Create and send an invoice

The Invoices list, under Billing in the left sidebar, shows every invoice for your firm. That includes invoices you create by hand, invoices generated from unbilled time or a recurring schedule, and invoices raised when a client accepts a proposal; see How proposal invoicing works.

Invoices you create start as drafts on a review screen, where you finish the details and send.

Create an invoice manually

1. Go to Billing and open Invoices
2. Click the + button in the top right
3. Choose the Client and click Create

Tidyflow creates a draft and opens it for review. Set the invoice Number (pre-filled from your numbering settings), Issue date, and Due date, then add line items with a description, quantity, unit price, and tax. Tax can be set per line or for the whole invoice.

A manual invoice is not connected to your tracked time. Typing in the same work does not clear it from WIP. To bill tracked time, create the invoice from Billing under WIP instead, so the time is linked and marked billed; see How WIP works.

Create invoices from unbilled time

1. Go to Billing and open WIP
2. Click Bill $[amount] on a client to turn all of that client’s unbilled work into a draft, or open a single job’s menu and choose Invoice this job. In Fixed fee mode, use Invoice fee to bill a job’s agreed fee instead of its hours.
3. To bill several jobs at once, select them and choose Create draft invoice(s) from selected jobs

The drafts land on the review screen, with the time already converted into line items, and nothing is sent until you approve each one. You can also pull more time into an existing draft with Add time from WIP in the draft’s menu.

Group the invoice lines

When you bill tracked time, each invoice has a Line item settings control on the review screen that decides how the work appears:

• By service merges repeated work of the same service into one line, so four weekly payroll jobs become a single Payroll line
• By job keeps one line per job
• One line collapses everything into a single line

You can also show the period, the job’s subtasks, or the service description on each line. Tick Save as the default for this client and the client’s next bill starts the same way.

Edit amounts and see realization

Draft lines bill exactly what they show: type a new Unit price or Qty on a line and the Total updates to quantity times price, with nothing hidden underneath. Quantity and price are presentation, so 5 x $100 and 1 x $500 bill the same $500; only changing the total changes what the client pays.

When a line comes from tracked time, changing its total is a write-up or write-down. The line shows the difference against the time’s WIP value as you type, for example +$150.00 and 120% for $900 billed on $750 of tracked time, so you always see what you gained or gave up on the job. A write-up or write-down recorded earlier with Adjust on the WIP page is already folded into the line’s price when the draft is created; see How WIP works.

Add a discount to an invoice

To take an amount off an invoice, add a discount to the draft. On the draft invoice, click Add item and choose Discount. Give the discount a name your client will recognize, then type an amount such as 50, or a percentage such as 10%.

A discount applies to the Whole invoice unless you pick a line in the menu under the discount’s name. A discount on a line sits directly under that line. A percentage follows the line or invoice it applies to, so it updates when you change those amounts on a draft.

The discount appears on the invoice and its PDF as its own row with a minus amount, and tax is charged on what is left. A discount cannot be more than the line or invoice it applies to. If an invoice mixes taxable and non-taxable lines, attach each discount to a line.

On a recurring invoice, click Add discount under a line. The discount comes off that line on every invoice the schedule generates, until you remove it.

A discount is a price reduction your client sees. To record a write-up or write-down against tracked time, change the line’s total instead; see How WIP works.

Send the invoice

On the draft review screen, click Approve & send to email the invoice to your client as a PDF. If you send invoices outside Tidyflow, use Download PDF and Mark as sent instead, so the invoice stops being a draft and starts tracking payment.

From the invoice list you can always re-send with Email PDF, download the PDF, or, if you use the QuickBooks or Xero integration, sync the invoice across.

Invoice statuses

An invoice is Draft until you send it or mark it as sent. After that it shows as Sent, then Partially Paid or Paid as payments come in. Invoices that should no longer be collected can be marked Voided. An invoice whose balance you wrote off shows as Written off.

Record a payment

When a client pays you outside Tidyflow, for example by check, cash or bank transfer, open the invoice’s row menu and choose Add payment. Enter the amount and payment date; the invoice status updates automatically, and partial payments are fine. Payments made online are recorded for you.

A recorded payment can also carry a Method and a Reference, both optional. Pick Cash, Check, Bank transfer or Card (for card payments taken outside Tidyflow), or type your own method name, such as a barter network, and Tidyflow offers that name again on later payments. When the method is Check, the reference field is labelled Check number. The method and reference show in the invoice’s payment history and in the Payments report.

