Invoices

Overview

Invoices are how you bill your clients in Beeswax. Each invoice belongs to a project and is allocated to a client business. Invoices track money owed to you — the amounts your clients need to pay for work completed.

Every invoice has a unique sequential number generated automatically by the system. You can customise the number if needed.

Invoices follow a workflow from creation through to payment:

1. Create the invoice and add line items
2. Finalise to lock it for sending
3. Send the PDF to your client via email or mark as sent
4. Track payments until the invoice is fully paid

Invoices can also be created from templates, duplicated from existing invoices, generated from completed time entries, or converted from approved quotes.

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Creating an Invoice

Click New Invoice from within a project to open the invoice creation form.

Fields

Field	Required	Description
Title	Yes	A short description of what the invoice is for
Date	Yes	The invoice date (defaults to today)
Company	Yes	The client business this invoice is for. Start typing to autocomplete from your existing businesses.
Project	Yes	The project this invoice belongs to
Number	Yes	Auto-generated sequential number. Can be edited.
Content	No	Additional description or notes visible on the invoice
Footer	No	Footer text displayed at the bottom of the PDF
Tax Inclusive	No	Toggle whether line item amounts include tax or are tax-exclusive
Default Transaction Account	No	The default income account applied to new line items
Default Tax	No	The default tax rate applied to new line items

Creation Options

• From Time Entries — When creating a new invoice, you can import completed time entries from the project as line items
• From Template — Select a saved template to pre-populate the invoice with predefined line items and settings
• From Quote — Approved quotes can be converted to invoices (see Converting from Quote)

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Line Items & Transaction Groups

Invoices use a two-level structure for line items: Transaction Groups contain one or more Transactions (individual line items).

Transaction Groups

A transaction group is a section heading that organises related line items. For example, you might have groups called "Design Services", "Development", and "Hosting".

• Each group has a name and a position (display order)
• Groups can be reordered via drag-and-drop
• Each group shows a subtotal of its line items

Individual Line Items (Transactions)

Each line item within a group has:

Field	Description
Description	What the line item is for
Quantity	Number of units (defaults to 1)
Amount	Unit price
Tax	Tax rate to apply (selected from your configured tax rates)
Account	The income account category for this line item

Tax Calculation

Beeswax supports two tax modes:

• Tax Exclusive — Line item amounts do not include tax. Tax is calculated on top and added to the total.
• Tax Inclusive — Line item amounts already include tax. Tax is calculated as a portion of the amount.

Toggle the Tax Inclusive checkbox on the invoice to switch modes. This affects all line items.

System Transactions

When an invoice is saved, the system automatically creates accounting entries:

• Trade Debtors — An asset entry recording the amount owed to you
• Tax Collected — A liability entry for tax collected on the invoice

These system transactions are hidden from the invoice display but appear in your accounting ledger.

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Invoice States & Workflow

Invoices move through a series of states as they progress from creation to payment.

State	Description
Draft	New invoice. Fully editable. Not yet in the accounting ledger.
Finalised	Assigned an invoice number and entered into the accounting ledger. Sending and payment options become available.
PDF Sent	PDF has been emailed to the client.
Marked Sent	Manually marked as sent (without emailing).
First Notice	First payment reminder has been sent.
Second Notice	Second payment reminder has been sent.
Final Notice	Final payment reminder has been sent.
Partial Paid	One or more payments received, but balance remains.
Paid	Fully paid. Invoice is complete.

Key Rules

• Line items become non-editable once a payment has been recorded (Partial Paid or Paid state)
• Admin users cannot change the transaction account or tax on line items — these are set by the transaction template and can only be modified by Owner, Super Admin, or Accountant roles
• Payment states (Partial Paid, Paid) are automatically set when payments are recorded
• The notice states (First, Second, Final) are set when you send follow-up emails

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Finalising an Invoice

Finalising locks an invoice and prepares it for sending and payment.

What Happens When You Finalise

• The invoice is assigned a sequential invoice number (if not already set)
• The invoice date is set (defaults to today if not provided)
• The invoice enters your accounting ledger (system transactions for Trade Debtors and Tax Collected are created)
• Sending and payment options become available

Requirements

• The invoice total must be zero or positive (non-negative)
• The project must not be locked
• The invoice must be in Draft state

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Sending & Emailing

Once finalised, you can send the invoice PDF to your client.

