In Comic Shop Assistant, an INVOICE can come from a few places, and is sometimes referred to by the name 'packing list.' The main purpose of an invoice is to check in products from a supplier, making sure you're only paying for what you expect to be paying for, and then adding these items to your inventory.

CREATE AN INVOICE

CREATE A NEW INVOICE

      1. From the INVOICES page, click the CREATE INVOICE button, select a distributor, and click CREATE INVOICE.
      2. If you don't see the distributor you want here, you may need to search for the distributor's contact and change the INCLUDE IN DISTRO LISTS option in the contact settings.

 

Or you can CREATE AN INVOICE FROM AN EXISTING ORDER

Sometimes, you may not have access to an actual invoice from your distributor, but you have an order with the items on it that was created in CSA. In this case, you'll create a packing list from the order. A packing list is just like an invoice except it's called PACKING LIST, and is checking your inventory received against what you ordered instead of what you're being billed for.

    1. Find the order you want to create a packing list from. The order must be locked and have at least one un-received line item.
    2. Scroll to the bottom of the order, and you'll find a CREATE PACKING LIST section. This lists all items on this order that have not been received yet. You can check or un-check any items you want and then create a packing list from the checked items.
    3. If you want to create a packing list with all quantities marked as the same number received that you have on your order, you can select AUTOFILL QTY from the ASSUME RECEIVED menu. We do NOT usually recommend doing this, but it is an option, and there are good reasons to use it occasionally.

UPLOAD A DISTRIBUTOR FILE

One of the biggest advantages of using an invoice for checking in your product is that you're comparing what your distributor thinks you should be getting to what you're actually getting. If you can download an invoice as a .csv from your distributor, you should be able to upload it to CSA.

KNOWN FORMATS

Diamond and Lunar have pre-made templates for importing invoices, as long as you download the correct files.

      • DIAMOND: in Diamond's retailer site, in the sidebar, navigate to MY ACCOUNT>INVOICES and click on VIEW RECENT INVOICES. Download the INVOICES (CSV) for the date you need to check in. Do not open this file before uploading to your Comic Shop Assistant invoice.
      • LUNAR: from ACCOUNT>INVOICES, click the SELECT FORMAT... drop menu, and select COMIC SHOP ASSISTANT INVOICE CSV. Do not open this file before uploading to your Comic Shop Assistant invoice.

From your CSA invoice, click INVOICE ACTIONS in the top right, and use the IMPORT KNOWN INVOICE FORMAT form. Click CHOOSE FILE and hit GO.

 

IMPORT GENERIC CSV

Because we have so many various distributors these days, CSA allows you to upload a generic CSV to create an invoice. You can use this if you aren't working with one of the KNOWN FORMATS seen above.

      • From your CSA invoice, click INVOICE ACTIONS at the top right of your invoice.
      • Use the IMPORT GENERIC CSV form to choose the file you got from your distributor. It must be a comma separated file. These can be a little touchy, so do not open the file before uploading to CSA.
      • After you've uploaded your file, you will see a page that shows each line of the file. You must make sure each line you want to import is checked, and you'll define what the contents of each column are from the drop menus at the top of each column. You should be sure to select the following columns at the very least (if there are more relvant columns, it's good to define them as well): SKU (for some distributors, this may be the barcode), TITLE, PRICE and QTY. If no SKU is available, select the barcode column.
      • Once you've defined all the columns you want to import, click SUBMIT.

 

IMPORT TEMPLATES

CSA knows how to automatically handle some distributors' generic CSV reports as well. If you're working with Penguin Random House or Alliance, you can use the IMPORT GENERIC CSV form in INVOICE ACTIONS to upload using an INVOICE TEMPLATE.

    • PRH PRE-DELIVERY REPORTS: Log in to your PRH account and look on the home page. You should see a section called PRE-DELIVERY REPORTS. Download the .csv for any of these reports you want to add to this CSA invoice. You can add multiple pre-deliverey reports to a single CSA invoice.
    • PRH INVOICES: Log in to your PRH account and navigate to ORDERS > INVOICES AND CLAIMS. Click into the invoice you want to download and then click the DOWNLOAD INVOICE button at the top of the page. Select DOWNLOAD CSV.

 

    • Use the IMPORT GENERIC CSV form in your CSA invoice to choose the file you downloaded from PRH. These can be a little touchy, so do not open the file before uploading to CSA.
    • Before submitting your file, select an invoice template from the drop menu just above the submit button. This will pre-select the columns in your import screen, and you can just hit SUBMIT after verifying everything makes sense.

TIP: You can upload as many files to a single CSA INVOICE as you want. So if you have six different invoices from PRH in one shipment, you do not need to create six different CSA invoices. You can just upload the files from PRH to the same CSA invoice, and each one will add the new line items to your invoice.

ADD ITEMS MANUALLY

You may not have an order or invoices that you can upload. Or you might receive overages beyond what your distributor invoiced you for. In these cases, you can add an overage to your invoice.

  1. Click the ADD OVERAGES button found at the top right of your invoice page.
  2. Search for the item you want to add.
  3. Give it a quantity (or leave it at zero if you want it to be tracked as an actual overage), and add to the invoice.

 

NEXT STEP
Review items on your invoice