Tax, etc.
Finally, regardless of the type of invoice, invoices must be kept for a period of 10 years .
To help you edit your invoices, Indy has prepared two invoice templates for you :
An invoice without VAT ( here );
An invoice with VAT ( here ).
Focus on the different types of invoices
In accounting, there are different types of invoices designed to respond to different cases. Depending on whether the purchase has been confirmed or not, the type of invoice to be issued will also not be the same. Let's see this in detail together!
1. The deposit invoice
As its name suggests, the deposit invoice (complementary to the balance invoice ) is issued by a service provider or merchant to prove that the customer has paid a deposit , in other words, part of the total amount of the transaction paid in advance. This allows the seller to collect part of the payment before delivery of the product or service.
The rules governing this document are defined by French law. Indeed, according to article 289 of the General Tax Code ( attached ), and in the event of receipt of a deposit, the establishment of an invoice is required (whether the company is subject to VAT or not).