Manage the Invoice Lifecycle

Invoice lifecycle work is more than changing a badge. Each status changes the actions available to your team, and every correction should agree with the invoice's dates, payments, communications, and customer-facing link.

Before You Start

• Sign in and select the team that owns the invoice.
• Confirm that you are authorized to change billing records for that team.
• Gather evidence for any payment, cancellation, or schedule correction.
• Open the invoice's full page when partial payments, credits, adjustments, or integration syncs are involved.

Open the Invoice Record

1. Open Invoices → Invoices.
2. Use All, Open, Overdue, Paid, Scheduled, or Draft to narrow the list.
3. Add customer, date, amount, status, or recurring filters when needed.
4. Select an invoice data cell to open the details sheet.
5. Select Open full page for complete payment and lifecycle context.

Before changing status, verify the invoice number, customer, total, currency, issue date, due date, sent date, paid date, scheduled time, payment ledger, credits, and amount remaining.

Understand the Statuses

Overdue is not offered as a manual status action. Keep the due date accurate and let the recorded lifecycle determine when an invoice belongs in overdue work.

Finalize a Draft

1. Open the draft and select Edit or Edit invoice.
2. Review the customer, number, dates, currency, line items, totals, payment details, and notes.
3. Open the delivery action menu.
4. Choose:
   • Create invoice to finalize as unpaid without intentional email
   • Create & send to finalize as unpaid and queue customer email
   • Schedule to set a future send time
5. Verify the resulting status and activity.

Drafts can be deleted permanently. Once the invoice is unpaid, overdue, paid, or scheduled, preserve the record and use the appropriate status action instead.

Manage a Scheduled Invoice

Reschedule

1. Open the scheduled invoice's edit form.
2. Choose Schedule send or the scheduled delivery control.
3. Select a new future date and time.
4. Save the invoice.
5. Verify Scheduled at and check that only the intended future send remains.

Cancel the schedule

1. Open the row's three-dot menu.
2. Select Cancel schedule.
3. Verify that the invoice returns to Draft and the scheduled time is cleared.

Canceling a schedule does not delete the invoice. Review the draft before choosing a new delivery action.

Follow Up on an Unpaid or Overdue Invoice

Send a one-time reminder

1. Open the invoice details sheet.
2. Select Remind.
3. Confirm Send Reminder.
4. Wait for Reminder sent.
5. Verify the reminder date and communication activity.

Use reminders only after confirming the customer, email, balance, and dispute context. A reminder being queued or recorded does not prove the customer read it.

Start or stop Auto-chase overdue

1. Open an unpaid or overdue invoice.
2. Find Auto-chase overdue.
3. Turn it on to enroll the invoice in the team's recovery sequence.
4. Verify the current step and next reminder date.
5. Turn it off to stop the active sequence.

Auto-chase requires a configured recovery policy. The control is hidden for statuses that are not chaseable unless an existing recovery record still needs to be shown.

Offer a settlement

1. Open an unpaid or overdue invoice that has a currency.
2. Find Settlement offer.
3. Enter a positive settlement amount.
4. Select Offer.
5. Verify the amount and expiration date.

The offer appears on the customer's public invoice page and expires after 14 days. Creating an offer does not mark the invoice paid; verify acceptance and payment separately.

Record or Correct Payment State

Mark an invoice as paid

1. Open the row actions menu or the invoice details menu.
2. Select Mark as paid.
3. Choose the actual paid date. Future dates are not offered.
4. Verify the status is Paid and the paid date is correct.

Mark as paid records an invoice-level status and paid date. Use it only when you have evidence of settlement. It does not replace reconciliation of a bank transaction or correction of the underlying payment ledger.

Review partial payments first

If payments exist, the details sheet can show:

• amount paid and invoice total
• percentage and remaining balance
• single, split, installment, or irregular payment pattern
• individual payment dates
• Reconciled markers for linked bank transactions
• predicted next payment when available

Open the full page and compare Payments received, Credits, and Amount remaining before marking the invoice fully paid.

Mark a paid invoice as unpaid

1. Open the paid invoice's actions menu.
2. Select Mark as unpaid.
3. Verify that the paid date is cleared and the invoice returns to Unpaid.
4. Reconcile any payment or transaction record that caused the incorrect paid state.

