Invoice descriptions help add valuable information to your vWork invoice explaining the reason for the invoice and providing context to invoice line items.
By default vWork invoice descriptions won’t show on draft invoices in Xero. If you want these to show on your Xero invoices please email support@vworkapp.com and ask for 'Xero Invoice Descriptions' to be activated in your account. There is no additional charge for this.
In this article
Once 'Xero Invoice Descriptions' is activated in your vWork account, you can view vWork invoice descriptions on all Xero invoices generated from vWork jobs.
Below, we use an example to show how an invoice description flows through a job in vWork and into Xero. Our example is a freight delivery job.
Topics in this article include:
Click the lnk from the list above to go to that topic. You can return to this topic list by clicking this icon:
The vWork invoice
Invoice description in vWork
When you create a job with an invoice in vWork, the dispatcher or mobile worker can add a description to the invoice at any time before the job is completed. This is added in the 'Invoicing' tab in the Job Editor or in the 'Invoicing' screen on the vWork mobile app.
In this example, we added the invoice description when we created the job.
🔔 Note: This example uses 'Description Tokens' to make it dynamic. You can learn more about 'Dynamic Invoice Descriptions' in the article Add a Dynamic Invoice Description to vWork invoices.
We have more about how the invoice descritpion shows in a Xero invoice later in this article.
Other automated invoice information
Invoices are always uploaded to Xero in 'Draft'. They must be approved in Xero to be finalized.
After the job is completed in vWork, all automated invoice information is added to the vWork invoice. This includes items such as mileage, worker hours, and any dynamic information in the description. It may take a few minutes to generate.
Ammending an invoice in vWork
The invoice can still be amended in vWork by both the dispatcher and mobile worker (while the job remains in the mobile app). These ammendments can continue to be uploaded to Xero while the invoice remains in 'Draft' in Xero. This includes changes you want to make to the invoice description.
❗Caution: Changes to an invoice in vWork won't sync with Xero once the invoice is approved in Xero. Don't approve invoices in Xero until you are confident the information in vWork is correct and changes to the invoice have been synced to Xero.
In this example, we are satisfied that this is the final version of the invoice, including the final invoice description. This invoice is ready to upload to Xero.
Upload the invoice to Xero
When you sync an invoice with Xero you upload the invoice details to Xero and Xero uses this information to generate an invoice - including the Invoice Description.
Upload settings
The settings that determine when an invoice is synced and uploaded are found in vWork under Settings > Integrations > Integrations.
💡 Tip: The last step in the job must be completed before you can upload an invoice to Xero. And if you have the 'Approve Invoice' feature enabled the invoice must also be approved in vWork before it will become a pending invoice that can be uploaded to Xero.
Manually upload or automatically upload invoices
You can choose to manually upload your stubs (invoices) to Xero, or have them automatically upload when a specified period of time has passed after the last job step is completed in vWork. This gives you time to amend the invoice before it is uploaded. Synced invoices are created in Xero in 'Draft'.
In this example, our invoices are set to automatically sync every 15 minutes. We could wait for the automatic sync, but in this instance we have chosen to override the automatic upload and manually upload this invoice to Xero.
To manually sync and upload the invoice we clicked .
The green banner shows that the upload was successful and the invoice is now synced with Xero
The invoice description in Xero
Xero doesn't have an invoice description field in its invoice layout. When you have the optional 'Xero Invoice Description' add-on enabled in vWork, the vWork invoice description shows in Xero as the first line item in the invoice.
💡 Tip: You can double-click the description in Xero to amend it for the Xero invoice, but any changes you make in Xero aren't reflected in the original job invoice information in vWork. The better option is to change the description in vWork and then resync the invoice with Xero while it remains unapproved and in 'Draft' in Xero.