Invoicing and getting paid

From tracked time to an invoice#

Invoices/To Invoice

To Invoice

Billable time and expenses that aren't on an invoice yet. Pick a client's and turn them into an invoice.

Total Unbilled Hours

15h 15m

Total Unbilled Amount

$2,249.50

Selected for Invoice

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Tick entries below.

DateDescriptionProjectServiceBillableRateAmount

Catalina Vineyards(3 entries, 1 expense)11:45$1,812.00

Oct 20Homepage layoutWebsite redesignDesign6:30$150.00/hr$975.00

Oct 21Navigation and footerWebsite redesignDesign4:15$150.00/hr$637.50

Oct 22Review callWebsite redesignMeetings1:00$150.00/hr$150.00

Oct 22Stock photosWebsite redesignSoftware+10%$49.50

Larkspur Dental(2 entries)3.50h$437.50

Step 1 of 4PauseStart over

1. 1On To Invoice, tick a client's billable time and expenses. One client per invoice.
2. 2Click Create Invoice, choose how the lines read, then Create Draft Invoice.
3. 3Check the draft: the lines, the terms and dates, the total. Add more, change a rate, or add a discount.
4. 4Click Send Invoice. It gets its number, and the email goes with the PDF and the time report.

Billable time and expenses wait on To Invoice until they're on an invoice, grouped by client, largest first. Each client's row opens to its entries: the date, description, project, service, hours, rate and amount. Expenses show their markup and a paperclip when a receipt is attached.

1. Tick the client's row to take everything, or tick entries one by one. An invoice is for one client, so ticking another client's work starts a fresh selection.
2. Click Create Invoice (it says how many items). Choose the Invoice lines: Grouped makes one line per project and service ("Website · Design — Mar 2–14, 12.5 h"), with the detail on the time report; One per entry gives each entry its own line. Each expense is its own line either way.
3. Click Create Draft Invoice. The draft opens for you to check before anything is sent.

• Time with no client can't be invoiced; To Invoice says how many entries need one. Assign it on the Time Tracker.
• Entries so short they round to nothing under your Billing Rules aren't listed (see Tracking time).
• Time a monthly retainer covers isn't listed either: it's billed on the retainer's own invoice, and a note says when.
• For a client billed in another currency, the time is in their currency. Expenses are in dollars, so they can't go on that invoice; add one as a line of its own.

You can also start with New Invoice on Invoices: pick the client and Create Draft, then add to it. Your business might call clients or projects something else; the words can be changed in Terms and features, and everything here works the same.

Fixed fees, deposits and milestones#

A fixed-fee project with something left to bill is listed under Fixed-Fee Projects on To Invoice, with the fee and the share left. Click Invoice Fee and choose a share: 25%, 50%, 100%, what's Remaining, or any percent you type. That's how a deposit and milestones are billed: 25% to start, 50% at the midpoint, the rest at the end. On a draft, Add Fixed Fee does the same. See Projects.

The draft#

Nothing on a draft is final. Change it as much as you like.

• Invoice Details: the client, the Invoice number (leave it blank to number it when it's sent, or type your own), Terms (Due on receipt, Net 15, Net 30, Net 60 or a custom number of days), the Invoice date and the Due date. Choosing terms sets the due date; a client's own terms come first.
• Line Items: Add Unbilled Time and Add Expenses bring in more of this client's unbilled work. Add Fixed Fee bills a share of a fee. Add Line is for anything else, typed in. A line from tracked time keeps its hours, but you can change its rate and description. Removing a line sends its time or expense back to To Invoice.
• Taxable: when the invoice charges tax, each line has a Taxable box under its description. Untick it for a line that isn't taxed. Lines start taxable, except expense lines, which start untaxed unless Charge tax on expenses is on in Billing Rules.
• Add Discount: a percent of the lines or a fixed amount, with a name ("Loyalty discount"). It comes off before tax and shows on the invoice by name.
• Summary: the subtotal, any discounts, the tax and the total. The tax rate is set on the draft; its name and default rate are in Settings → Tax. Tax is on the taxable lines, after discounts; when some lines aren't taxed, the summary and your client's copy say what it was charged on.
• Sales tax you charge isn't your income: you collect it for the state. It goes to Sales tax payable, a liability, on cash and accrual basis alike, and paying it to the state pays that down. See Cash or accrual.
• Notes & Fine Print: printed at the bottom (a thank-you, late-payment terms). Defaults come from Settings → Invoicing.