Email PDF

1. Click the Send menu and select Email PDF
2. Enter recipient email addresses (TO field)
3. Optionally add CC recipients
4. Write a custom message to include in the email
5. Preview the PDF before sending
6. Click Send

The system attaches the invoice PDF and delivers it to all recipients. Unknown email addresses are automatically added as contacts in your account.

Mark as Sent

If you deliver the invoice outside of Beeswax (e.g. printed or sent via another tool), you can manually mark it as sent:

• Click Mark as Sent from the Send menu
• This updates the state without sending an email
• You can remove the sent status later if needed

Payment Reminder Notices

Invoices support First Notice, Second Notice, and Final Notice states for tracking payment follow-ups:

• First Notice — First payment reminder
• Second Notice — Second reminder
• Final Notice — Final demand for payment

Re-sending the PDF from a notice state advances the invoice to the next notice level.

PDF Layout Options

When downloading or emailing the PDF, you can choose from several layouts:

Layout	Description
Everything	Full detail — all line items, quantities, amounts, and tax
No Line Item Details	Hides individual transaction descriptions
No Line Qty or Amounts	Shows line items but hides quantity and unit price columns
Total with Details	Shows the total with supporting detail
Total without Details	Shows only the invoice total

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Payments & Remittances

Payments against invoices are tracked through remittances.

Recording a Payment

Each payment (remittance) records:

Field	Required	Description
Amount	Yes	The payment amount
Date	Yes	When the payment was received
Bank Account	Yes	Which bank account received the payment

How Payments Work

• When you record a payment, the system creates an IncomePayment journal entry for accounting
• The invoice's payable amount decreases by the payment amount
• The invoice's paid amount increases accordingly

Payment States

• If the payment equals the remaining balance → invoice moves to Paid
• If the payment is less than the remaining balance → invoice moves to Partial Paid
• If a payment is deleted and no payments remain → invoice reverts to Finalised

Important Notes

• You cannot delete an invoice that has payments recorded against it
• Payments can be linked to bank statement line items for reconciliation
• Admin-level users cannot approve payments — only Owner, Super Admin, and Accountant can

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Recurring Invoices

Recurring invoices allow you to automatically generate invoices on a monthly schedule.

Setting Up a Recurring Invoice

1. Create and finalise the template invoice with your standard line items
2. Click Schedule from the invoice menu
3. Configure the recurring settings:

Setting	Description
Start Date	When to begin generating invoices
End Date	When to stop (leave empty for indefinite)
Recipients	Select contacts to receive the auto-generated invoice via email

How It Works

• The system generates a new invoice on the same day each month (based on the template invoice's date)
• The generated invoice title includes the billing period (e.g. "Invoice [13 Jan - 12 Feb 2026]" or "Invoice [Feb 2026]")
• Each generated invoice is automatically finalised
• If recipients are configured, the PDF is emailed automatically
• Generated invoices are flagged as auto-generated and linked back to the source template

Month Boundary Handling

If the template invoice date is the 29th, 30th, or 31st, the system adjusts for shorter months (e.g. February uses the 28th).

Managing Recurring Invoices

• You can view all active recurring invoices from the Recurring Invoices page
• Edit the start/end dates or recipients at any time
• Deactivate a recurring invoice to stop future generation
• The system automatically deactivates when the end date is reached and sends a notification

Important Notes

• Recurring invoices are monthly only — no weekly or quarterly option
• Only available for invoices (not expenses or quotes)
• Admin role users cannot manage recurring invoices — only Owner, Super Admin, and Accountant can

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Templates & Duplication

Save as Template

Any invoice can be saved as a template for reuse:

1. Click the invoice menu and select Save as Template
2. The invoice is copied to your account's template library
3. Templates preserve line items, tax settings, and account defaults

Import from Template

When creating a new invoice:

1. Select a template from the template dropdown
2. The new invoice is pre-populated with the template's line items and settings
3. You can then modify any fields before saving

Duplicate

To create a copy of an existing invoice:

1. Click the invoice menu and select Duplicate
2. A new draft invoice is created with all the same details
3. The duplicate gets a new sequential number and today's date

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Converting from Quote

Quotes can be converted into invoices.