Canceled invoices also offer Mark as unpaid, which reactivates the receivable. Use it only when cancellation itself was wrong.

Cancel or Delete an Invoice

Cancel an active receivable

1. Open an unpaid or overdue invoice.
2. Select the more-actions menu.
3. Select Cancel invoice or Cancel.
4. Verify the status is Canceled and collection work has stopped.

Canceling preserves the invoice for history and allows it to be duplicated or corrected later.

Delete a draft or canceled invoice

1. Confirm that the invoice is Draft or Canceled.
2. Select Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion when prompted.
4. Search for the invoice number and verify it no longer appears.

Deletion is permanent. Unpaid, overdue, paid, and scheduled invoices cannot be deleted directly.

Duplicate an Invoice

1. Open any invoice's actions menu or full page.
2. Select Duplicate.
3. Open the new draft.
4. Verify the new invoice number, customer, dates, currency, items, and totals.
5. Update anything that should not carry forward, then choose a delivery action.

The duplicate is a fresh draft with a new number and customer-facing token. Payment, sent, viewed, paid, and status history from the source invoice is not carried over.

Share, Download, and Send a Receipt

• Link or Copy link copies the customer-facing invoice URL.
• Open invoice opens that customer-facing invoice.
• PDF or Download downloads the generated invoice document for non-draft records.
• The full page offers Send receipt. Verify the resulting customer communication in invoice activity before sending another message.

Before sharing or sending a receipt, confirm the recipient email, status, amount, and customer-facing content. The invoice link is sensitive and should be shared only with intended recipients.

Verify the Lifecycle After Every Action

Check all applicable evidence:

• current status badge
• issue, due, scheduled, sent, viewed, reminder, and paid dates
• communication history
• status timeline and activity feed
• payment progress and full-page balances
• settlement or auto-chase state
• integration sync badges
• invoice list summary and status filters

If a change affects analytics, refresh Invoices → Insights only after the invoice record itself is correct.

Status-Dependent and Conditional Behavior

• The row menu and full-page header do not show identical actions. Paid and canceled rows omit Edit invoice, while the full page can still display an edit button. Recheck status and accounting intent before editing a terminal invoice.
• Drafts do not offer list-menu PDF download because the final document may not exist.
• Reminders are offered in the details sheet for unpaid and overdue invoices.
• Auto-chase and settlement controls are conditional and remain hidden when their prerequisites are absent.
• Payment progress is hidden until a payment exists.
• Sync status is hidden until an external provider reference exists.
• A paid status makes the full-page amount remaining display as zero, even if the separate payment rows do not add up to the invoice total. Reconcile before relying on that display.
• Status corrections do not automatically repair external accounting, bank, or payment-provider records.

Troubleshooting

I cannot delete the invoice

Only draft and canceled invoices can be deleted. Cancel an active unpaid or overdue invoice first if deletion is truly appropriate, then verify that preserving the canceled record is not required for audit history.

Cancel schedule is missing

The action appears only for an invoice with a recorded scheduled job. Confirm that its status is Scheduled and that Scheduled at is present.

Auto-chase will not start

Confirm that the invoice is unpaid or overdue and that the team has a recovery policy. Resolve any policy error before toggling the control again.

Settlement offer is missing

The invoice must be unpaid or overdue and have a currency. An active offer can remain visible after the invoice leaves an open status, but the offer form appears only for eligible statuses.

The balance and paid status disagree

Open the full page and inspect payments, credits, adjustments, and amount remaining. Correct the payment ledger or status using verifiable evidence; do not use the status badge alone as reconciliation.

A reminder or receipt is not visible in activity

Confirm the customer's email, wait for delivery processing, and refresh the invoice. Avoid sending repeated messages until you know whether the first request completed.

Mark as unpaid did not remove an external payment

That action clears the invoice's paid status and paid date; it does not reverse a bank transaction or provider payment. Correct the external record through the appropriate payment or accounting workflow.

Insights still show the old status

Confirm the invoice itself first, then refresh Invoices → Insights. Analytics can lag briefly after a lifecycle change.

Related Pages

• Invoices
• Create and Send Invoices
• Invoice Insights
• Invoice Products
• Invoice Collection Workflow