Working with advance invoices

With an advance invoice you invoice part of the quote amount before you (fully) carry out the work or services. On the final invoice, the paid advances are then deducted automatically.

ℹ️ Advance invoices are being rolled out gradually. Don’t see the option in your environment? Contact us at help@clouddematinvoicing.be.

Creating an advance invoice

An advance invoice always starts from a quote. There are two ways:

From the quotes list:

Go to Quotes
Open the action menu (⋮) next to the quote
Choose Create advance invoice

From the invoices module:

Go to Invoices
Click the arrow next to the Add button and choose Advance invoice
Search for and select the quote you want to invoice an advance for

Percentage or fixed amount

In the dialog you choose how much to invoice as an advance:

Percentage: a percentage of the quote amount. The default percentage is configured in your company settings (30% by default).
Fixed amount: a fixed advance amount, excluding VAT.

You immediately see an overview of earlier advance invoices on the same quote, showing what has already been invoiced and what amount remains. The total of all advances combined may be at most 100% of the quote amount.

Optionally, carry over the intro text, remarks, reference and internal notes from the quote. Then click Create advance invoice.

What does the advance invoice look like?

The invoice contains one line per VAT rate of the quote (no detailed breakdown of the services), e.g. “Advance invoice 30% on quote OF2026-00001”. This splits the VAT correctly.
The VAT settings of the quote (reverse charge, exemption, certificate …) are carried over.
The PDF is titled Advance invoice instead of Invoice.
In the invoice list you can recognise advance invoices by the Advance invoice label; you can also filter on them via the status filter.
Otherwise the invoice behaves like a regular invoice: you send it by email or Peppol and follow up the payment as usual. There is even a separate email template for advance invoices in your company settings.

The quote gets the status Partially invoiced (or Invoiced at 100%). Via the euro icon next to the quote you open Linked invoices, showing all advances, the total invoiced amount and the remaining amount.

Deducting advances on the final invoice

When you later convert the quote to the final invoice (Create invoice), the dialog shows the existing advance invoices with the checkbox Deduct advance invoices as negative lines below (checked by default):

The final invoice gets a negative line at the bottom per advance invoice per VAT rate, e.g. “Deduction advance invoice FA2026-00012 (21%)”.
The grand total on the PDF is then labelled Balance: the amount the customer still has to pay.

💡 Peppol: an advance invoice is sent via Peppol as a prepayment invoice (document type 386). On the final invoice, the advances are correctly processed in the UBL as a prepaid amount, so the payable balance is correct for the recipient.

Settings

Under Preferences, section Advance invoice, you’ll find:

Setting	Meaning
Default advance percentage	The percentage suggested by default (1–100)
Separate numbering for advance invoices	If you choose Yes, advance invoices get their own number series; also fill in the Advance invoice starting number (e.g. `VF2026-100`). By default they follow the regular invoice numbering.

Frequently asked questions

Can I create an advance invoice without a quote? No. An advance invoice is always linked to a quote. First create a quote with the full amount.

I get a message that the total would exceed 100%. The total of all advance invoices on a single quote is limited to 100% of the quote amount. Check the overview in the dialog to see what has already been invoiced.

What is the difference with the “Already paid” field on an invoice? With Already paid you manually show an amount already received on a regular invoice. On advance invoices and on final invoices with deducted advances, that field is deliberately unavailable to avoid double deduction.