Purchase and sale invoices are used to affect open inventory and the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable G/L accounts in CATS. These two types of invoices are created in almost the same way.

1. Go to File > Invoicing > Invoice Preparation > Add > Purchase (or Sale) OR Invoicing > Add Invoice > Add Purchase / Add Sale / Add Vendor.
2. Select a type of invoice (AP and SF are final types) and pick Apply.
3. Enter the base Contract Number, Invoice Date, and Invoice Account. You may be able to enter the Invoice Number as well. Click Apply.
4. Choose Sinv (Select Inventory) from the invoice menu.
5. Highlight an item in the list and click on the Tools > Select this Traffic Screen menu option.
6. Pick marks on the next grid and click the Continue button.
7. Repeat the above two steps as necessary, then pick Exit to return to the invoice.
8. Change any fields on the invoice by picking Edit.
9. Adjust items by double-clicking on them in the list of items.
10. When finished with all changes, pick Prn from the menu to print the invoice and choose an output.
11. Change the drop-down box to Post Invoice (if applicable with your company's settings) to post the invoice.

Before Creating a Purchase Invoice:

• An active purchase contract must exist with units and/or weight on an item.
• The following fields need to be filled in on the location screen:
  
  • Location 1 (WH, AF, or IN)
  • Location 3 (Warehouse/Ship code)
  • B/L Number
  • B/L Date
  • Loading Port
  • Destination
  • ETA Date

If not all fields are filled in, you will receive this warning.

Before creating a Sale Invoice:

• An active sale contract must exist with units and/or weight.
• Material must be allocated to a purchase contract. Because invoices use the Select Inventory procedure to choose location screens, the sale contract must have a location screen on it.
• Depending on your settings, you may see a warning if you attempt to pick inventory on a sale invoice for a location screen without a purchase invoice.

Go to Invoices > Invoice Preparation > Add > Purchase or (Invoices > Invoice Preparation > Add > Sale for a sale invoice).

Add a Purchase or Sale Invoice from the main menu.

Select a type of invoice from the chooser, then select Apply to proceed to adding invoice details.

Select a type of invoice to add, then pick Apply.

Typically, you should use PP for Proforma Purchase or AP for Purchase Payment (final invoice type with a fixed price and weight). Use SP for Proforma Sale or SF for Final Sale.

Enter the correct details for this invoice, including contract number, account code, and invoice date.

Enter the Date, Contract Number, and Account for this invoice.

Pick Apply to continue and create the invoice.

The invoice screen will be displayed (see image below).

A blank invoice screen with no units. Use SInv to pick inventory for this invoice.

No invoice items currently exist for this newly created invoice, so the amount on the bottom is 0.00. This invoice cannot be posted until it has invoice items with units, weight and/or an amount on it.

You can either add material manually by adding an invoice item and choosing a contract item to reference, or you can select inventory (a location screen) and CATS will fill in the data for you.

Choose SInv from the menu to pick inventory for this invoice.

Use the SInv menu item to pick inventory for this invoice.

A list of traffic screens for the contract number you selected will be displayed.If a screen is available (not already selected on another invoice), the Selected column will display Available. If the material is on another invoice, this column will show Reserved. Click in any available field for a single screen, then on the menu select Pick or Tools > Pick this Traffic Screen to choose the highlighted screen.

A list of traffic screens on this contract.

Use Pick to select a traffic screen.

Click on each mark to copy from the location screen to this invoice, then pick Continue.

Choose the marks to copy to this invoice.

The select inventory screen will show Selected in the Selected column.

The selected inventory will show as selected.

Pick Exit to save these changes and return to the invoice.

At the moment of attempting to pick a traffic screen, you may receive the warning about fields not filled in on the location screen. This warning is in place to prevent items that should not be invoiced (due to status or current location) from being selected as inventory on an invoice.

Warning about missing traffic info.

Instead of exiting and editing the traffic screen from the main menu, you can pick Tools > Edit this Traffic Screen to have CATS call up the location screen in edit mode, where you can fill in whatever data is missing.

Use the Tools menu to Edit this Traffic Screen.

To choose all available (literally marked Available in the scan) screens for this invoice, use the Tools > Pick All menu option. CATS will only allow you to “Pick All” if the traffic screen is complete.

Use Tools Pick All to select all screens for this contract.

If you want to view a different contract, go to Tools > Select Contract to View.

Select a contract to view

Then proceed to choose a contract to view. Press Continue to view the inventory available.

Choose the contract to continue

Select Edit from the toolbar menu to change fields on this screen, such as the Payment Terms, Remark, B/L Number, Due Date, etc. Fill in the fields as desired, then pick Save from the top menu to continue.

Special fields to review when editing an invoice include:

• Payment Terms are pulled in automatically from the Payment terms code in the Codes & Terms file.
• Payment Instructions can be stored in the Remarks file.
• You can use the Append balance link to add a list of all open invoices for this account to the Remark field. This is useful to send to customers.

