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  		Jon Lapham <lapham@extracta.com.br>
	updated Patrick Schweiger <pks@spiffykitty.com>
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<chapter id="chapter_bus_ar">
  <title>Accounts Receivable</title>

  <para>Accounts Receivable (or A/R) refers to products or services provided
  by your company for which payment has not yet been received.</para>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-overview1">
    <title>Overview of Business Features</title>

    <para>The accounting needs of a business are quite different from that of
    a person. Businesses have customers that owe money, vendors which are owed
    money, employee payroll, more complex tax laws, etc. GnuCash offers
    business oriented features to facilitate these needs.</para>

    <para>Accounts Receivable (A/R) are used by businesses to record sales for
    which they are not immediately paid. Accounts Payable (A/P) record bills
    that they have received, but might not pay until later. These types of
    accounts are used primarily when you have a lot of bills and receipts
    flowing in and out, and do not want to lose track of them just because you
    do not pay or get paid right away. For most home users, A/R and A/P are
    too complicated to be worth the effort.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-concepts1">
    <title>Basic Concepts</title>

    <para>Accounts Receivable (or A/R) refers to products or services provided
    by your company for which payment has not yet been received. This is
    represented on the balance sheet as an asset, because the expectation is
    that you will receive payment soon.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-setup1">
    <title>Initial Setup</title>

    <para>To set up GnuCash to handle accounts receivable for a company two
    preliminary things must be done. The first is to build an appropriate
    Account Hierarchy and the second is to register the company in
    GnuCash.</para>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-setupacct2">
      <title>Account Setup</title>

      <para>There are many different ways to set up a business account
      hierarchy. You can start with the Business Accounts setup which is
      available from the New Account Hierarchy druid, or you could build one
      manually. To access the prebuilt Business Accounts, start GnuCash and
      click on <guimenu>File</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>New File</guimenu> and
      proceed until you see the list of available accounts, select Business
      Accounts.</para>

      <para>The prebuilt Business Account hierarchy will not meet your needs
      exactly. You will need make adjustments for the hierarchy to function
      well with your particular situation. It should be close enough that it
      is recommended you begin with it.</para>

      <para>Accounts Receivable (or A/R) refers to products or services
      provided by the company on credit for which payment has not yet been
      received. This is represented on the balance sheet as an asset, because
      you expect to receive payment soon. To use GnuCash's integrated accounts
      receivable system, you must first set up an account (usually a
      sub-account under Assets) defined with account type
      <emphasis>A/Receivable</emphasis>. It is within this account that the
      integrated A/R system will place transactions.</para>

      <literallayout>
Basic A/R Account Hierarchy:

-Assets
   -Checking
   -Accounts Receivable
-Income
   -Sales
  </literallayout>

      <para>You need to add additional asset, expense, and income accounts to
      this hierarchy for it to be useful. The important aspects of this
      hierarchy are the use of an income account and the Accounts Receivable
      asset account, with account type set to
      <emphasis>A/Receivable</emphasis>.</para>

      <note>
        <para>You do not need to create an individual A/R account for each
        customer. GnuCash keeps track of customers internally and provides
        per-customer reports based on the internal tracking.</para>
      </note>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-setupcname2">
      <title>Company Registration</title>

      <para>After you have built the account structure, register the GnuCash
      file as belonging to your company. To register your company, select
      <guimenu>File</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Properties</guimenu>:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Enter the name of your company along with contact information
          such as your phone number, fax number, e-mail address and website
          URL.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Enter your company's tax payer id number in the
          <guilabel>Company ID</guilabel> field.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Select default tax tables applicable to your most common
          customers and vendors.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-components1">
    <title>System Components</title>

    <para>GnuCash has an integrated accounts receivable system. The
    transactions generated by the A/R system are recorded within the Accounts
    Receivable account. You generally do not work directly with this account.
    You generally work with the four integrated GnuCash A/R application
    components available through the <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt;
    <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> sub-menu. These four components are:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Customers</guilabel> are people or companies to whom
        you sell products or services on credit.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Invoices</guilabel> represent the physical invoice you
        send to a customer to request payment. This invoice contains an
        itemized list of things you sold.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> (optional) is where you register
        Customer Jobs. Jobs are a mechanism by which you can group multiple
        invoices to a particular customer.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Process Payments</guilabel> is used to register
        payments you received from a customer.</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>The following sections introduce the individual components in more
    detail.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-customers1">
    <title>Customers</title>

