How to use Advanced Ordering and B2G invoicing in QuickBooks Online - Singapore

QuickBooks Online Singapore supports Advanced Ordering and B2G (Business-to-Government) invoicing. If you supply the government, you can receive a purchase order directly through InvoiceNow (Advanced Ordering), then turn it into an invoice and send it back to the government to get paid (B2G invoicing).

Before you start

Before you can send invoices to the government through InvoiceNow, you'll need:

• A CorpPass account
• An approved supplier record on Vendors@Gov. Invoices from supplier without an approved record will be rejected
• InvoiceNow set up in QuickBooks Online

Step 1: Receiving a purchase order

When a government agency sends you a purchase order, it lands in QuickBooks Online alongside your other inbound documents. QuickBooks automatically lets the agency know you've received it.

To view purchase orders you've received:

1. Go to Settings and select Compliance centre.
2. Select the InvoiceNow tab, then the Inbound Documents tab.
3. Purchase orders will be marked with the document type Purchase Order. Ones waiting for you are marked For Review.
4. To review a specific purchase order, select Review. Each purchase order shows:
   • Order ID: The agency's purchase order number
   • Order note: Any instructions from the agency for the whole order
   • Customer name: The agency that sent the order
   • Customer reference: The agency's business unit (BU) code
   • Buyer contact name and email: The person at the agency who placed the order
   • Payment terms: For example, 30D for 30 days
   • Delivery address: Where the agency wants the order delivered
   • Line items: Each with its line reference, description, quantity, and unit price
   • Line note and delivery date: Any instructions and the requested delivery date for each line

Step 2: Set up the government customer

Before you can turn a purchase order into an invoice, you need a customer record for the specific government organisation it came from.

Government invoices route at two levels: The agency, and the department within it. In QuickBooks Online, you set these up as a parent customer and a sub-customer. The agency has one UEN and Peppol ID, shared by every department in it, but each department also has its own business unit (BU) code. This lets you address the invoice to the right agency and department.

To set up your government customers:

1. Go to All apps , select Customer Hub, then select Customers & leads (Take me there).
2. Select New customer.
3. Create a customer for the government agency, and fill in its display name and billing address.
4. In the Additional info section, select Government from the Customer category ▼ dropdown.
5. Enter the agency's Peppol ID and Unique Entity Number (UEN), which are both required.
6. Select Save.
7. Select New customer again to create the department.
8. Select the Is a sub-customer checkbox, then select the customer you created for the agency in the Parent customer ▼ dropdown. The department automatically inherits the agency's address, Peppol ID, and UEN.
9. On the department's record, add its BU code (up to 5 characters) and Contact person (up to 20 characters).
10. Select Save.

Step 3: Review the purchase order and process it as an invoice

To process a purchase order:

1. From the Inbound Documents tab, select Review for the Purchase Order you'd like to process.
2. Under Target transaction type, leave Invoice selected.
   Note: If you're on QuickBooks Online Plus or QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can select Sales order instead.
3. Select the government sub-customer, then fill out each line item based on the purchase order.
4. Select Accept & create Invoice. QuickBooks creates the invoice and lets the agency know you've accepted the order.
5. If you can't fulfill the order, select Reject instead, then select Status reason code and Status action code. QuickBooks sends both to the agency.
6. Not every detail carries over from the purchase order, so open the invoice and check it's complete and accurate before you send it. In addition to the usual invoice fields, check these for government billing:
   • Invoice no.: Filled in with the purchase order number. Up to 27 characters, with no spaces.
   • Order ID: Filled in with the purchase order number, so the government can match your invoice to its order.
   • Line items: If you're billing against a purchase order, each line's description and unit price must match the purchase order, and each line keeps its PO line reference. For services, set the unit price to 1 and enter the amount as the quantity.
   • Terms: Set these to match the purchase order. The government only accepts terms of 0, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21, 28, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60, or 90 days.
   • Invoice date: Can't be in the future, or more than 7 days in the past.
   • BU code: The code you configured when setting up the sub-customer. This populates automatically when you select the customer. Override it if the purchase order shows a different code.
   • Contact person: Populates automatically from the sub-customer.
   • Supplier ID: Defaults automatically to your UEN. Only change it if your supplier ID on Vendors@Gov is different.
   • Supplier email: Populates automatically from your company email in QuickBooks.
   • Note to customer: Required for government invoices, up to 254 characters. The purchase order will typically contain the information to include here.
   • GST: If the invoice includes GST, your Vendors@Gov record must show you as GST-registered. Invoice items under customer accounting separately from standard-rated and zero-rated items.
   • Attachment: One only, up to 1MB, in BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, PDF, or PNG format.
7. When everything is correct, select Save and submit e-invoice.
8. To invoice a government agency without a purchase order, select Create +, then select Invoice. Select the government sub-customer and fill out the same fields.

Step 4: Track your e-invoice

To check the status of an invoice you've sent:

1. Go to Settings and select Compliance centre.
2. Select the InvoiceNow tab, then select Outbound Documents tab.
3. Select the invoice to view its status.
   

QuickBooks also lets the agency know what you've done with each purchase order. To view what was sent, open the order from the Inbound Documents tab and check its Order response status.

Handle order changes and cancellations

An agency can change or cancel a purchase order it already sent. You'll receive an Order Change or Order Cancellation in the Inbound Documents tab, marked For Review.

To apply an order change:

1. From the Inbound Documents tab, select Review for the Order Change.
2. Compare it against the original order under Document history.
3. Select Accept. If you can't take on the change, select Reject instead, then select Status reason code and a Status action code. QuickBooks lets the agency know either way.

Each order change shows the same details as a purchase order (refer to Step 1), plus:

• Variation number: The agency's number for this change, so you can tell changes to the same order apart
• Original order ID: The purchase order this change applies to

To accept an order cancellation:

1. From the Inbound Documents tab, select Review for the Order Cancellation.
2. Check it against the original order under Document history.
3. Select Accept. If you can't accept the cancellation, select Reject instead, then select Status reason code and a Status action code. QuickBooks lets the agency know either way.

Each order cancellation shows:

• Original order ID: The purchase order the agency is cancelling
• Customer name: The agency that sent the cancellation
• Cancellation reason: Why the agency cancelled the order

What happens when you accept depends on what you've already done with the original order:

When you void a government invoice with a credit note, select the invoice it's cancelling under Linked delivered e-invoices. The government requires this on every credit note.

An agency may also send an Order Balance, which shows how much of the order is still left to bill. QuickBooks attaches it to the original purchase order automatically, using the order ID. It's for your information only, so you don't need to accept or reject it.

To view an order balance:

1. From the Inbound Documents tab, select Review for the original Purchase Order.
2. Under Document history, select the Order Balance.
3. The order balance opens as a read-only document.

Additional resources

• The InvoiceNow help hub - Singapore
• How to set up InvoiceNow in QuickBooks Online