In this article, we will explore various features related to invoices and payments, including creating and managing invoices, accepting online and offline payments, and handling anonymous payments. Let's dive in!
Adding an Invoice While Creating an Appointment
One of the convenient features of HomeGauge is the ability to create an invoice and request payment while scheduling an appointment. Here's how you can do it:
Need to Add or change your Inspection Services? Inspection Services are needed to generate an invoice while scheduling an Appointment. This article covers setting up, adding, and editing Inspection Services: Inspector Dashboard: Setup and Manage Inspection Services.
Creating an invoice while scheduling an appointment is covered in this article: Inspector Dashboard: Creating and Managing Appointments
Deleting an Invoice from an Appointment
If you need to remove an invoice that was generated for an appointment, follow these simple steps:
If the invoice has been paid via HG Payments, please get in touch with support to get the invoice deleted.
On your Dashboard, under My Reports, you can find the report you need to remove the invoice from
Click the Amount Due to access the Payment Information screen
Click the Edit / Delete button for the invoice you're trying to remove
Click Edit Appointment Services
Uncheck Request Payment box
Click Save Changes Only on the bottom of the appointment page..
Creating an Invoice From All Reports
You can create invoices outside of the Appointment feature as well. Here's how you can do it:
Start on your HomeGauge dashboard under My Reports > All Reports
Find the report address you would like to add an invoice to
Click Request Payment to access the Create Invoice page.
Enter the "Amount Due" and add a brief customer invoice description.
You can also use the Require Payment to View Documents option to restrict document viewing until payment is received
Choose between Request Payment to send notification emails to the customer or Create Invoice Only to skip sending notifications
Once created, the invoice will appear under that Report ID and Address page as a red exclamation point and the amount due.
Create an Additional/ Multiple Invoice(s)
You may need to create an additional invoice. Follow these steps to do so:
From your Inspector Dashboard, locate the report address with the invoice you want to view.
Find the report address you would like to add an invoice to
Click on the payment link, which may appear as Request Payment, Amount Due, Paid, or Partially Paid, depending on the status
Click the New Invoice button and proceed to add the new invoice details as explained earlier
The new invoice will appear under the respective report on your dashboard, and if there are multiple unpaid invoices, their amounts will be totaled together
Viewing an Invoice
To view an invoice, follow these steps:
From your HomeGauge Dashboard, locate the report address with the invoice you want to view
The invoice status will be displayed either in red text with an exclamation mark and the amount due or with a green check mark showing the amount paid. Click on the red or green link with the invoice amount.
From here, you can:
Edit the Appointment
Send Invoice Emails
Take Payment
Add a New Invoice
Edit / Delete the invoice
From this Information Page, you can also see:
When the invoice was created
If the invoice has been paid
If documents can or can't be viewed before payment
Note: If you booked an appointment without an agreement, the property will not display in All Reports. You can view all invoices by:
From the left-side menu, click My Reports > Payment Status.
Locate the address containing the invoice you want to print and click on the address in blue. Use the Date Range drop-down to filter invoices depending on how far the job was done in the past.
Edit / Delete an Invoice
To edit or delete an Invoice, first follow the steps above to View the Invoice.
Once on the invoice page, click Edit / Delete. This will take you to the Edit Invoice page. This page is exactly like the Create an Invoice section. From this page you can change the Amount Due, and Add a short Customer Invoice Description.
If you would like to lock your documents from being viewed until the customer pays, Click Require Payment to View Documents. You can also choose to Request Payment which will take you to send out notification emails to your customer or Update Invoice Only which will not send out a notification to your customer.
Lastly you can delete the invoice by clicking the red Delete Invoice button on the bottom right of the page.
Printing/Emailing a Invoice
If you need to print an invoice for your records or send it to the payer, follow these steps:
View the invoice using the steps mentioned earlier
Click Print/Email
Click Print Invoice to access a copy of the invoice for your records. Click Email Invoice to send a copy to the payer of the invoice.
Taking a Credit Card Payment
You can accept credit card payments by having HG Payments set up. To learn how to set up HG Payments, visit this article Guide to HomeGauge Payments
If HG Payments are set up, customers and real estate professionals (REPs) can view invoices and make payments via their dashboards. The payment will be automatically recorded on your dashboard, and if the "Require Payment to View Documents" option is enabled, it will release the report for viewing.
You can manually record an offline payment if your Customer or REP would like to pay at the inspection or over the phone.
View the invoice using the steps mentioned earlier
Once viewing the invoice, click Take Online Payment. This will take you to the Online Payment screen.
Enter the fields for Card Billing Information. All fields are required; however, you can save time by clicking Fill from Contacts and selecting the contact you to enter information for. The address needs to match the billing address for the card.
Enter the Credit Card Payment fields. All of these fields are required.
Click Make a Secure Payment to record the payment
Taking an Offline Payment
In situations where the payment was taken outside of HomeGauge, you can manually record the payment. Here's how:
View the invoice using the steps mentioned earlier
Once viewing the invoice, click Record Offline Payment. This will take you to the Record Offline Payment screen.
Under Record Payment, you can manually take payment for services. Choose a payment type from the drop-down menu, then write a quick payment description under the payment note.
If you would like the information of the payer to display on the receipt, fill in the optional Payer Information fields. To save time, you can Fill from contacts.
Click Record Payment. This will take you back to the Payment Information Page, and the invoice will now show a green check mark and green text showing the amount paid.
Printing/Emailing a Receipt
If you need to print a receipt for your records or send it to the payer, follow these steps:
View the invoice using the steps mentioned earlier
Click Receipt found within the payer section.
Click Print Receipt to access a copy of the invoice for your records. Click Email Receipt to send a copy to the payer of the invoice.
Disable/ Enable REPS to pay for inspections
By default, any Real Estate Professional (REP) associated with the appointment can view and complete invoice payments. However, you can disable this feature under Company Settings. Here's how:
Log onto your Dashboard and click Account Settings (on the left) > Company Options.
Locate the box titled Payment Settings.
Uncheck the box next to Allow REPS to Pay for Inspections [Default]
Click Save Company Options at the bottom.
Anonymous Payments
By default, any Real Estate Professional (REP) associated with the appointment can view and complete payments for invoices. However, you can disable this feature under Company Settings. Here's how:
Click Account Settings (on the left) > Company Options
Locate the box titled Payment Settings
Check the box next to Allow Anonymous Payments
Click Save Company Options at the bottom
If a customer is making an anonymous payment to you:
Verify that your profile is listed in search results. Click Profile (on the left) > Profile Contact Info. Scroll to the bottom and click the box for Show Profile in Search Results. Click Save Changes.
Have the customer find your HG profile by clicking this link for our inspector finder.
Click on your company name to go into your profile.
Click on the button Pay Online Now.
Here, they can log in to make a payment or click Make Other Payment to make an anonymous payment.
They will then fill out their card info and click Make a Secure Payment.
Anonymous payments are not linked to reports. If you receive payment for an inspection anonymously, it's important to manually mark that inspection as paid as soon as you can. Doing so will help keep records straight so that you can know what is and is not paid for, avoiding a situation where you later ask for payment from a customer who has already sent you money.