    <para>Customers are people or companies to whom you sell goods or
    services. They must be registered within the A/R system.</para>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-custnew2">
      <title>New</title>

      <para>To register a new customer, enter the menu
      <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt;
      <guimenu>New Customer</guimenu>. Fill in customer information, such as
      Company Name, Address, Phone, Fax, etc. Below is a list of the other
      options:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Identification - Customer Number</guilabel> - can be
          any number by which you would like to refer to this customer. You
          may leave it blank and a number will be chosen automatically.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Identification - Active</guilabel> - differentiates
          active customers from inactive ones. This is useful when you have
          many past customers, and you want to see only those marked
          active.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Address - Name</guilabel> - is the contact
          name of the person to receive the invoices.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Notes</guilabel> - records any additional comments
          about the customer.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Currency</guilabel> -
          specifies the default billing currency.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Terms</guilabel> - specifies
          the default billing terms for this customer. Billing terms must be
          preregistered using <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt;
          <guimenu>Billing Terms Editor</guimenu>.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Discount</guilabel> - gives
          the customer a default percentage based discount at the time of
          invoice creation. Enter a value from 0 to 100. You can override the
          default discount when you create an invoice.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Credit Limit</guilabel> -
          stores the maximum credit you are willing to extend to the customer.
          This field is for your reference purposes only. GnuCash does not use
          the value.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Tax Included</guilabel> - this
          specifies whether nor not tax is included in invoice amounts by
          default. You can choose <guilabel>Yes</guilabel>,
          <guilabel>No</guilabel>, or <guilabel>Use Global</guilabel>.
          <itemizedlist>
              <listitem>
                <para><guilabel>Yes</guilabel> means that the tax is already
                included in amounts on invoices.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem>
                <para><guilabel>No</guilabel> means tax is not
                included.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem>
                <para><guilabel>Use Global</guilabel> means to use the setting
                made in the global preferences accessible through
                <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> -&gt;
                <guimenu>Preferences</guimenu>.</para>
              </listitem>
            </itemizedlist></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Tax Table</guilabel> -
          specifies a default tax table to apply to invoice line items. Tax
          tables must be registered from the <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt;
          <guimenu>Tax Table Editor</guimenu> menu item.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Shipping Address</guilabel> - records the customer's
          shipping address if it is different from the billing address. The
          shipping address is for your reference. GnuCash does not use the
          value.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>This is what the New Customer registration window looks
      like:</para>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-custnew">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_custnew.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>New Customer Registration Window</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>New Customer Registration Window</para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-custfind2">
      <title>Find and Edit</title>

      <para>To search for an existing customer, use the
      <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt;
      <guimenu>Find Customer</guimenu> window. You select a customer to
      <guilabel>View/Edit</guilabel> from the results of the search. This
      window is also used to look up customers when creating invoices and
      processing payments.</para>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-custfind">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_custfind.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>Find Customer Window</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>Find Customer Window </para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>

      <para>If many customers match the search criteria you provide, the
      search can be refined by running an additional search within the current
      results. The current result set is searched when the <guilabel>Refine
      Current Search</guilabel> radio button is selected. In fact, GnuCash
      selects this option for you after you run the initial search.</para>

      <para>If the customer you are searching for does not match the supplied
      search criteria, change the search criteria, click the <guilabel>New
      Search</guilabel> radio button and then the <guilabel>Find</guilabel>
      button. The relevant step is the <guilabel>New Search</guilabel>
      selection. If the customer is not in the result of the original search,
      and you only search within this set, the customer cannot be found,
      regardless of new search criteria.</para>

