Recurring invoice software

A recurring invoice is the same invoice issued to the same client on a fixed schedule, such as the 1st of every month, for work that repeats at an agreed price. You write it once and choose how often it repeats; each period then gets its own invoice with a new number, a new issue date and its own due date.

It suits services billed at a steady rate: a monthly retainer, a weekly cleaning visit, a quarterly maintenance agreement, a set number of lessons each term. Every invoice is a complete document your client can open, download and pay, so their records and yours match period by period, and nobody has to remember to send it.

Recurring invoices and subscription billing both run on a schedule, and they suit different businesses. Subscription billing platforms charge a stored card for plans, seats and usage, the setup software companies run. Recurring invoices suit service businesses: your client receives a clear invoice each period and pays it through the payment link on that invoice.

Invosmith turns one invoice into a schedule: on each date it creates the next invoice, sends it or saves it as a draft, and keeps it in the schedule's history.

Monthly invoicing tends to slip in the same places. The invoice goes out late because the month got busy. Last month's file gets copied with the old date or period still on it. A busy client gets billed twice, or not at all. A schedule takes the copying out of the job. The client, the line items, the amount and the payment terms are saved once, and every new invoice takes the next invoice number and the right dates on its own.

Open a schedule to see every invoice it has created, with the number, date, amount and status of each, so you can tell at a glance which months are paid and which are still open. Business clients get the same layout, terms and payment link every period, with a new invoice number their accounts team can file.

Setting up a recurring invoice comes down to five choices: what to bill, how often, when it starts and ends, what happens to each invoice, and how your client pays.

Billing several clients? Give each client their own schedule. Each one keeps its own amount, dates, payment terms and delivery choice, so a client billed on the 1st and sent automatically can sit beside one billed on the 15th as a draft you check first.

Detailed schedule behavior should be checked in the current product before setup.

Each schedule either sends its invoices to your client automatically or saves them as drafts for you to review.

You can run both side by side: fixed retainers on Send, and clients with variable extras on drafts.

Every invoice Invosmith sends carries an online payment link: your client opens the invoice, pays by card, and the money goes straight to your own Stripe account. You pay Stripe's standard rate. We don't add a cent.

Card payments are recorded on the invoice as they arrive, so a paid month shows as paid without you touching it. For a bank transfer or cash, record the payment against the invoice; part payments keep the remaining balance open.

You can see when each invoice has been viewed, so you know it reached your client.

Every recurring invoice also appears in your invoice list alongside the invoices you send one at a time, so one list shows everything that is still owed. When a client falls behind anyway, here is what to do about a past due invoice, from the first reminder to the last.

A schedule stays under your control: pause it, resume it or stop it at any time, and every invoice it has already created stays in your records.

Pause a schedule while a contract is on hold or a client is away, then resume it when the work restarts. Stop it when the agreement ends; if you set an end date or a number of invoices, it stops on its own.

When the price changes for good, such as a new rate from January, stop the old schedule and start a new one from that date, so every invoice before and after the change matches what you agreed.

Exact cadence options, date handling, draft-versus-send behavior, delivery, pause controls and plan limits should be confirmed in the product; this page does not promise a particular setting or outcome.

Recurring invoices suit any business that bills the same client for the same service on a regular schedule.

A digital marketing retainer bills a fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope, such as a number of posts, campaigns or hours, with extra work priced separately. Put the fixed fee on a schedule set to send, and invoice the extras on their own, or set the schedule to drafts and add them each month.

Cleaners billing regular visits can lay out each line with the cleaning invoice template, which includes a sample month of commercial cleaning. Lawn care businesses that bill by the visit can start from the landscaping invoice template in PDF or Word. Freelancers working to a monthly agreement will find four filled examples in the invoice template for freelancers.

Good recurring invoice software lets you choose, schedule by schedule, whether invoices send themselves, gives every invoice a way to pay, and keeps the price flat as you add clients.

Clients who ask for a single summary of what they owe across several months can be sent a statement of account.