The pro forma invoice is a commercial document you provide to your customer before the sale, to estimate an upcoming transaction. DoliPlus generates it easily, based on the customer record.

What is a pro forma invoice?

The pro forma invoice is not an accounting document, but a commercial one. The term “pro forma” comes from Latin and means “for the form”.

Exchanged before the final transaction, it estimates the amount that will be invoiced. It is therefore similar to a quote: the company receiving it uses it to formalise the price of the service, subject to accepting the stated conditions.

This document also meets specific needs:

• obtaining customs authorisation for importing or exporting goods;
• justifying project costs to a bank, for example for a loan application.

Key details to include

For completeness, the pro forma invoice should include the following:

• the supplier or store’s legal name;
• the customer’s name;
• the document’s issue date;
• the invoice number;
• the goods details, quantities and rates;
• payment terms, methods and any applicable discounts.

For documents issued abroad, also include the currency used and the incoterm (delivery terms and payment method).

Creating a pro forma invoice in DoliPlus

First, enable the “PG21” option in the PDF/Interface settings menu. Then, set the desired prefix in the invoice configuration.

Finally, when creating the document from the customer record, simply select the “pro forma” type. Note that its sequence number is separate from standard invoices.

Further reading

• The commercial proposal (quote)
• Customer invoices in DoliPlus