      <note>
        <para>To return a list of all registered active customers, set the
        search criterion to <guilabel>matches regex</guilabel>, and place a
        single dot "." in the text field area. Make sure <guilabel>Search only
        active data</guilabel> is checked, then click
        <guibutton>Find</guibutton>. The regular expression "." means to match
        anything.</para>
      </note>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-invoices1">
    <title>Invoices</title>

    <para>An invoice is the paperwork you send to a customer to request
    payment for products or services rendered. GnuCash can generate and track
    invoices.</para>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoicenew2">
      <title>New</title>

      <para>To send an invoice to a customer you must first create a new
      invoice. To create an invoice use <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt;
      <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>New Invoice</guimenu>. The
      New Invoice window must be filled in appropriately:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Invoice Information - Invoice ID</guilabel> - the
          identification number of this invoice. This is your internal number
          for this invoice. If you leave it blank, an invoice number will be
          generated automatically.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Invoice Information - Date Opened</guilabel> - the
          date this invoice was created.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Customer</guilabel> - the
          customer who is to receive this invoice. Use the
          <guilabel>Select</guilabel> button to access the <guilabel>Find
          Customer</guilabel> window described in the previous section. When
          you have looked up the customer to be invoiced, click the
          <guilabel>Select</guilabel> in the search window to select the
          customer.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Job</guilabel> (optional) -
          associates the new invoice with a customer job. Customer jobs are
          described in the following section.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Billing ID</guilabel> - this
          is the customer's PO Number or other "customer reference number".
          You should use it to identify your invoices to this customer (and
          job, if you have one).</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Billing Information - Terms</guilabel> - the payback
          terms agreement for this invoice. A list of registered terms is
          available within the pop up menu. If you specified a default value
          for the selected customer, this field is initialized with the
          default.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoicenew">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoicenew.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>Creating a New Invoice</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>Creating a New Invoice </para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>

      <para>When you click the <guilabel>OK</guilabel> button, the
      <guilabel>Edit Invoice</guilabel> window opens.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoiceedit2">
      <title>Edit</title>

      <para>From the Edit Invoice window you can enter an itemized list of
      things you sold on this invoice, in a manner similar to how the account
      register works.</para>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoiceedit">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoiceedit.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>Edit Invoice Window</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>Edit Invoice Window </para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>

      <para>There are 15 columns in the <guilabel>Invoice Entries</guilabel>
      area:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Date</guilabel> - The date this item was
          sold.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Invoiced?</guilabel> - <guilabel>X</guilabel> means
          the item is attached to this invoice, an empty box means the item is
          not attached to this invoice. The item is attached for you when you
          proceed to the next line item.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Description</guilabel> (optional) - is what the item
          or service is called.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Action</guilabel> (optional) - is a user defined
          field. You can place Cost Center information here, or use one of the
          3 predefined actions, Hours, Material, or Project.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Income Account</guilabel> - selects which income
          account is credited with this income.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Quantity</guilabel> - tracks how many of the items
          you sold.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Unit Price</guilabel> - is the unit price of the
          item.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Discount Type</guilabel> - is the type of
          discount:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><guilabel>$</guilabel> means <guilabel>Discount</guilabel>
              is a monetary value</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><guilabel>%</guilabel> means <guilabel>Discount</guilabel>
              is a percentage.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>

          <para>You can click the field to toggle between the discount
          types.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Discount How</guilabel> - the discount can be
          computed as follows:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><guilabel>&gt;</guilabel> means the discount applies after
              tax.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><guilabel>&lt;</guilabel> means the discount applies
              before tax.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><guilabel>=</guilabel> means both discount and tax are
              applied to the pretax value.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>

