Building and sending an invoice

Lines

Each line is either a quantity (5 of "Monthly retainer") or hours (an hourly rate and the time worked). Use the hours kind for time — enter the rate and the minutes rather than working out a per-minute price yourself, because rounding a rate down to the minute quietly under-bills you on every long job.

Each line can carry its own discount and its own tax rate, because real invoices mix them: a zero-rated item and a standard-rated one on the same document is ordinary.

Tax

Tax rates come from your Settings, as a percentage you name yourself — VAT 20%, VAT 5%, zero-rated, or a sales tax. Pick one per line. The invoice groups lines by rate and shows one tax line per rate, which is how a tax authority expects to read it.

If you are not registered for any tax, add no rates and none will show.

The preview

The preview is totalled by the same code that produces the final PDF, not by the browser. What you see is what your client gets, including the rounding.

Issuing

Issuing allocates the next number in your series and freezes the document. From that moment you can email it, download the PDF, or send a payment link — and you can no longer edit the lines. Check the client's email address before you issue, because that is the address the invoice goes to.

Sending

Email sends the PDF from your own mail settings, so it arrives looking like it came from you.

Payment link sends the client to a page where they can pay by whatever methods you have connected — card, PayPal or crypto. The money goes to your account. See Taking payment from your clients for connecting a gateway.

Download gives you the PDF to send yourself, if you would rather use your own email.