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 it now: pick Send by (when the client has both an email and a phone) and press Send Invoice (Text Invoice when sending by text).
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.
You can also invoice one visit straight from Payments → Appointments: a visit that isn't on an invoice yet has a Create invoice button on its row. See The Payments page.
Invoice visits automatically every night
Turn on Daily invoicing for a location under Settings → Billing → Payment methods → Autopay & invoicing. Each night, between midnight and 6am in the location's time zone, FrontDesk takes every client's visit charges from before today that are still owed and aren't on an invoice yet, and puts them on one invoice per client, due in 30 days.
- The invoices are issued (status Sent) and appear in the client's portal. Send to clients, on the same row, decides whether they also go to the client: Don’t send (the default: "Invoices wait in Billing until someone sends them."), Email, Text, or Email & text. Sent ones go at 9am location time with a pay link, and only when the invoice still owes money after nightly autopay.
- Only visits from the day you turned it on are picked up. Invoice older ones yourself.
- Only completed visits have charges to invoice. Turn on Bill past visits on the same row so visits nobody marked completed are completed and billed before the invoices are made. See Bill past visits automatically.
- A visit whose invoice was voided isn't invoiced again; you decide what happens to it.
- With nightly autopay on, clients with a card are charged for these invoices the same night.
Invoice numbers
New invoices are numbered INV-YYMM-0001 by default (the year and month, then a running number). To carry on from your previous system's numbering, go to Settings → Billing → Payment methods → Superbills & numbering and enter the next number you want in Next invoice number from (for example 22354 if your last invoice was #22353). New invoices are then plain numbers counting up from there. Clear the box to go back to the usual numbering. Numbers are never reused, whichever you choose.
Send an invoice
An invoice goes by email, by text, or both. When the client has both an email and a phone, Send by in the invoice window offers By email, By text and Email and text (email first); with only one of them, that's how it goes. The button reads Send Invoice, or Text Invoice when sending by text, and is greyed out when the client has neither.
- The email gives the invoice number, the amount due, the due date and a Pay Now link to pay by card.
- The text gives the invoice number, the amount, the due date and a secure pay link. At night it waits for 8am the client's time, and the screen says "The text will go out at 8am the client’s time."
- Who gets it: the client, or their guarantor when someone else pays their bill. The client's own settings apply (do not contact, email or texts not allowed).
- When the email or text couldn't go, the invoice is still marked sent and the screen says why, for example "The email wasn’t sent: No email on file."
The pay link stays open until 30 days after the due date (or after it is sent, if that is later), and closes as soon as the invoice is paid or voided. Sending the invoice again sends the same link, or a new one if a refund reopened the invoice or its link expired.
To have FrontDesk email clients about invoices that go unpaid, turn on the past-due invoice email; see Bill past visits automatically.
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 every invoice for the location, newest first, 25 to a page (the pages are at the bottom): 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"). A bank payment that hasn't cleared yet shows Clearing, and counts toward Paid once it settles.
| 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 | Still owes money after its due date. It turns overdue the day after the due date, in your location's time zone. |
| 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.
If a bank payment on the invoice is still clearing, the window warns you: "A bank payment of $X on this invoice is still clearing. Record this payment only if it is a different payment." That payment counts toward Paid by itself once it settles, so recording it again here would count the same money twice. The warning doesn't stop you: record a payment the client made separately as usual.
To charge the client's card through FrontDesk instead, use Collect payment on the client's Billing tab. See Collect payments.
Void an invoice
- Open the invoice and press Void.
- Enter a reason. It's kept on the invoice and in the adjustments ledger.
- Press Void invoice (or Keep it to back out).
What happens:
- What the invoice still owes for its own lines comes off the client's balance as a write-off, dated and with your reason, so the financial reports show it.
- Visit charges it billed stay owed and stay on the balance. Void the invoice to bill them another way (a new invoice, a superbill, or a balance payment).
- Its pay link stops working, and a portal payment the client had started on it is cancelled.
- Money already paid on it stays paid. To give it back, refund the payment. See Refunds and disputes.
When money has been paid on the invoice, the Void window says so ("$X has been paid on this invoice") and asks you to tick I understand. Void it anyway. first. To charge less for a visit, don't void: use Correct price, which refunds the difference and corrects this invoice.
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.
Void is for the account owner, an admin, a practice manager or a biller. Creating, editing and sending invoices, and Record payment, are for anyone at the location except a view-only member: they can open invoices but not change them, and don't get New → Invoice or Create invoice. When a button is missing, the invoice says why.
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. To lower a visit's price on one, use Correct price; for other changes, void it and create a new one.
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, void it or edit a draft (Edit draft). The same people can do each as on the web, the invoice says why when a button is missing, and Record payment warns the same way while a bank payment is still clearing.
- 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."