How to Convert

1. Open the quote
2. Click Make Invoice from the quote menu
3. Confirm the conversion

What Happens

• A new invoice is created as a deep copy of the quote
• All transaction groups and line items are copied
• The company, project, and content are preserved
• The new invoice gets a fresh invoice number and today's date
• The invoice starts in Draft state
• The original quote remains unchanged

Important Notes

• Quotes can be converted from any state — finalisation is not required
• You can convert the same quote to an invoice multiple times
• Each conversion creates a separate, independent invoice
• An activity log entry records the conversion

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Import & Export

Importing Invoices

You can bulk-import invoices from a CSV file:

1. Click Import from the invoices list
2. Upload a CSV file
3. The system recognises "Sale Order" and "Tax Invoice" rows as invoices
4. Imported invoices include the invoice number, line items, and amounts

PDF Export

Download any finalised invoice as a PDF:

1. Click the Download menu on the invoice
2. Select a layout option (Everything, No Details, Total Only, etc.)
3. The PDF is generated and downloaded

Xero Integration

If your account is connected to Xero:

• Invoices can be synced to Xero automatically
• The system tracks sync status and prevents duplicate syncing
• Payment updates from Xero webhooks are detected to avoid sync loops

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How-to Guides

Create an Invoice

1. Navigate to the desired Project
2. In the Money section, select Invoices
3. Click New Invoice
4. Add line items or groups
5. Add Line Items under each group

Note: Groups enhance readability and enable Milestone creation.

Edit an Invoice

1. Open the invoice by clicking its ID or pencil icon
2. Click fields to modify — changes save automatically
3. Toggle Show Details for line item editing
4. Preview and send as PDF

Delete an Invoice

1. Locate the Invoice
2. Click the Delete icon in page actions
3. Confirm deletion

Note: Invoices with payments applied cannot be deleted. Remove the payment first (you may need to unreconcile the payment before removing it).

Preview an Invoice

1. Find the invoice
2. From Page Tools, click the Eye icon
3. Choose a display option: Everything, No Line Item Amounts, No Line Item Details, or Total Only

Schedule an Invoice

1. Open an existing Invoice or create a new one
2. Click the calendar icon in Page Tools
3. Set scheduling preferences and save

Note: The stop-after date is a future cutoff. The scheduled range displays in the invoice title.

Duplicate an Invoice

1. Locate the Invoice (via Global Search, Money Search, or Project)
2. Click the Duplicate icon in page actions

Create an Invoice from a Quote

1. Navigate to the Project with the Quote
2. Click the Duplicate icon in Page Actions
3. The system transfers all Quote information into a new Invoice (Draft status)
4. Make adjustments and finalise

Apply a Payment

1. In Who Owes Me, select the invoice checkbox
2. Click Apply Payment — the full amount auto-populates (adjust for partial payments)
3. Click Save

Invoice Creation Methods

Invoices can be created in several ways:

• Manual — Create from scratch within a project
• From Closed Tasks — Import completed time entries as line items
• From Template — Use a saved template to pre-populate line items
• Duplicated — Clone an existing invoice
• From Quote — Convert an approved quote into an invoice

Invoice States

State	Description
Draft	Editable, not yet in the accounting ledger
Finalised	Gets an invoice ID, payment is allowed, enters the accrual ledger
Sent	Activity recorded when emailed to client
Resent	Used when re-sending the invoice
Part Paid	One or more payments received, balance remains
Paid	Fully paid, invoice is complete

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Permissions by Role

Different roles have different levels of access to invoice features.

Action	Owner	Super Admin	Admin	Accountant	General User	Client
View invoices	All	All	All	All	No	No
Create invoices	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit invoices	All	All	All	All	No	No
Edit line item account/tax	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Finalise invoices	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Send/Email PDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Record payments	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Manage recurring	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Delete invoices	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Import invoices	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
View own statements	—	—	—	—	No	Yes

Key Notes

• Owner and Super Admin have full access to all invoice operations.
• Admin can manage invoices but cannot approve payments, manage recurring invoices, or change line item account/tax fields (these are set by the transaction template).
• Accountant has full access to financial features but cannot approve payments or manage account settings.
• General Users cannot view or manage invoices. They do not have access to financial documents.
• Clients cannot view individual invoices. They can only see outstanding statements for their own business via the Statements feature.
• Contractors have limited access focused on task management rather than financial documents.
• Invoices in a locked project cannot be created or modified.