Invoices and payments

Business → Invoices. An invoice is a list of lines, a due date, and a link your client opens to see it and pay.

At the top of the screen you see what is Outstanding, what is Overdue, and how many Unpaid invoices you have.

Raise an invoice

1. Go to Business → Invoices and press New invoice.
2. Choose the Client and, if you like, a Due date. Without a due date

the invoice is never chased.

1. Fill in the Lines: a Description, a Qty and the Amount each.

Blank lines are ignored.

1. Add any Notes, such as payment terms or a thank-you.
2. Press Create invoice. It is saved as a draft and nothing is sent yet.

Tax follows your money settings: your rate, and whether your prices include it or have it added.

You do not always need to start from scratch:

• On a client's page, a confirmed or completed booking has an Invoice link that raises an invoice for that booking.
• When a client accepts a quote, an invoice for its deposit (or the full amount, if the quote has no deposit) is raised for you.
• An automation can raise and send a booking's invoice for you.

Send it

Open the invoice and press Send to client. Your client is emailed a link to the invoice, with a PDF copy attached for their records. Press PDF on the invoice any time you want a copy yourself.

Send to client only shows while the invoice is a draft. Once it has gone, the client already has the link.

Change or cancel an invoice

• Change the lines: while nothing has been paid, open the invoice, change the rows under Change the lines, and press Save the lines. Any instalments are adjusted to match. Once a payment is recorded the lines are locked.
• Void: cancels an invoice. Press Void at the top of the invoice and confirm. It is never deleted: the number stays used, with "Voided" added to its notes, so your numbering has no gaps.

An invoice with a payment against it cannot be voided. Refund the payment first (a card payment is refunded from your Stripe account), so the money and the paperwork always agree. Then void the invoice and raise a new one with the right amount.

Numbering

Invoices are numbered in order for your studio (INV-0001, INV-0002 and so on) with no gaps, and a number is never reused. Most tax offices expect exactly that.

Getting paid

By card. Once you have connected Stripe (see money settings), your client's invoice page has a Pay button. Card payments go through your own Stripe account straight into your bank. We never hold the money and take no commission.

By bank transfer. If you have added your bank details, the invoice page shows them, with the invoice number as the reference for your client to use. See bank transfers.

Anything else (a transfer, cash or a cheque):

1. Open the invoice.
2. Under Record a payment, check the Amount, the date it was

Received, and How it was paid (bank transfer, cash, cheque or other). Add a Reference if you have one.

1. Press Record payment.

That settles the invoice (or part of it) and stops any reminders. You cannot record more than is owing, a date in the future, or the same payment twice. A deposit already paid by card when the client booked counts towards the invoice, so the amount owing is always right.

Record a payment appears once the invoice has been sent. Every payment is listed under Payments on the invoice, with anything refunded.

Where an invoice is

The status is worked out from what has actually been paid, not set by hand:

So a payment that arrives while you are looking at the list moves the invoice on by itself.

Paying in instalments

For a wedding booked a year out, split the booking into instalments.

1. Go to Home → Bookings and scroll to Paying in instalments.
2. Under Which booking, choose the booking.
3. Under How they pay, choose one of:

- Deposit now, the rest before the day: 30% now, 70% later; - Three equal payments; - Four equal payments; - Monthly until the shoot.

1. Press Set up the plan.

The booking's invoice is raised (or updated to the full booking amount) and opens for you, with the Instalments and their due dates listed on it.

Each instalment is emailed to the client three days before it is due, with a link to pay. A few rules keep it sensible:

• Nothing falls due in the last fortnight before the shoot. A booking made inside that fortnight is simply due in full.
• Anything already paid, such as a card deposit, is taken off first, so it is never asked for twice.
• The last instalment takes up any rounding, so the parts always add up to the total exactly.
• If the instalments would be very small, you are asked to choose fewer payments.
• Once an instalment has been paid, the plan cannot be set up again.

Chasing what is late

Invoices with a due date are chased for you by email, once a week, from the day after the due date. Just before each reminder goes, the balance is checked again, so a payment that landed an hour ago stops the reminder rather than embarrassing you.

A draft, a voided invoice, or one already paid is never chased.

You can also build your own follow-ups under automations.

What you can see

Business → Reports shows what you have received, what is still owed and what is overdue, so "who owes me money" is a screen rather than an afternoon. See insights and reports.