The time behind it#

Time Detail, on the invoice, is how much of your tracked time the client sees:

• Invoice + separate time report: a clean invoice, with the time report as its own PDF in the same email. This is the default.
• Detailed invoice: the invoice followed by its time report, in one document.
• Invoice only: just the lines and totals.

Attach a Time Report swaps in a report you made, for a different range or grouping. Change the default in Settings → Invoicing. See Time Reports.

Sending#

• Send Invoice opens the email: To (the client's billing email), CC (their CCs), the Subject and Message from your template, and the attachments: the invoice PDF, and the time report when it's a separate one. Edit any of it, then Send Invoice.
• Sending gives the draft its number and locks it. Numbers are your prefix and four digits (INV-0042), in order, with no gaps: drafts don't use one up. Set the prefix and the next number in Settings → Invoicing.
• Mark as Sent numbers it without emailing, for an invoice you send yourself. Preview shows it as your client will see it.
• Once sent, the Delivery card says when it was emailed, whether the client has opened it, and the reminders sent.

What your client sees, and getting paid#

The email has a View Invoice button and the PDF attached. The invoice opens online, no sign-in needed, with Download PDF and, with a separate report, View Time Report. Opening it is what marks it opened for you.

• It's from your Legal name, always: the person or business being paid, as set in Settings → Business. With a Trade name (DBA) there too, the trade name leads and the legal name is printed beneath it ("Okafor Legal" over "Okafor Legal PLLC"). The emails and the PDF's page footer carry it as well.
• Bank details you add in Settings → Invoicing (bank, account name and number, routing number, SWIFT) print beside the total, with the invoice number as the reference.
• A Payment link under Pay Online (a Stripe Payment Link, PayPal.me, your bank's pay page) puts a Pay Now button on the invoice, its email and its PDF, while money is owed. EscBooks doesn't see payments made there: record each one when it arrives.
• A client's Statement, a button on their page, is a private link to everything they owe as of today, by how overdue it is, with Pay Now and a PDF.

When money arrives, click Record Payment on the invoice:

• Amount received starts at the full amount owed. Enter less for a part payment: the invoice shows Partly paid and its Balance due until the rest comes in, then Paid.
• Date received, the Method (Bank transfer, Check, Card, Cash, PayPal or Other), a Reference (a check number, say), and Deposited to: the account the money went into, so your books show it there.
• For an invoice in another currency, also enter Received in US dollars: what reached your bank. That's the income.
• More than is owed? Tick the box to record the extra as Overpaid; it shows on the invoice until you refund it.
• A client with a prepaid retainer can be paid from it with Pay from Retainer. See Retainers.

Each payment is listed in the invoice's Payments card. Refund records money given back; the trash removes a payment recorded by mistake, and the invoice owes it again.

Statuses#

Overdue isn't something you set: it's any sent or partly paid invoice past its due date with money owed. Find them with the status filter on Invoices, or the Overdue card at the top.

Payment reminders#

Reminders are polite emails about unpaid invoices, sent each morning to the client's billing email and CCs. They're off until you turn on Send reminders automatically under Payment Reminders in Settings → Invoicing.

• When: any of 7 or 3 days before the due date, on the due date, and 3, 7, 14 or 30 days late. Each goes once per invoice.
• When unpaid and overdue: after the last of those, Don't repeat, or keep going Every week, Every 2 weeks or Every month until it's paid.
• The subject and message are yours to word. The email carries your Pay Now button and a link to the invoice.
• They stop by themselves once an invoice is paid, written off or voided.
• Turn them off for one client with Payment reminders in the client's details.
• An invoice dated before the day you started EscBooks, brought in from another app, never gets one automatically. Its Delivery card says No automatic reminders: dated before you started EscBooks.
• Send Reminder, in an unpaid invoice's Delivery card, sends one now, old invoices included.

Money you won't get#

Write Off Balance…, in the invoice's ⋯ menu, is for money that isn't coming. What you write off stops being owed: reminders stop, it leaves what clients owe you, and it isn't counted as income. Choose why:

• Bad debt: they aren't going to pay. The invoice shows Bad debt.
• Short payment: bank fees, rounding, a few dollars short. The invoice shows Paid, with a Written off badge.