Fix or reverse a recorded payment

On the invoice, open the ⋯ menu on a payment you recorded under Payment history:

• Edit corrects the amount, date, method or reference.
• Mark as returned is for money that came back, such as a bounced check or a returned bank payment. Enter the date and reason. The payment stays in the history, crossed out, but no longer counts as paid, so the invoice is open again. Tick Charge a returned-item fee to put the bank’s fee on a new draft invoice for the client. If you marked one by mistake, choose Undo return.
• Delete removes a payment recorded by mistake, such as one entered on the wrong invoice.

Payments collected through Stripe can’t be changed here. If a client disputes a Stripe payment or you refund it in full, Tidyflow marks it returned for you and reopens the invoice; you get an email about disputes, and winning one counts the payment again.

Credit or write off a balance

On a sent invoice that still has something owed, open the ⋯ menu at the top and choose Credit or write off. Pick one, enter the amount (it starts at what’s still owed) and add a note if you like.

• Credit note lowers what you charged, for example to correct a mistake or settle a fee dispute. It gets its own number, such as CN-0001, and a PDF you can download from the payment history and send to the client. Tax comes off in proportion to what the invoice charged. To change the prefix or carry on from your old system’s numbers, set Credit note number prefix and Next credit note number in Settings > Billing.
• Write off is for money you don’t expect to collect. Nothing goes to the client, and tax isn’t changed. Once nothing is left owing, the invoice shows as Written off.

Both show under Payment history, with the amount taken off under the invoice total. The invoice export has Paid, Credited, Written Off and Outstanding columns, which add up to each invoice’s total, so you can total your write-offs for any period in a spreadsheet. To reverse one, open its ⋯ menu and choose Void credit note or Undo write-off; the amount is owed again from that day. Neither is sent to Xero or QuickBooks, so record the credit note or bad-debt write-off there too. Ask your accountant whether you can recover tax on a written-off balance. Invoices whose payments come from Xero are credited in Xero.

Let clients pay online

Connect Stripe once in Settings under Billing and every emailed invoice includes a secure payment page where your client pays by card or bank debit. Payments are recorded automatically, saved payment methods can be charged with the Charge saved card option when sending, and contacts with billing access can also pay in your client portal. For setup, payment options, and fees, see Accept online payments.

Recurring invoices

A recurring invoice is a schedule that generates an invoice for a client automatically, such as a monthly fee. To set one up:

1. Go to Billing and open Recurring
2. Click the + button in the top right
3. Choose the Client and click Create
4. On the recurring invoice screen, set the Frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly) and the Next Run Date, which is the date the next invoice is generated
5. Under When Generated, choose what happens to each new invoice: Save as draft for you to review and send, Auto-approve to mark it as sent without emailing it, or Auto-approve & send to approve it and email it to the client
6. Add the line items. Optionally set Stop After, an End Date, the Due Date, and a Tax Rate
7. Turn on Charge automatically if the client should be charged on their saved payment method. Charging only happens with Auto-approve or Auto-approve & send, not with Save as draft
8. Click Activate at the top of the screen and confirm

A recurring invoice you create this way starts as a draft and generates nothing until you activate it. Your changes save automatically as you edit.

Recurring invoices from proposals

When a client accepts a proposal with recurring lines, Tidyflow creates an active recurring invoice for that client automatically, so there is nothing to activate. Its schedule, start date, and send setting come from the proposal. Find it under Billing in Recurring; see How proposal invoicing works.

Customize your invoices

Your invoice number prefix, next number, and document title (Invoice or Tax Invoice) live in Settings under Billing. Your company logo is added automatically from Branding in Settings → General; see Add your logo and customize the client portal.

Regional currency and tax labels

New workspaces start with a billing currency based on their country, such as GBP for the United Kingdom or AUD for Australia. Review your currency in Settings under Billing. Changing Base country later does not change the billing currency automatically.

Invoice PDFs label tax as VAT for UK workspaces, GST for Australian workspaces, and Tax for other regions. The label does not set a tax rate: configure your rates or import them from Xero or QuickBooks Online, then select the appropriate rate on the invoice. See regional functionality and defaults for the country comparison.