> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understand invoice statuses

> See what To invoice, Review, Invoiced, Sent, Failed sent, Paid, Cancelled and Historical import mean on the Invoices page, and how an invoice moves on.

Every invoice in DOS has a status that tells you where it is between a cinema report and the money in your account. This page explains each status you can see on the **Invoices** page and what you can do at each step.

## Before you start

* You can see invoices if your role has access to the **Invoices** page. Changing a status needs edit access, which comes with the admin, operations and finance roles.
* Most invoices start from a cinema report in **To check**. See [Check a cinema report](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/results/check-a-cinema-report.md).

## The statuses

| Status | What it means |
| - | - |
| **To invoice** | The invoice is prepared and waits for its PDF. |
| **Review** | The invoice is held back. No PDF is made, sent or exported while it is in Review. |
| **Invoiced** | The invoice is issued and has its PDF, but has not been emailed from DOS yet. |
| **Sent** | The invoice was issued and emailed to the cinema. |
| **Failed sent** | The invoice was emailed, but the email came back or never arrived. |
| **Paid** | The money arrived. DOS sets this from a recorded payment, not from the status list. |
| **Cancelled** | You called the invoice off. It keeps its number and history. |
| **Historical import** | An older invoice brought in from an earlier system. It is read-only. |

**Sent** and **Failed sent** are shown, not stored: they are an **Invoiced** invoice that was emailed. You can filter the Invoices table by any of these statuses.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The status list on the invoice card offers **To invoice**, **Review**, **Invoiced**, **Sent** and **Cancelled**. You do not choose **Paid** or **Historical import** by hand.

## How an invoice moves

**1. A report becomes a pending invoice**

A cinema report waits in **To check**. When you confirm it, DOS creates the invoice for that Booking. An invoice that waits for its week to be checked appears under the **Invoice approval** chip in **To check**.

**2. Approve it, or hold it back**

On the check screen, **Approve invoice** (or **Save and approve**) accepts the invoice. Before that, two boxes hold it back: **Special projection (event or special deal)** and **Check again before the PDF**. The screen then says "Goes to Invoices as Review. No PDF is made yet."

**3. Release it**

Open the invoice and choose **To invoice** in its status list. DOS makes the PDF in the background. If the PDF cannot be made, the invoice stays **To invoice** and you use **Generate invoice** once the reason is fixed.

**4. Issue and send it**

Generating the PDF moves **To invoice** to **Invoiced**. Sending the email moves it to **Sent**. See [Generate PDFs and send invoice emails](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/batch-pdfs-and-emails.md).

**5. Record the payment**

When the money arrives, record it. The invoice becomes **Paid**. See [Record and review payments](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/payments.md).

## Special projections and the agreed amount

When you tick **Special projection (event or special deal)** you can type an **Agreed amount** in CHF without VAT. The invoice then bills that amount plus VAT instead of the share and MG, and no advertising line is added. Leave the amount empty to bill the share or MG as usual.

## Cancelling and archiving

Choosing **Cancelled** changes the status only. The invoice keeps its number, reference and history. Nothing is sent and nothing is written to accounting, so a credit note is still done by hand. To hide a cancelled invoice from every list and total, open it and use **Archive**. Nothing is deleted, and you can restore it from **Invoice approval**, under **Ignored**.

An admin can also use **Delete** on an invoice that was created by mistake and never left DOS. Invoices that are Invoiced, sent, exported, approved or paid are cancelled instead.

## If something looks wrong

> [accordion] I cannot put an invoice back to Review or To invoice
>
> DOS says: "This invoice was already sent, exported or paid, so it stays as it was and cannot go back to Review. Correct it with a new invoice." Click **Edit invoice** on the invoice card instead: DOS asks whether to keep working on this invoice or cancel it and work on a copy. See [Change an approved invoice](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/amend-an-approved-invoice.md).

> [accordion] The status reads Failed sent
>
> The invoice email came back or never arrived. The status stays until the note about the failed send is cleared or you send the invoice again.

> [accordion] I do not see a Checked or Ready status
>
> DOS has no invoice status with those names. The statuses above are the full list.

> [!NOTE]
>
> When a second report covers the same days at the same cinema on a different screen (for example an event), the check screen shows **Confirm · separate screen invoice**. Confirming makes a separate invoice for that screen.

## Related

* [Generate PDFs and send invoice emails](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/batch-pdfs-and-emails.md)
* [Change an approved invoice](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/amend-an-approved-invoice.md)
* [Record and review payments](https://wiki.distribution-os.ch/invoices/payments.md)


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