An invoice is a bill you send a client: line items, a due date, and a link to pay. Invoices are built from the client's Billing tab and can be opened from two places to record a payment, void them, or finish a draft.
Create an invoice
- Open the client and go to the Billing tab.
- Choose New → Invoice. The Create Invoice window opens with the client and the invoice number.
- Set the Due Date.
- Add what you're billing:
- Add Line Item for anything you type in (description, quantity, price);
- Add visit charges to bill visit charges already on the client's account; pick them and press Add selected. A visit charge that's already on another open invoice shows as taken.
- Optionally add a discount (amount or percentage), tax, and Notes that appear on the invoice. Total Due updates as you go.
- Press Save Draft to finish later, or Send Invoice to send it now.
Visit charges are already on the client's balance, so billing them on an invoice doesn't add them again; only the invoice's own lines (plus tax, less the discount) are added to the balance.
Send an invoice
Send Invoice emails the client the invoice number, the amount due, the due date and a secure link to pay by card. The client needs an email address on their record; without one the button is greyed out. The pay link stays open until 30 days after the due date, and closes as soon as the invoice is paid or voided. Invoices are sent by email only.
Sent invoices also appear in the Billing section of the client's portal, with a Pay button when card payments are set up. See What clients can do in the portal.
Find and open invoices
- Payments → Invoices lists the location's most recent invoices, newest first: the invoice number and client, the date, the total, the status, and "$X still owed" on one that's been partly paid.
- The Invoices card on the client's Billing tab lists that client's invoices.
Click a row to open the invoice. It shows each line, Subtotal, Tax, Discount, Total, Paid and Still owed (or Written off on a voided invoice), and every payment that reached it: desk payments, pay link and portal payments, and balance payments that paid it ("paid on the client's balance").
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved, not sent. Only drafts can be edited. |
| Sent | Sent to the client and waiting for payment. |
| Partly paid | Some of it is paid. |
| Overdue | Past its due date and nothing paid yet. |
| Paid | Paid in full. |
| Void | Voided; it can't be paid. |
Record a payment on an invoice
For cash, a check, or a card run on another machine:
- Open the invoice and press Record payment.
- Enter the amount. It can't be more than the invoice still owes.
- Pick the method: Cash, Check, Card (run outside FrontDesk), Insurance or Other, and add a note if you like (staff only).
- Press Record $X.
The invoice moves to Partly paid or Paid, the visit charges it bills are marked paid, and the client's balance comes down, all in one step. If a payment landed on the invoice while you had it open, nothing is recorded and you're told what's left to pay.
To charge the client's card through FrontDesk instead, use Collect payment on the client's Billing tab. See Collect payments.
Void an invoice
- Open the invoice and press Void.
- Enter a reason. It's kept on the invoice and in the adjustments ledger.
- Press Void invoice (or Keep it to back out).
What happens:
- What the invoice still owes for its own lines comes off the client's balance as a write-off, dated and with your reason, so the financial reports show it.
- Visit charges it billed stay owed and stay on the balance. Void the invoice to bill them another way (a new invoice, a superbill, or a balance payment).
- Its pay link stops working, and a portal payment the client had started on it is cancelled.
- Money already paid on it stays paid. To give it back, refund the payment. See Refunds and disputes.
A fully paid invoice can't be voided, and an invoice with a bank payment still clearing can't be voided until that payment settles or fails.
Edit a draft
Open a Draft invoice and press Edit. The Edit Invoice window opens with its lines; change them and press Save Draft or Send Invoice. Sent invoices can't be edited: void and re-create one instead.
How balance payments reach invoices
A payment on the client's balance (at the desk, the portal's balance payment, or a balance pay link) pays the client's open charges that aren't on an invoice first, oldest first, then their open invoices, oldest first. Each invoice it reaches shows the payment, and moves to Partly paid or Paid; its pay link closes once it's paid. A refund of that payment opens them again. When a newer balance pay link has been sent, an older one can no longer be paid. Credit on account that you apply pays the same way.
Good to know
- On the mobile app, open Payments → Invoices (or an invoice on a client's payments screen) to see it, record a payment or void it. Editing a draft is done on the web.
- Messages you might see: "This invoice was voided, so it can't be paid."; "This invoice is already paid in full."; "This invoice changed while it was being voided (a payment just landed). Reload it and check before voiding again."; "A bank payment on this invoice is still clearing — void it after it settles or fails".