          <para>You can click the field to change the setting.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Discount</guilabel> (optional) - is the total
          discount, in monetary units or percentage, depending on
          <guilabel>Discount Type</guilabel>. You can leave it blank for no
          discount. Any default discount you specified for the customer will
          be automatically entered for each new item.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Taxable?</guilabel> - is this item taxable?
          <guilabel>X</guilabel> means yes, a blank field means no. You can
          click the field to toggle the setting.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Tax Included?</guilabel> - has the tax already been
          included in the unit price? <guilabel>X</guilabel> means yes, a
          blank field means no. For example, if there is 1 item of $100 with a
          tax of 5% then:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para>If Tax Included is empty, then subtotal = $100 and tax =
              $5.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para>If Tax included is set (<guilabel>X</guilabel>), then
              subtotal = $95 and tax = $5.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Tax Table</guilabel> (optional) - this is a pop up
          menu of all the available tax tables. If you make the item taxable,
          then this table is used to compute the amount of tax. The tax table
          determines tax percentages and the accounts to which tax is
          charged.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Subtotal</guilabel> (uneditable) - is the computed
          subtotal for this item (less tax).</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Tax</guilabel> (uneditable) - is the computed tax
          for this item.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>When you have finished entering all the items, you can
      <guilabel>Post</guilabel> and print the invoice.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoicepost2">
      <title>Post</title>

      <para>When you finish editing an invoice and are ready to print, you
      must <guilabel>Post</guilabel> the invoice. The invoice does not have to
      be posted immediately. In fact, you should only post an invoice when you
      are ready to print it. Posting an invoice places the transactions in an
      accounts receivable account.</para>

      <para>The Post Invoice window appears and asks you to enter
      information:</para>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoicepost">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoicepost.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>Post Invoice Window</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>Post Invoice Window </para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Post Date</guilabel> - specifies the date for the
          transactions entered into the accounts receivable account.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Due Date</guilabel> - is the date on which payment
          for the invoice is expected.</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para>If you specified payment terms when you created the
              invoice, the date is calculated according to selected terms, and
              the entry field is insensitive.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para>If you did not specify payment terms, enter the expected
              payment due date here.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Description</guilabel> - is an arbitrary
          description. When invoice transactions are placed in the accounts
          receivable account, this description is entered in the memo field of
          those transactions.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Post To Account</guilabel> - selects the accounts
          receivable account in which invoice transactions are posted. You can
          select the account from a list of existing A/Receivable
          accounts.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><guilabel>Accumulate Splits</guilabel> - determines if invoice
          items which transfer to the same account are combined into a single
          split for that account or entered individually. For the sample
          invoice which sold Nails and a Hammer, the setting affects post
          results as follows:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para>Checked (splits are accumulated) - a single transfer of
              $575.00 from the Income:Sales account is recorded.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para>Not checked - the transaction created in the A/Receivable
              account, shows two transfers from Income:Sales account $100.00
              and $475.00. The memo fields in the splits indicate the sale of
              Nails and the Hammer (the item descriptions entered on the
              invoice) respectively.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoicefind2">
      <title>Find</title>

      <para>To find an existing invoice, use the <guimenu>Business</guimenu>
      -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Find Invoice</guimenu>
      application. From the results of the search, you can select an invoice
      to edit or view.</para>

      <note>
        <para>Before you can edit a posted invoice, you will need to
        <guilabel>Unpost</guilabel> it.</para>
      </note>

      <para>One of the design goals in GnuCash's Account Receivable system was
      to allow different processes to get to the same state, so you can reach
      an invoice from different directions based on the way you think about
      the problem:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>You can search for the customer first, then list their
          invoices.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>You can search for invoices by number or by company
          name.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>You can list invoices associated with a customer job.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoiceprint2">
      <title>Print</title>

      <para>After you post an invoice, you should print it and send it to your
      customer. To print an invoice use <guimenu>File</guimenu> -&gt;
      <guimenu>Print Invoice</guimenu> menu item.</para>

      <para>An example of the default GnuCash invoice print output is shown
      below.</para>

      <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoiceprint">
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoiceprint.png" format="PNG"
                       srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
          </imageobject>

          <textobject>
            <phrase>Invoice Print Output</phrase>
          </textobject>

          <caption><para>Invoice Print Output </para></caption>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>

      <note>
        <para>You can modify the appearance of the invoice, IE: add a company
        logo, etc. To do so, see the <xref
        linkend="bus-ar-invoicechange" />.</para>
      </note>