You can attach extra charges (due you or charged to you) to inventory invoices by creating manual invoice items.

From the invoice screen, select Item > Add Invoice Item.

You can create separate sub-totals for your invoice items listing. Subtotals are special items that print out the subtotal for a selection of items. The order used when creating the items and subtotal lines determines which items show up in which section.

From the invoice screen, select Item > Add subtotal

Subtotal lines can have individual settings to control which fields are totaled and how the subtotals are calculated.

• Print if empty. If enabled, this subtotal will display on the printed invoice even if it doesn't have any items within it.
• Nested subtotal. If enabled, this subtotal line will be nested inside a parent subtotal.
• Running totals. If enabled, the subtotals will resume after this entry rather than resetting to 0.

You can select inventory to include on this invoice for more than one contract, as long as the contract has the same account code. From the Sinv scan, pick Tools > Select contract to view.

Choose Tools and Select Contract to view.

CATS will call up a chooser of all contracts for that account code. Choose a contract to view. Press Continue to view the inventory available.

Pick a new contract and select Continue.

Then proceed with selecting inventory as normal.

To see the marks displayed as a list (as the items are shown), click on the blue Switch to marks link just above the invoice item list.

Click on Switch to marks to see a list of marks on this invoice.

As with marks in other areas of CATS, if there is no value in a field, that field will not show up in the marks list on printed documents.

Click Switch to Items to return to viewing a list of items.

On unposted invoices, you can also view the marks by selecting Mark from the menu. You can edit mark details as you would on location screens here.

Edit a mark on an invoice using the Mark menu.

Choose Edit from the screen, then fill in the details and pick Apply to save.

Change invoice mark details and pick Apply.

You can choose to add items from more than one sale contract (instead of from more than one purchase contract). The first sale contract will show up next to the purchase contract as shown here:

Link to the sale contract on the invoice.

On sale invoices, you may get any or all of the following warnings if the conditions for creating a sale invoice have not been met.

You may see a warning that an item has not been paid for if you attempt to select the inventory for a location screen that does not have a purchase invoice on it.

No purchase invoice warning on a sale invoice.

Depending on your company's settings, you may be able to proceed if you click Yes, or you may be forced to create a purchase invoice before you can select this material for a sale invoice.

This warning can appear on both purchase and sale final invoice types. If the contract for this material has no fixed contract price (only a differential price), you will be asked to pick a Settlement Price to be used on the invoice.

Enter a price for CATS to use, then pick Apply to proceed.

Enter a price you wish CATS to use and pick Apply.

For sale invoices, CATS will warn you if there is no Delivery Order number on the location screen. You can still proceed by pressing any key or clicking anywhere on screen.

No DO warning on select inventory. Click to continue.

Each user can customize the columns shown on the invoice items and marks grid. Right-click on any column heading and check or un-check each column there.

Right click to change the columns your user sees on the invoice item list

You can drag the column to rearrange the order. You can also click on a column to order by that column. This view will save for your user for all invoices.

To change the address on the invoice, pick Name from the menu.

Select Name from the menu to change the address on the invoice.

You can manually enter the address or click Change to choose from a list of addresses for this account.

Pick Change to choose a new address or enter a new address in the box.

Choose another address, or add a new one, and pick Continue to proceed. Addresses tagged as INVOICE will automatically be used for all invoices for that account.

Select an address from the list or add a new one.

When you have finished entering an address, pick Cancel to close the manual address box.

Choose Cancel to close the address box when finished.

You can add a ship to address to invoices by picking Sh from the menu. The Ship To field will be filled in.

Choose Sh to fill in the ship to address.

Here, again, the multiple address tool will be called up and you can choose from a list of addresses or create a new one for this account. You can follow the steps for the Name address above to enter a new Ship To address.

After you create an invoice, you must print and post it to have it take effect. Posting creates entries in the general ledger for this invoice and affects the inventory on the accounting side as well as the “Balance” due on the contract.

Select Prn from the invoice menu, then print the invoice as you would any document in CATS. When prompted, change the drop-down box to read Post Invoice and pick Apply.

Choose Post Invoice and pick Apply to post this invoice to the general ledger.

You may see a posting progress box. Click any key to proceed.

When CATS is finished posting , you will notice that the menu has changed. You no longer have the option to Edit, Add Invoice Items, SInv (select inventory), HW (put a hold on the invoice to prevent posting), or Del (delete).

The toolbar menu on the posted invoice.

Also, you can see that this invoice is posted by looking at the status in the top-right corner.

Posted status on the invoice.

If there is a commission on this invoice (pulled in from the contract or entered on the invoice) you will be asked if you want to post the commission. The commission invoice functions as a separate invoice record in the general ledger, with the same number but a different account code (that of the broker).

Select Yes to post the commission invoice.

Choose Yes to post the broker's commission invoice.

Commission invoices can be unposted from the invoice unposting area.