What does a business invoice mean?

AI Commerce 's corporate invoice is a payment method where the online store owner invoices the customer at their own credit and loss risk. The invoice is processed according to the merchant's own invoicing practices, usually in an internal sales ledger or ERP system. The payment method can be used to collect, for example, the company's project number, site number or other internal payment reference.

Business invoice, billing reference and e-invoice information are different settings. The visibility of the payment method limits who can select a business invoice. The requirement for the billing reference determines whether a reference must be provided. The e-invoice address and e-invoice operator are only needed when e-invoice is selected as the invoice delivery method. Check all three entities before implementation.

Limit business invoices to business customers

The customer type restriction for a business invoice is defined in the admin under Configurations > Payment methods . Open the business invoice payment module and change the setting MODULE_PAYMENT_LASKU_CUSTOMER_TYPE , i.e. allow by customer type. When the value is set to business customer, the business invoice will only be shown to customers identified as business accounts; private customers will not be given a payment method to choose from.

In the current implementation, the business customer restriction does not include a customer marked as a private entrepreneur, even if the account would otherwise be identified as a business. Changes to the payment module are saved automatically via the settings editor. Test visibility on a separate business, consumer and, if necessary, business name account before implementation, so that the customer classification matches the billing policy.

Force billing reference for all corporate invoice users

The global invoice reference requirement for a business invoice is set in the admin's Configurations view with the setting REQUIRE_REFERENCE_INVOICE . When the value is true , every customer using a business invoice must provide an invoice reference before selecting an invoice delivery method. When the value false there is no global requirement.

The global setting is the primary requirement: if REQUIRE_REFERENCE_INVOICE is true , deselecting an individual customer does not make the reference optional. Use the global setting when, for example, a project number, site number, or other internal identifier is required for each business invoice order. The change is made in the settings editor and saved according to its user interface.

Force billing reference only for selected customers

Customer-specific invoicing reference requirements are defined in the admin by opening the customer under Customers . In the customer's E-invoice group, there is an Invoicing reference and the Reference required switch . Enable the switch for the customer, who must always provide, for example, their own project or construction site identifier when ordering a company invoice; the field change is saved automatically.

At the same time, keep the global REQUIRE_REFERENCE_INVOICE set to false if you want the reference to be mandatory only for selected customers. The checkout rule is a logical OR: an invoice reference is required when either the global setting or the customer's Reference mandatory is enabled. Test the customer-specific behavior with one mandatory and one regular business customer.

Fill in the billing reference at checkout.

The billing reference for a business invoice is filled in at checkout before selecting the invoice delivery method when global or customer-specific forcing is in use. If a customer tries to select e-invoice or email as the delivery method when the reference is empty, the selection will not be accepted and the message Payment reference must be provided when ordering with a business invoice will be displayed at checkout.

A missing mandatory field is marked as an error at checkout so that the customer can see what needs to be corrected before submitting the order. The reference value is included in the order's billing information and can be used, for example, in the sales ledger of an ERP system, if the integration in question has been implemented for that purpose. For each integration, make sure which field the reference is entered into and what format it requires.

Fill in the e-invoice address and operator.

The e-invoice delivery method requires both an e-invoice address and an e-invoice operator at the checkout. If either information is missing, e-invoice cannot be selected. The checkout displays a notification, opens the e-invoice data editor, and scrolls the view to the correct location so that the customer can complete the missing information or change the invoice delivery method to email.

The e-invoice information is checked in the user interface when selecting and again on the server when validating the order. The billing reference alone does not replace the e-invoice address or operator. The customer's permanent E-invoice address , E-invoice operator , Billing reference and Reference required can be checked in the admin's customer information before the first e-invoice order.

Test the entire business invoice workflow

The implementation of the business invoice is tested at least on a business and consumer account. First, make sure that the payment method is only visible to the selected customer type. Then, separately check the global billing reference requirement, customer-specific Reference requirement , email invoice selection, and e-invoice selection with complete and missing e-invoice data.

Finally, confirm that the completed order contains the correct billing reference, e-invoice address, and operator, and that the ERP or invoicing integration in use receives them in the agreed fields. This way, payment method visibility, immediate control at the checkout, and order server validation support the same invoicing process, and errors are not transferred to the sales ledger.