Set up a recurring invoice

A recurring invoice repeats an invoice you already issued, for example a monthly service fee. On each due date Books issues a new invoice with the same customer, lines and terms.

Review before issuing: Select Save generated invoices as drafts before saving the schedule. Each due date then creates a draft and advances the schedule without posting to the accounts or customer balance. Open the draft in Books → Invoices to review and issue it. The automatic issuing behavior described below applies when this option is off. Draft schedules cannot use automatic emailing.

Before you start

• You need the Books right Manage sales documents and payments.
• Issue the first invoice normally. Only invoices without catalogue items (free-text lines) can repeat.

Steps

1. Open the issued invoice and select Recurring invoices.
2. Type a Name for the schedule, for example "Office cleaning, monthly".
3. Set the Next date: the date of the first repeated invoice.
4. Set Repeat every and the Unit: Day, Week, Month or Year. For example 3 and Month for every quarter.
5. Set an End date (optional) if the schedule should stop.
6. Optionally select Email each issued invoice automatically. The source invoice must have a valid customer email and your business must have a public document address configured.
7. Select Save · Active.

Manage your schedules

• Open Books → Recurring invoices to see every schedule with its next date.
• Select Pause to stop future invoices, and Resume to start again.
• Select Issue next due invoice to issue a due invoice now instead of waiting.
• Select Edit to change the dates or the interval.

Good to know

• With automatic emailing switched on, each issued invoice is queued with its secure viewing link. Otherwise, send it yourself: see Send an invoice or quote.
• The schedule shows the latest email status. Temporary failures are retried in the background; Retry delivery checks again immediately. Email failure never creates another invoice or stops the next scheduled date.
• If delivery cannot be confirmed, automatic retries stop to avoid sending twice. Check with the customer before sending again from the invoice.
• Pausing stops new occurrences. Emails already queued for issued invoices still complete. Turning Books off stops both invoice generation and delivery.
• A schedule set to the 31st, or to 29 February, keeps that day: in shorter months it uses the last day of the month.
• If the date falls in a locked month, Books leaves the invoice as a draft for you to check. Cancelling that draft skips that one date.
• An invoice in another currency waits as a draft until you enter that day's exchange rate. Books never reuses an old rate.
• Repeated invoices keep the prices, salesperson and cost centres of the schedule. Price changes in your catalogue or customer price lists do not change them.
• The 13-week forecast counts upcoming recurring invoices as money coming in: see Money in and out and the cash forecast.
• For subscription billing with plans and renewals, see the Subscriptions app.