      <para>Invoices can also be printed from the main window by selecting
      <guimenu>Reports</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Business Reports</guimenu>
      -&gt; <guimenu>Printable Invoice</guimenu> from the main menu. The
      resulting report window states that no valid invoice is selected. To
      select the invoice to print:</para>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Use the <guilabel>Options</guilabel> tool bar button or select
          <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Report Options</guimenu> from
          the main menu.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Select the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab of the report
          options dialog.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Click the <guilabel>Select</guilabel> button next to the
          <guilabel>Invoice Number</guilabel> field.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Search for the invoice as usual.</para>
        </listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>You can also print invoices from within the Process Payment
      dialog. See the <xref linkend="bus-ar-payment1" /> for instructions on
      how to do so.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="bus-ar-invoicestarting2">
      <title>Assign Starting Invoice Number</title>

      <para>There is no easy way to assign an automatic starting invoice
      number. GnuCash starts with number 1 and increments from there. You can
      manually type an invoice number into the text box each time you create
      an invoice, but this gets tiring and sooner or later leads to duplicate
      numbers.</para>

      <para>You can change the starting invoice number if it is important you.
      There is no user interface to change the number at this time. You have
      to hand edit your XML data file. The relevant entry is in the "counters"
      section near the beginning of the file. The file must be re-opened after
      editing.</para>

      <note>
        <para>GnuCash optionally compresses files. Disable compression and
        save before editing the file. To enable or disable compression use
        <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Preferences</guimenu>, access
        the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab, and select or deselect the
        <guilabel>Compress Files</guilabel> check box.</para>
      </note>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-jobs1">
    <title>Customer Jobs</title>

    <para>Customer Jobs are used to group multiple invoices to the same
    customer. Use of the Customer Jobs feature is optional. The feature is
    useful when you have multiple "jobs" for the same customer, and would like
    to view all the invoices related to a single job.</para>

    <para>To use customer jobs, you must create them using the
    <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt;
    <guimenu>New Job</guimenu> application. You will see the <guilabel>New
    Job</guilabel> window. The editable fields are:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Job Info - Job Number</guilabel> (optional) - enter
        the number for this job. If left blank, a number will be chosen for
        you.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Job Info - Job Name</guilabel> - the name you want to
        assign to the new job.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Owner Info - Customer</guilabel> - the customer for
        whom the job is created.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Owner Info - Billing ID</guilabel> - the customer's
        reference to this job (e.g. their PO Number). This is the "Billing
        Identification" that they require to correlated your invoices with
        their order. The Billing ID you enter is used to set the billing id
        for new invoices associated with this job.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Job Active</guilabel> - toggles this job being active
        or not. This is useful when you have many inactive jobs, since it is
        easier to search only among jobs that are marked active.</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <screenshot id="bus-ar-jobnew">
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_jobnew.png" format="PNG"
                     srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
        </imageobject>

        <textobject>
          <phrase>New Customer Job</phrase>
        </textobject>

        <caption><para>New Customer Job </para></caption>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>

    <para>To edit an existing customer job, use the
    <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt;
    <guimenu>Find Job</guimenu> application. Select the desired job in the
    search results, and click the <guilabel>View/Edit Job</guilabel>
    button.</para>

    <para>To select from the invoices associated with a given job, use
    <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt;
    <guimenu>Find Job</guimenu> application. Select the desired job in the
    search results and click the <guilabel>View Invoices</guilabel> button. A
    window listing invoices associated with this job appears. Select an
    invoice and click the <guilabel>View Invoice</guilabel> button to open an
    invoice editor in the main application window.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-payment1">
    <title>Process Payment</title>

    <para>Eventually, you will receive payment from your customers for
    outstanding invoices. To register these payments, use the Process Payment
    application found in <guimenu>Business</guimenu> -&gt;
    <guimenu>Customer</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Process
    Payment</guimenu>.</para>

