Invoices

Invoices are how you bill a Contact for products or services. An invoice carries line items with units and taxes, supports discounts, can be sent and paid online, and tracks its own payment status from draft through to paid.

Where to find it›Finance›Invoices

This menu item appears if your company has the invoices module enabled and your role has view access.

How to create an invoice

Go to Finance → Invoices and click Add Invoice (or Create Invoice).
Confirm or edit the Invoice Number (pre-filled with the next number using your prefix and digit settings).
Set the Invoice Date and Due Date (the due date defaults to the invoice date plus the "due after" days from your Invoice Settings).
Choose the Currency (defaults to your company currency; the exchange rate fills in automatically).
Select the Client (Contact). If a project applies, choose it under Project.
Pick how tax is applied under Calculate Tax (after discount / before discount).
Optionally set a Bank Account (if your role allows linking one) and Payment Details to print bank/payment instructions on the invoice.
Confirm the Billing Address (auto-filled from the contact) and add a Shipping Address if needed.
Choose which company address issues the invoice under Generated By.
Add your line items (see below).
Set a Discount, review the totals, and add a Note.
Optionally tick Received Payment to record a payment at the same time.
Save with one of the buttons:
- Save — saves the invoice.
- Save & Send — saves and emails it to the contact.
- Save & Mark as Sent — saves and records it as sent without emailing.
- Save as Draft — saves it as a draft.

Header fields

Field	Meaning	Required
Invoice Number	Unique invoice reference	Yes
Invoice Date	The issue date	No (defaults to today)
Due Date	When payment is due	No (defaults to issue date + due-after days)
Currency	Currency for this invoice	No (defaults to company currency)
Exchange Rate	Conversion rate to your base currency	Yes (auto-filled)
Client	The contact being billed	—
Project	Related project	No (only if projects enabled)
Calculate Tax	Apply tax before or after discount	No
Bank Account	Bank account printed on the invoice	No (only if allowed by permission)
Payment Details	A saved set of payment instructions	No
Billing Address	The contact's billing address	No (auto-filled, editable)
Shipping Address	A separate ship-to address	No
Generated By	Which of your company addresses issues the invoice	No

Line items, units and taxes

Click Add Item to add a row. You can also use Add products to drop saved products straight in (with a category filter).

Field	Meaning	Required
Description / Item Name	The product or service	Yes (at least one row)
Item summary	Longer description under the item	No
HSN/SAC	Tax classification code (only if enabled in Invoice Settings)	No
Qty	Quantity	Yes (at least 1)
Unit	Unit of measure	No (default pre-selected)
Unit Price	Price per unit	Yes
Tax	One or more taxes per line, shown as `name: rate%`	No
Amount	Qty × Unit Price (calculated)	—
Item image	Optional picture for the line	No

About units: the Unit dropdown lists your company's units of measure (such as "Pcs"). One unit is marked as the default and is pre-selected on new rows. When an item comes from a saved product, its unit is fixed.

About taxes: taxes are chosen per line item. Each tax carries its own rate and a setting that controls whether it adds to the total payable or is shown separately. There is no single inclusive/exclusive switch on the invoice — instead, the Calculate Tax option controls only whether tax is figured before or after the discount.

Discounts and totals

Discount can be a percentage or a fixed amount.
BusinessHRM shows the Subtotal, Discount, tax, Total Payment and Net Payable as you edit.

Invoice statuses

Status	Meaning
Draft	Saved but not yet finalized/sent.
Unpaid	Sent and awaiting payment.
Partial	Part of the amount has been paid.
Paid	Fully paid.
Pending confirmation	A contact submitted an offline payment that you still need to approve.
Canceled	The invoice was cancelled.

There is no separate "overdue" status — an unpaid invoice is overdue once its due date passes. A separate "sent" flag records whether the invoice has been emailed/marked as sent.

Sending an invoice to a contact

From the invoice detail page:

Send — emails the invoice to the contact.
Mark as Sent — records it as sent without emailing (available when it hasn't been sent yet).
Payment Link / Copy Payment Link — a public link the contact can open to view and pay the invoice without logging in.
Payment Reminder — sends a reminder for a sent, unpaid invoice.

When a contact opens their payment link, they see Pay Now options for whichever online gateways your company has activated (such as Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paystack, Flutterwave, Mollie, PayFast, Square or Authorize.Net), plus any offline methods.

Recording payments and tracking status

Use Add Payment on a sent invoice to record money received (see the Payments article).
As payments are recorded, the invoice moves automatically to Partial or Paid.
If a contact pays offline through their link, the invoice goes to Pending confirmation until you Approve it.

Download, print and other actions

Action	Notes
Download	Downloads the invoice as a PDF (using your chosen invoice template). To print, open the PDF and print from there.
Create Duplicate / Clone	Starts a new invoice pre-filled from this one.
Cancel	Sets the status to Canceled (available for an unpaid or draft invoice that isn't the first invoice).
Add Credit Note	Available once some payment has been received — see Credit Notes.
Edit	Available while the invoice is not paid/canceled and not part of a recurring schedule.
Delete	Available only for the most recent invoice while it is still Unpaid.
Upload file	Attach an external invoice file (available once paid).

Recurring invoices

To bill a contact automatically on a schedule, use a Recurring Invoice instead of a one-off invoice. See the dedicated Recurring Invoices article.

Permissions

View invoices — see invoices.
Add invoices — create invoices (and use Create Duplicate).
Edit invoices — edit invoices.
Delete invoices — delete invoices.
Add payments — record payments on invoices.
Link invoice bank account — show and choose a bank account on the invoice.

Contacts see a simplified view focused on viewing and paying their invoices; staff actions like send, cancel and reminders are hidden from them.

Tips

Use Save as Draft while you finalize the figures, then Save & Send to deliver it.
Set a default Payment Details record so your bank/payment instructions appear on every invoice automatically.
Use Create Duplicate for repeat one-off work that doesn't fit a recurring schedule.