You can print a pro forma invoice from both sales orders and sales invoices in Business Central. This is useful when a document has not yet been posted and you cannot print the posted sales invoice, but you still need to send the customer a preview of the invoice.
You find the function under Actions, then Posting, then View or Print Pro Forma Sales Invoice. From there you can choose to print the document directly or preview it on screen first.
Printing a pro forma invoice from unposted documents
When a sales order or sales invoice has not yet been posted, you cannot print a posted sales invoice. There is no posted document to print from. Instead, you can print a pro forma invoice, which shows the document exactly as it would look once posted.
The procedure works the same way for both sales orders and sales invoices, so you do not need to learn two different methods depending on which document type you are working with.
How to print or preview a pro forma sales invoice
Open the sales order or sales invoice you want to work with. Go to Actions, then Posting, then choose View or Print Pro Forma Sales Invoice.
You then have the choice to print the document or preview it. If you preview it, the system shows you the pro forma invoice exactly as it would appear when printed. This gives you a quick way to check the layout and content before sending it to the customer.
Q&A
Can you print an invoice before it is posted in Business Central?
You cannot print a posted sales invoice before posting, because no posted document exists yet. You can print a pro forma invoice instead, which shows the document as it would appear once posted.
Where do you find the pro forma invoice function?
Open the sales order or sales invoice, then go to Actions, then Posting, then View or Print Pro Forma Sales Invoice.
Can you print a pro forma invoice from both sales orders and sales invoices?
Yes. The function works the same way for both document types, and in both cases you can either print or preview the pro forma invoice.