Invoices, part payments and getting it into the ledger.

Section 01How to do it

1. 01

   Raise it from the job, not a blank page

   Pick the quote, inspection or repair job in the document builder, and its lines come across. Nothing is typed again, so nothing drifts.

2. 02

   Add a pay-now link

   A Stripe card payment makes paying one tap, not a phone call and a bank transfer somebody has to spot.

3. 03

   Record part payments as they arrive

   A part-paid invoice shows what has arrived and what is still owed. Marked “unpaid”, it would mislead everybody.

4. 04

   Let chasing run

   Reminders on your own schedule until it is paid, then they stop by themselves.

5. 05

   Reconcile without digging

   Paid status syncs to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreshBooks. The Stripe payment that settled it is recorded against the invoice, so finance does not rebuild the story from bank statements.

Section 02What the app actually does here

• Invoices are made in the document builder from an inspection, a repair job, a fire door quote, or from scratch. The client, the site and the priced lines come across
• Repair quotes and invoices print a table per door, with a row per fix showing materials, labour and total
• An invoice from a supply-and-fit door quote lists each door with its specification and the parts its price is made of
• A document you stop part way through is kept as a draft, out of your invoice list until it is issued. Unfinished invoices are listed so you can carry on
• A line can carry a negative price to take an amount off. The total never goes below zero, and VAT is charged only on what is left
• An invoice can be numbered and saved without emailing it, so a client with no email address can still be invoiced
• The VAT rate an invoice was issued at is recorded on it, so changing your default rate never rewrites an old document
• Card payments go into your own Stripe account, not a platform wallet
• A pay-now link is attached to the invoice PDF itself
• Part payments are recorded as they arrive, and the invoice shows as part paid
• Bank transfers and card-machine payments can be recorded by hand
• An invoice can be marked sent by hand, if you send the PDF yourself
• Chasing runs on a grace period, a gap between reminders and a maximum number you set
• A default VAT rate is set once in Settings and used on new invoices — 20% until you change it
• Payment terms are your own wording, set once and printed at the foot of every invoice
• Taking card payments is optional — connect Stripe when you want it, or invoice and reconcile by hand

Section 03What goes wrong

Every one of these has cost somebody real time. They are cheap to avoid and expensive to unwind.

Section 04Questions

Section 05Related