AR Invoices (Accounts Receivable invoices) are the bills you send to your customers for the work your business has done. This guide walks a first-time user through the AR Invoices screen, how to create an invoice from start to finish, and what happens to an invoice as it moves from a rough draft to a paid bill.
Where to find AR Invoices
From the left sidebar, choose Finance. The Finance area opens on the AR Invoices tab. (The other tabs along the top — Payments, Cash & Credit, General Ledger — are separate finance tools.)
What you see on this screen
Area | What it does |
|---|---|
Create Invoice (top right) | Opens the form to build a brand-new invoice. |
Summary cards | At-a-glance totals across all your invoices: Outstanding (money still owed to you), Overdue (past their due date), Total Invoices, and 120+ Days (long-overdue balances). |
Status tabs | Filter the list by stage — All, Draft, Approved, Posted, Sent, Partially Paid, Paid, Overdue, Voided, Archived. Click a tab to show only invoices in that stage. |
Invoice list | Each row is one invoice, showing its number, the customer (Account), the Project, the invoice and due dates, its current Status, and the Total and Balance amounts. |
Click any invoice number, or single-click a row, to open that invoice. Click the small arrow at the start of a row to expand it and preview its line items without leaving the list.
Creating your first invoice
Click Create Invoice in the top-right corner. The invoice form opens.
Step 1 — Choose the customer and project
Account (required) — the customer you are billing. Start typing to search your accounts and pick one. If the account is tax-exempt, a Tax Exempt badge appears and the tax fields are turned off automatically.
Project (required) — the project this invoice is for. You must pick the account first; the project list then shows only that customer's projects. Choosing a project can pre-fill the tax rate from the project's settings.
Step 2 — Set the dates, terms, and tax
Invoice Date (required) — defaults to today. This is the date the invoice is issued.
Payment Terms — for example Net 30. The customer's default terms fill in automatically when you choose the account.
Due Date — calculated for you from the invoice date and the payment terms (Net 30 = 30 days later). You can override it by hand if needed.
Tax Rate (%) — the sales-tax percentage to apply. Leave it blank for no tax. (Hidden when the customer is tax-exempt.)
Step 3 — Add line items
Line items are the things you are charging for. Click Add Item to add a blank row, or Add Resource to pull an item in from your resource catalog (its price fills in for you).
For each line, fill in:
Description — what the charge is for.
Type — the kind of line item.
Revenue Account — the income account the charge is booked to (used when the invoice is posted to your General Ledger).
Completed — the date the work was finished, if you track it.
Qty and Unit Price — the quantity and price each. The Total for the line is calculated automatically.
The running Subtotal, Tax, and Total appear below the table as you type. To reorder lines, drag a row by the handle on its left. To remove a line, right-click it and choose Delete. Click a line to open its Line Item Notes in the panel on the right.
Every line needs a description and a unit price greater than zero before the invoice can be saved.
Step 4 — Add notes and attachments (optional)
Notes — use the Client tab for notes the customer will see on the invoice, and the Internal tab for private notes only your team sees.
Attachments — drag in supporting files (such as a signed work order or photos) to send along with the invoice.
Step 5 — Save the draft
Click Create Draft. Your invoice is saved as a Draft — nothing has been sent to the customer and nothing has hit your accounting yet. You can reopen a draft any time to keep editing it.
After it's created: once an invoice exists you'll see two more tabs at the top of the form — Recipients (who the invoice gets emailed to — pulled from the account's contacts, with billing contacts marked) and History (a timeline of everything that has happened to the invoice).
What happens after the draft — the invoice lifecycle
An invoice moves through a series of stages. You move it along by right-clicking the invoice in the list and choosing an action. The menu only enables the actions that are valid for the invoice's current stage, so you can't skip a step by mistake.
Stage | What it means | Typical next action |
|---|---|---|
Draft | Being prepared. Fully editable. Not visible to the customer. | Approve |
Approved | Reviewed and signed off, ready for accounting. | Post to GL (or Return to Draft to make more edits) |
Posted | Recorded in your General Ledger. The accounting entries now exist. | Send to Client |
Sent | Delivered to the customer (by email or customer portal). | Apply Payment as money arrives |
Partially Paid | Some, but not all, of the balance has been paid. | Apply Payment for the rest |
Paid | Paid in full. The balance is zero. | Archive |
The actions on the right-click menu
Edit — change the invoice (Draft invoices only).
Approve / Return to Draft — sign a draft off, or send an approved invoice back for more edits.
Post to GL / Unpost — record the invoice in your General Ledger, or reverse those entries if you posted it by mistake (you'll be asked for a reason).
Send to Client — email the invoice or share it through the customer portal. The list shows a count of how many times an invoice has been sent.
Apply Payment — record money received against the invoice. The status updates to Partially Paid or Paid automatically.
View Payment History — see every payment recorded on the invoice.
Void — cancel an invoice that should not have been issued (you'll be asked for a reason). A Paid or Archived invoice can't be voided.
Archive — tidy a fully-paid invoice out of your active list.
Duplicate — copy an existing invoice into a fresh draft — handy for recurring or near-identical bills.