If the client pays after all, Record Payment: it comes off the write-off and counts as income when it's received. Undo Write-off is for one made by mistake; the invoice owes the money again and reminders pick up where they left off. On the client's copy, a write-off reads Adjustment.

On accrual basis, the invoice counted as income when it was sent, so a write-off takes it back: a bad debt as Bad debts, an expense, and a short payment as Returns and allowances, which lowers income. A payment after a bad debt is Bad debt recovered. On cash basis the money was never counted, so there's nothing to take back. See Cash or accrual.

Fixing a mistake#

• Reopen as Draft (⋯ menu) takes a sent invoice back to edit, while nothing's been paid or written off. It keeps its number. When your business is on accrual, an invoice from a past year can't be reopened, because that year's income counts it: void it and send a new one.
• Void Invoice (⋯ menu) cancels a sent invoice with no money recorded on it. It stays in your records as void, keeps its number, and its time goes back to To Invoice.
• Delete Draft deletes a draft that was never numbered; its time and expenses go back to To Invoice. A reopened draft that was sent before is voided instead, since your client may have it.
• The number of a sent invoice can be changed with Change beside it, though your client may already have it under the old one.
• Duplicate (⋯ menu) copies an invoice into a new draft.

Repeating invoices#

For a flat fee that bills itself, like hosting, maintenance or a monthly fee: on Repeating, click New Repeating Invoice, or use Repeat… in any invoice's ⋯ menu to start from its lines.

1. Pick the client and give it a Name for your list (clients don't see it).
2. Choose How often (Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly), the First invoice date, and a Last invoice date if it ends.
3. Add its lines, each taxable or not, and any discount.
4. Under When each one is made, choose Save as a draft to check, or Email it to the client on its date with your usual invoice email. Then Start Repeating.

Each is made on its date. Pause stops them until you Resume. Once one has been made, its client, start and frequency stay as they are.

Estimates#

An estimate (a quote) is built like an invoice, with a Valid until date. Switch on Ranged estimate to give each line a low and a high (20–30 hours), and the client sees a range ("$3,400 – $5,100").

• Your client opens it from the email and clicks Accept Estimate or Decline, with a note if they like. You'll see their answer on the estimate.
• Convert to Invoice turns it into a draft invoice with the same lines. For a ranged one, choose to bill each line at the low or the high. Billing the real hours instead? Track the time and invoice it from To Invoice.
• Reopen to Revise changes one that's sent or declined. Past its date, it shows Expired.

Estimates are one of the features you can turn on or off in Terms and features.

Invoices and Income#

• Invoices lists every invoice, with Outstanding, Overdue, Drafts and invoiced this year at the top. Search by number or client, filter by status, and sort by balance, total, due date, issue date or client.
• Income is the money you've received, by month and by client, on a cash basis: a payment counts when it's received, and write-offs never do. It stays that way on accrual too; income as invoiced is in Reports. It shows what's still owed and how many days you wait to get paid, on average. Export it as CSV.

Income with no invoice#

Not every dollar comes from an invoice. Interest the business's bank account pays, a sale you didn't invoice, a payout from YouTube or Patreon, a referral fee: record each on Income as Other income. It has no client and no invoice.

1. On Income, click Other Income (or Record in the Other Income card).
2. Pick the Type (below); what it means shows under it.
3. Type the Amount and the Date received, and pick the account it was Deposited to (the last one you picked, or your only bank account, is filled in). Add a Note if you like, then click Record.

• Interest income: interest the business earned, like interest on its bank account.
• Sale without an invoice: a sale nobody invoiced, like cash or a card payment at the counter. It's gross receipts, counted with your income received.
• Platform payout: what a platform paid you, like YouTube, Patreon, an affiliate program or a book platform. It asks for the platform, what was deposited and any fees it kept: the gross is income received, the fees an expense. See Creators and authors.
• Other income: business income that isn't a sale or interest. A refund of something you bought isn't income: it goes in Expenses, as a refund.

• It counts the day it came in, like a payment: in Received and the chart on Income, and in every report, on cash and accrual basis alike. Interest income and other income are reported after your costs, and each goes on its own line of your tax form; see Reports and taxes.
• The pencil corrects one and the bin removes it. A deposit on a bank statement can be marked as other income when you review it; one recorded that way shows From a statement, and its amount, date, type and account follow the line. See Reviewing statements.
• The Other Income card isn't shown when Income is narrowed to clients: other income has none. Otherwise each platform that paid you is listed beside your clients, under Paid by.