    <para>The Process Payment application consists of:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Customer</guilabel> - the
        customer who paid you.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Invoice</guilabel> - the invoice
        for which payment was received. When you select an invoice, the
        <guilabel>Amount</guilabel> field is set to total due for the selected
        invoice.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Date</guilabel> - the date you
        you received payment.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Amount</guilabel> - the amount
        of money received.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Num</guilabel> - the check
        number.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Payment Information - Memo</guilabel> - any comments
        about this payment.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Post To</guilabel> - the A/Receivable account to which
        to post this transaction.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><guilabel>Transfer Account</guilabel> - the account where the
        money will be deposited (a checking account for example).</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>Below is the GnuCash Accounts Receivable payment window.</para>

    <screenshot id="bus-ar-payment">
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_payment.png" format="PNG"
                     srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
        </imageobject>

        <textobject>
          <phrase>Process Payment</phrase>
        </textobject>

        <caption><para>Process Payment Window </para></caption>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="bus-ar-invoicechange">
    <title>Changing the Invoice Appearance</title>

    <para>The default Invoice style, as shown in <xref
    linkend="bus-ar-invoiceprint2" />, is fairly barren. The default invoice
    style leaves the top part of the form blank, so you can print on company
    letterhead paper. There are some things you can do to change invoice
    appearance.</para>

    <para>Use <guimenu>File</guimenu> -&gt; <guimenu>Properties</guimenu> to
    enter your company name and address, which is printed on the right side of
    invoices.</para>

    <para>To add a customized background, heading banner or logo to invoices,
    modify the invoice style sheets. To do this, go to <guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
    -&gt; <guimenu>Style Sheets</guimenu> and make a <guilabel>New</guilabel>
    style sheet. You will see a window like this:</para>

    <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoicechange1">
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoicechange1.png" format="PNG"
                     srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
        </imageobject>

        <textobject>
          <phrase>New Style Sheet Window</phrase>
        </textobject>

        <caption><para>The New Style Sheet window.</para></caption>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>

    <para>You must select the <guilabel>Fancy</guilabel> style sheet template,
    and choose a name for your new style sheet. When you click the
    <guilabel>OK</guilabel> button, the HTML Style Sheet editor window is
    displayed. This window contains four tabs, Colors, General, Images, and
    Tables. The Colors tab allows you to change the colors of various sections
    of the invoice. The General tab allows you to set the Preparer and
    Prepared for information, and to enable links. The Images tab allows you
    to import graphics into the style sheet. The Tables tab allows you to
    adjust the spacing around the tables which make up the invoice.</para>

    <para>To include a company logo, banner heading and background image, use
    your favorite graphics application such as The Gimp or OpenOffice Draw to
    save the images in either GIF or PNG format. Then import them into the
    style sheet using the Images tab.</para>

    <para>Below is an example that imports all three types of images.</para>

    <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoicechange2">
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoicechange2.png" format="PNG"
                     srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
        </imageobject>

        <textobject>
          <phrase>HTML Style Sheets example</phrase>
        </textobject>

        <caption><para>The HTML Style Sheets window with an example Background
        Tile, Heading Banner, and Logo.</para></caption>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>

    <para>The images are placed in the invoice as follows. The
    <guilabel>Background Tile</guilabel> is tiled to become the background
    image, the <guilabel>Heading Banner</guilabel> goes to above the invoice
    text, and the <guilabel>Logo</guilabel> is placed in the upper left corner
    of the invoice to the left of the Heading Banner. You will probably have
    to try a few different sized images until you get the invoices to print
    nicely. Some sizing suggestions are that the Logo should be 1 square cm
    (~0.5 inch), and the Heading Banner should be 15 cm (~6 inches) wide and 1
    cm (~0.5 inch) tall.</para>

    <para>With the style sheet configured, when you print the invoice, you
    select the style sheet to use from the <guimenu>Options</guimenu> menu.
    Below is the resultant invoice after applying the style sheet demonstrated
    above.</para>

    <screenshot id="bus-ar-invoicechange3">
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/bus_ar_invoicechange3.png" format="PNG"
                     srccredit="Patrick Schweiger" />
        </imageobject>

        <textobject>
          <phrase>HTML Style Sheets example</phrase>
        </textobject>

        <caption><para>The hideous invoice which results from the graphics
        selected in the style sheet.</para></caption>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>
  </sect1>
</chapter>