Reports — open the invoice reports for the invoices you're currently viewing.
Working with several invoices at once: tick the checkboxes on multiple rows, then right-click. Actions like Approve, Post to GL, and Send to Client will apply to every eligible invoice in your selection and skip the ones that aren't ready.
Managing an invoice after it's created
Once a draft is approved, a handful of actions carry the invoice the rest of the way — into your accounting, out to the customer, and through to payment. Here's what each one does.
Post to GL — recording the invoice in your accounting
Right-click an Approved invoice and choose Post to GL. This is a single click — there's no form to fill in — but it's the moment the invoice becomes a real entry in your General Ledger. Behind the scenes the system writes a balanced accounting entry for you:
It debits Accounts Receivable for the full invoice total (the money the customer now owes you).
It credits Revenue for each line item (the income you've earned), grouped by the revenue account on each line.
If the invoice has sales tax, it credits Sales Tax for that amount.
If the invoice didn't have a number yet, posting assigns the next invoice number. After posting, the GL dot on the invoice row turns green and the status moves to Posted.
Posting needs an Accounts Receivable account and a revenue account to be set up. If one is missing, the system stops and tells you — your invoice stays a safe draft until it's sorted out. Posted by mistake? Use Unpost (you'll enter a reason) to reverse the accounting entries.
Send to Client — delivering the invoice
Once an invoice is Posted, right-click it and choose Send to Client.
Report Template — choose which invoice layout to attach as the PDF the customer receives.
Delivery Method — pick how it goes out:
Send to Client Portal — posts the invoice to the customer's online portal and emails them a notification. Only available when the account has portal access turned on.
Send via Email — emails the invoice directly. The recipient list is pre-filled from the account's billing contacts; you can add or remove email addresses, and edit the subject and message.
Click Send. The invoice moves to Sent, and the Delivery column on the list shows how it was delivered and how many times it has been sent.
Apply Payment — recording money received
When a customer pays, right-click the invoice and choose Apply Payment. The dialog shows the invoice's outstanding balance at the top, then lets you record the payment:
Payment Method — Check, ACH / EFT, Credit Card, or Wire Transfer. Choosing a method reveals the matching reference field (check number, ACH batch, wire confirmation, and so on).
Amount — how much was received. If it's less than the balance, the dialog flags it as a partial payment and shows what's left; if it's more, it warns you of the overpayment.
Payment Date and Notes — when it was received and any details worth keeping.
Apply Existing Deposit — a toggle for applying a deposit the customer already has on file, instead of recording new funds.
A small General Ledger Information panel previews which accounts the payment will affect, so you can see the accounting impact before you confirm. Click Apply to record it. The invoice's status updates on its own — to Partially Paid if some balance remains, or Paid once it's settled in full.
When applying one payment across several invoices at once, they must all belong to the same customer — the dialog will warn you if your selection mixes accounts.
View Payment History — seeing what's been paid
Right-click an invoice and choose View Payment History to see every payment recorded against it. The header shows the invoice Total, amount Paid, and remaining Balance, and the table lists each payment's date, method, reference number, status, notes, and amount. If you opened it for several invoices, you'll see each invoice's payments and a combined total at the bottom. It's read-only — a clear record for answering "has this been paid, and how?"
Void — cancelling an invoice
If an invoice should never have been issued, right-click it and choose Void.
You'll pick a Reason (required) and can add notes. Voiding is deliberate and can't be undone, so the dialog says so plainly. When you confirm:
If the invoice was already posted, its accounting entries are automatically reversed — so your General Ledger stays correct.
The balance is set to zero and the invoice moves to Void.
The void, and your reason, are recorded in the invoice's history.
A Paid or Archived invoice can't be voided. Use Void for billing mistakes; use Archive to simply tidy a finished, fully-paid invoice out of your active list.
Tips for getting started
Drafts are safe. Nothing is sent and nothing hits your accounting until you Post and Send — so create freely and tidy up before approving.
Let the dates do the work. Pick the account and the payment terms, and the due date calculates itself.
Use Duplicate for repeat billing instead of rebuilding similar invoices from scratch.
Check the summary cards at the top to keep an eye on what's Outstanding and Overdue at a glance.
Tax-exempt customers are handled for you — the tax fields switch off automatically when you choose one.
Common questions
Why can't I edit an invoice? Only Draft invoices are fully editable. Once an invoice is Approved or beyond, use the right-click actions to manage it. To edit again, choose Return to Draft from an Approved invoice.
I posted an invoice by accident — can I undo it? Yes. Right-click and choose Unpost; you'll enter a reason and the General Ledger entries are reversed.
What's the difference between Void and Archive? Void cancels an invoice that should never have been billed. Archive simply removes a fully-paid invoice from your active list to keep things tidy.
How do I record a customer's payment? Right-click the invoice and choose Apply Payment. The status moves to Partially Paid or Paid on its own as the balance comes down.
Related topics
Projects — invoices are billed against a project.
Accounts — your customers and their contacts and payment terms.
Cash & Credit Manager — where posted invoices appear in your ledger.