A CRM with invoicing manages customers and sales, and can also issue invoices, quotes, credit notes and delivery notes from the customer's record. For a small business, the advantage is that you stop copying data between your CRM and a separate invoicing tool. Flowgration includes invoices, credit notes, proformas, quotes, delivery notes with signature and PDF documents with your logo. Your company picks its country and gets that country's VAT rates, with reverse charge for intra-EU B2B sales. Verifactu-ready records are available for companies in Spain.
Three kinds of tool that get called "CRM with invoicing"
Before you compare, separate the categories, because they cover different things:
| Type | Typical examples | Handles well | Leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoicing software | Standalone invoicing apps | Invoices, quotes and delivery notes | Sales follow-up and customer automation |
| Business suite with invoicing | Suites such as Holded, a Spanish business software suite | Invoicing, accounting and HR in one product | More than someone who only wants to sell and invoice needs |
| CRM with invoicing | Flowgration | Customers, deals, automation and invoicing in one record | Double-entry accounting, tax returns, bank reconciliation and payroll |
Check each vendor's website for current prices and the countries it supports, because both change.
What a CRM with invoicing should do
When you compare, test these in a demo rather than reading them on a pricing page:
- Invoice series and sequential numbering, with the series your business needs.
- VAT by country, including the rates for the country where you are registered and any reverse-charge rules for cross-border B2B sales.
- Credit notes that reference the original invoice and state the reason.
- Proformas and quotes that turn into an order or invoice without retyping data.
- PDFs with your logo and sending by email from the tool.
- Payments and due dates, with partial payments and overdue alerts.
- An export of issued invoices to Excel or CSV for your accountant.
- Shop orders invoiced in one click or automatically.
VAT and tax rules depend on the country
Tax rules are national. VAT rates differ by country, and the treatment of a sale depends on where the customer is and whether they are a business or a consumer. In the EU, business-to-business sales between countries often fall under reverse charge, where the buyer accounts for the VAT.
Flowgration asks your company for its country during setup and applies that country's tax rates, with presets for 40 countries. Whether a particular sale qualifies for reverse charge, and how to report it, is a question for your accountant.
Digital invoicing rules: where they apply
Some countries require invoicing software to keep records in a specific way, or to report invoices to the tax authority. Spain's Verifactu system is one example, and it applies only to companies in Spain. Flowgration produces chained records with a SHA-256 hash and a QR code for Spanish companies. Its dates are under review, so confirm them with your accountant.
Some countries also require e-invoicing formats between businesses. Those formats are not available in Flowgration yet, so check what your country requires before you rely on the tool for it.
How to choose a CRM with invoicing
- List the documents you issue: invoices, credit notes, quotes, delivery notes and proformas.
- Confirm your country's VAT rules and whether the tool applies them correctly.
- Ask for the full workflow in a demo: from an accepted quote to the invoice being paid.
- Ask about exports: the issued-invoice register and the format it comes in.
- Check what happens to shop orders: is each order invoiced only once?
- Calculate the total cost for your number of users and invoices, using the current prices.
- Confirm what the tool does not do. That matters as much as what it does.
What Flowgration includes for invoicing
- Invoices, credit notes and proformas, with series and due dates.
- Quotes (with online acceptance by e-signature), sales orders and delivery notes with signature, following the flow quote, order, delivery note, invoice.
- Online payment of invoices by card into your own Stripe account, and recurring invoices.
- Invoicing a shop order in one click or automatically from a journey. Each order is invoiced only once.
- Automation triggers when an invoice is issued, paid or overdue, or when a quote is accepted.
- Cash management with receivables, payables, partial payments and a forecast.
- An export of the issued-invoice register for your accountant.
- Importing customers from Holded with an API key.
What Flowgration does not do
Be clear about this before you buy:
- Double-entry accounting.
- Tax returns, such as VAT returns, and their filing.
- Bank connections.
- Payroll and direct-debit files.
- E-invoicing formats that some countries require, where they are not yet available.
Accounting and tax filings stay with your accountant. Flowgration gives them the invoice register in Excel or CSV.
Who it suits and who it does not
It suits: freelancers and small service businesses that issue invoices and want client follow-up in the same place, and online shops that invoice their orders.
It does not suit: businesses that need full accounting inside the same tool, companies that need integrated banking or payroll, and businesses that depend on a specific e-invoicing format not yet supported.