Recurring invoice field reference
This article describes the fields available when creating or editing a recurring invoice.
General
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Account name, ID or email | Select the account where the invoice will be sent. |
| 2. Invoice template | Select one of the recurring invoice templates you’ve created. Templates are useful for invoices you send on a regular basis. |
| 3. Name | Name of the recurring invoice (e.g., Bookkeeping 2023 or Financial Planning 2024). The client sees it only for recurring invoices with payment authorization. |
| 4. Team member | Team member responsible for receiving payments. By default, the person creating the invoice. |
| 5. Description | Outline of what is included in the invoice. Supports account shortcodes based on custom fields and date shortcodes. |
| 6. Payment method | How clients pay invoices—credit card, bank debit, or both. |
Recurrence settings
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Starts on | When the recurrence starts—on acceptance (for payment-authorization invoices only) or on a specific date. |
| 2. First invoice date | Date the first invoice is sent. Available when Starts on is set to a specific date. |
| 3. Recurrences | How many invoices to send. Must be a fixed number between 1 and 200. Open-ended or indefinite recurring invoices aren’t supported. |
| 4. Recurrence | Time interval between invoices—select from the list (e.g., monthly or yearly) or set a custom interval. For monthly recurrences starting on the 29th, 30th, or 31st, the invoice is sent on the last day of months without that date. |
You can review and edit the recurrence settings anytime by opening the invoice from the Recurring invoices list.
Examples of different schedule settings:
| Recurrence | Recurrences | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | 5 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Weekly (every Friday) | 8 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Monthly (once a month) | 12 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Every 3 month | 4 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Every 6 month | 2 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Yearly (once a year) | 5 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
| Custom (every second Monday) | 4 | First time: Jan-1-2024 |
Custom schedules
Custom schedules let you tweak recurring invoice schedules further—for example, the 25th every 4 months, bi-monthly, every second Tuesday. To set up a custom recurrence, select Custom in the Recurrence dropdown.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Starts on | When the first invoice is sent after the client accepts—on a specific date or on acceptance. |
| 2. First invoice date | Date when the first invoice is created. Available when Specific date is selected. |
| 3. Issue invoice every | Number of time periods between each invoice. For monthly recurrences starting on the 29th, 30th, or 31st, the invoice is sent on the last day of months without that date. |
| 4. Period | Time period used for the recurrence—days, weeks, months. |
| 5. Number of recurrences | Total number of invoices to send. |
You’ll also see the expiration date—the date when the last invoice should be paid according to the schedule.
Payment authorization
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Auto-pay | After the client accepts the recurring invoice terms, invoices are issued according to the schedule and the client’s card or bank account is charged automatically. |
| 2. Manual payment | Invoices are issued and sent to the client according to the schedule, but the client pays each one manually. |
Note
With manual payment: all issued invoices work as one-time invoices and appear on the Billing > Invoices page. The schedule is available for review and editing on the Recurring invoices tab. If QuickBooks is connected, invoices sync within a day of being issued.Additional
| Toggle | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Email invoice to client | Custom message that replaces the default email system notification text sent with the invoice. The message isn’t accessible after sending—to reuse, add it to the invoice template . Supports account shortcodes based on custom fields and date shortcodes. |
| 2. Reminders | Sends email follow-ups to the client if they haven’t paid the invoice within a specified number of days. Configure days until next reminder and number of reminders. See automatic reminders for details. |
QuickBooks settings
Note
The QuickBooks settings section is displayed only if location and class tracking are enabled in QuickBooks. To enable, go to Account and Settings > Advanced > Categories in QuickBooks and turn on tracking locations and/or classes.| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Location | Location sent to QuickBooks. Not visible to clients. |
| Class | Class sent to QuickBooks. Not visible to clients. |
Line items and summary
Both Line items and the summary show the invoice amount. If you don’t want to include a detailed breakdown of your services and rates, go straight to the summary and enter the amount. Otherwise, create a client-facing itemized list in Line items—the data is added to the summary automatically.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Add line item | Adds a service line to the invoice. Each line includes a service, rate, quantity, optional description, and optional tax . |
| 2. Discount | Discount line item with a configurable rate. |
| 3. Manage line items | Per-line item actions: delete via the trash icon, or use the three-dot menu to edit, duplicate, delete, or create a new service from the line. |
| 4. Settings | Controls which columns are displayed in the invoice. |
If the Description and Service date fields are empty and not hidden, they’re hidden from the invoice automatically. The Rates & Qty and Tax columns behave differently—hide them in Settings so they’re not displayed, even when the value is 0.
Summary
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Subtotal | Sum of service amounts before tax. Editable when there are no line items; calculated automatically once line items are added and can’t be changed. |
| Tax/VAT/GST rate | Editable without line items. With line items, to edit the tax rate, enable the Tax column for line items (see sales tax ). |
| Tax/VAT/GST amount | Calculated automatically as Subtotal × Tax rate. Both the tax percentage and the tax amount are displayed. |
| Total | Calculated automatically as Subtotal + Tax amount. |
After the Payment schedule section, you can review the main settings of the recurring invoice: the number of payments expected, the amount of each, and the total amount.
Note to client
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Note to client | Client-facing message displayed in the client portal and the PDF invoice. Can be payment details or a general message. Supports shortcodes for personalization. |
Payment schedule
The Payment schedule section shows the dates when each invoice will be sent. Review it before creating the recurring invoice.
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