On Aiwyn Payments, you create, post and email invoices from your practice management system. On Aiwyn Practice, you send invoices from Aiwyn itself. See How an invoice is issued and delivered.
Why is the invoice PDF your clients open in Aiwyn exactly the file your firm emailed, and what does that mean when an invoice has no PDF or needs to change?
Aiwyn takes the PDF from your invoice email, not from your invoice data
You create, post and email invoices from your practice management system as usual. The email reaches Aiwyn in one of two ways: a mail rule your IT team set up during implementation redirects it, or your system sends it straight to your Aiwyn inbound email address. If your firm uses CCH Axcess, you send to the inbound address and don't use a mail rule. See Invoice Email routing options.
Aiwyn picks up that email, wraps it in the Aiwyn 1-click invoice email and sends it to your client. The invoice PDF attached to your email is saved and linked to the invoice in the Firm Portal and the client portal. That saved file is what your clients preview and download.
Aiwyn works out which invoice a PDF belongs to from the file name. The file name must contain your firm's delimiter, the fixed text before the invoice number, followed by the real invoice number, for example Invoice_12345. For every condition an invoice must meet, see Requirements for an invoice to send.
Any other files you attach to the original email go out with the Aiwyn invoice email too. Only the invoice PDF is available to download in the portals.
Invoice data and the invoice PDF reach Aiwyn separately
The details of an invoice, such as the client, the amount due and the due date, come from your practice management system through its connection to Aiwyn. The PDF comes only from the invoice email.
Because the two travel separately, your invoice data is in the Firm Portal and the Client Portal whether or not an invoice email was sent. Every unpaid invoice for a client shows in their Client Portal, including invoices from before your firm started using Aiwyn, so clients can pay older balances.
It also means the two can disagree. The amount due your client sees in Aiwyn is the amount held in your practice management system. If the amount printed on the PDF is different, your client sees two different numbers.
Aiwyn doesn't read or change the PDF
Aiwyn doesn't scan the contents of the invoice PDF, and it doesn't change them. The PDF your clients see is the file your practice management system produced, in your firm's own invoice template.
So whatever is on the PDF reaches your client as it is. A wrong amount, an old address or out-of-date payment instructions stay on the PDF until you send a corrected one. Aiwyn doesn't check for them.
No PDF in the email means no invoice email and no PDF in the portals
The invoice email is the only way an invoice PDF gets into Aiwyn. Before Aiwyn can send the client their 1-Click invoice email, it checks that a PDF is attached to the original outgoing invoice email sent by you/your practice management system. If your original outgoing email has no invoice PDF, the Aiwyn invoice email doesn't go to your client, and there's no PDF to download in the Firm Portal or the Client Portal.
The invoice itself doesn't disappear. Its data still comes from your practice management system, so the invoice is still visible and payable in the Client Portal. Only the PDF is missing. The same is true for invoices from before your firm started using Aiwyn, and for invoices that weren't sent through the Aiwyn invoice email process.
In the Firm Portal, an invoice number in teal text means a PDF is available. Actions that need the file, such as viewing, downloading or resending the invoice, aren't available for an invoice with no PDF. See Viewing invoice PDFs.
You can't upload invoice PDFs to Aiwyn directly. Because the PDF arrives only by email, putting past invoice PDFs into the portals means emailing them to Aiwyn, even when you don't want your clients to receive an email.
A changed invoice needs a new invoice email
Changing an invoice in your practice management system doesn't change the PDF Aiwyn already has. When an invoice changes, create the new version in your practice management system and send the invoice email again. The portals then show the newest version of the PDF.
Sending the invoice email again is different from resending from the Firm Portal. Resend Invoice in the Firm Portal emails the invoice with the PDF Aiwyn already has, and you can't attach a different PDF there. If Aiwyn has no PDF for the invoice, Resend Invoice isn't available. See Resend an invoice after correcting the PDF and Resend invoices from Firm Portal.
Timing matters, whichever way your invoice emails reach Aiwyn. Aiwyn discards any second email for the same invoice sent within 20 minutes of the first, whoever it's addressed to. That includes an email with a corrected PDF. Your client doesn't receive the discarded email, and it doesn't appear in the Email Delivery Hub. So when you correct a PDF, send the invoice email again more than 20 minutes after the first one. See Aiwyn invoice emails using the mail rule.
Related
- How Aiwyn invoice emails work
- Requirements for an invoice to send
- Invoice Email routing options
- Viewing invoice PDFs
- Resend an invoice after correcting the PDF
- Resend invoices from Firm Portal
- Aiwyn invoice emails using the mail rule
- Anatomy of the 1-click invoice email