The front desk

Proforma invoice — a bill before the stay

What a company needs to raise a purchase order. Not a tax invoice, and it says so.

A company will not pay for a stay it has no paperwork for. A proforma invoice is that paperwork: what the stay will cost, who is to be billed, and how long the figure holds.

The folio before check-in, with the Proforma invoice button.

Do this

Proforma invoice on the folio — before check-in it is the only bill there is, because no folio opens until the guest arrives. It asks how many days the quotation holds for, and opens ready to print.

Open the booking and choose Proforma invoice. It can be raised at any point — including before the guest has arrived, which is the case it exists for.

What goes on it

Before check-in it is built from the booking: the nights at the rate the booking was taken at, with the GST slab that tariff attracts, less any advance already received.
During the stay you can raise one from a bill as it stands — useful when a company wants to approve the spend so far. After splitting a stay into several bills, each one can have its own.
The bill-to comes from the company or agent on the bill, or the booking, and carries their GSTIN.
It is valid until a date, seven days out by default. Say so when you raise it.

What it is not

It is not a tax invoice, and the document says so in the largest type on the page. No supply has happened yet, so:

No GST liability arises from it and no input credit is available against it — the company claims credit from the tax invoice raised at check-out, not from this.
It never appears on GSTR-1 or in the tax report. It cannot: raising one posts nothing to the folio, and every tax report is built from folio postings.
It does not change the folio, the balance, or what the guest owes.

Afterwards

The proforma stays on the booking, and shows as live, lapsed once its date passes, cancelled, or closed once the guest checks out and a real invoice exists.
Cancelling needs a reason and keeps the number. A proforma has been sent to somebody's accounts department; a series with a number missing from it is a question, and one with a number meaning two different things is worse.
If the stay changes, raise a new one and cancel the old. Do not expect the first to update itself — the copy in their inbox will not.

The tax invoice quotes it

When the stay is settled, the tax invoice carries the line "Against proforma <number>, dated <date>" — so the company that paid against the proforma can match the two without telephoning you. If the figure moved between the two documents, the invoice says so beside it.

A proforma raised from a particular bill is quoted on that bill's invoice only. One raised from the booking, before check-in, is quoted on the main bill. A cancelled proforma is never quoted — the company was told it was cancelled.

The tax invoice quotes it

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