Recurring invoices: invoice the same customer on a schedule
A recurring schedule issues a copy of a template invoice every day, week, month or year — to the template's customer, with the next number, and if you want, e-mails it on its own.
A recurring schedule is for invoices that repeat — a monthly subscription, a yearly maintenance fee. It takes a template invoice and issues a copy of it on its dates. Schedules are in Invoicing → Invoices → Recurring.
1. Prepare the template
Create a draft invoice with the customer, the lines and the payment terms the copies should have — see Create an invoice. It stays a draft: the template is never sent itself.
On the draft's page, Convert to Recurring starts a schedule from it. Or open Recurring and click Create Recurring Invoice.
2. The schedule
- Template Invoice — the draft to copy. Only drafts are offered. Once used as a template, its number changes to TPL-…, outside your invoice series.
- Customer — the template's customer gets every invoice. To change it, change the template invoice.
- Frequency — Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly, and Interval — every 1, 2, 3… periods.
- Day of Week, Day of Month or Month of Year — when in the period. A day 31 falls on the last day of shorter months.
- Start Date — the first invoice.
- End Date (Optional) and Maximum Invoices (Optional) — when the schedule stops. Empty means it never stops.
- Schedule Preview shows the first three dates.
- Automatically send invoices — each copy is issued and e-mailed to the customer. Without it, the copies wait for you as drafts.
Click Create Recurring Invoice.
What each run makes
- A new invoice with the template's customer and lines, the next number of your series, today's date in your workspace's time zone, and a due date after the template's payment terms.
- With Automatically send invoices: it is sent from the default mailbox of the invoice's owner — see Send an invoice. If your company details are incomplete, the copy stays a draft.
- When the schedule reaches its end date or its maximum, it is Completed, and the owner is told.
The schedules run once a day, in the morning.
Manage a schedule
In the list or on the schedule's page:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Generate now | Issues the next invoice at once. |
| Skip the next run | Moves the next date one period on, without an invoice. |
| Pause / Resume | Stops and restarts the schedule. |
| Edit | Changes the template, the dates or auto-send. |
| Cancel the schedule | Stops it for good. |
| Delete | Removes the schedule (an Admin); the invoices it made stay. |
Tick several schedules in the list to pause, resume, cancel or delete them together. Recently Generated Invoices on the schedule's page lists what it made.
If something doesn't work
Paused: the template invoice was deleted
The template draft is gone, so the schedule stopped. Edit the schedule and pick a new template, or cancel it.
The template invoice has no customer. Pick a contact or a company on that invoice first.
Open the template draft, choose its customer, then save the schedule again.
This proforma was converted to an invoice — use the invoice as the template.
A converted proforma cannot be a template.
The invoice is generated, but it stayed a draft
Your company details are incomplete — see Before your first invoice — or Automatically send invoices is off. Send the draft yourself.