Drafting an invoice

Start an invoice for a customer or a job, add its lines, claim milestones and set up recurring drafts.

This article is being updated.

Invoices live in Invoicing, on the Invoices tab. Invoicing is on for every business.

The invoices list

The tiles across the top show All invoices, Issued, Overdue and Paid this month. Below them:

Search by invoice number, customer, reference or notes.
Use the filter button to filter by Status or Issue date. If your role can see contacts, you can also pick a customer to see only their invoices.
Select a column heading to sort. The newest invoice is at the top by default.

If your role can't see amounts, the figures read Restricted.

If your role can raise invoices and see sell prices, Run T&M billing bills time and costs across your time and materials jobs in one run, the way Bill time does for one job (below).

Start an invoice

Go to Invoicing → Invoices and select New invoice.
Under Customer, search for the person or organisation you're billing. If they aren't in your contacts yet and your role allows it, select + New contact at the foot of the search list. Once you save them, they're picked for you.
If the invoice is for a job, pick it under Job. If the job has more than one scope, pick the scope too. For a one-off invoice, leave it at Select job or pick No job from the list.

Nothing is saved until you pick the customer, and the scope if the job needs one. Then the invoice is saved as a draft and opens on its own page. A draft has no number yet, so the page reads Draft (number on issue).

You only see New invoice if your role can raise invoices.

Start an invoice from a job

If your business uses Jobs, open the job. On a Project, go to its Invoicing tab. The tab shows if your role can see the job's financials. It lists the job's invoices and payment milestones by scope. A Quick job has no tabs - its invoice shows in its Price section instead.

Select New invoice. If the job has more than one scope, you can select Invoice for this scope beside the one you want instead. The job is filled in for you, and so is the customer when the job has one.

If the customer has paid booking deposits, Prevarro first shows Booking deposits. Each ticked deposit comes off the invoice as a line. Untick one to keep it for a later invoice, then select Continue. Cancel creates nothing.

Bill a job's time

On a time and materials job, the Invoicing tab also has Bill time, if your role can raise invoices and see sell prices. It bills the job's approved, unbilled time, and its unbilled costs, as one draft invoice per job scope.

Select Bill time. Check the Period, and change the date it bills time up to if you need to. If the job has no one to bill, pick the Customer.
Under Review time entries, untick any time or Costs you don't want to bill, then select Next.
Under Confirm, check the drafts and select Create draft. The button counts the drafts when there's more than one. Any booking deposits the customer has paid are listed under Booking deposits. Ticked ones come off the first draft.

Each draft shows Draft created with Open draft beside it. Select Done to close.

Fill in the draft

A draft saves as you go. The footer shows Saving..., then Saved.

At the top of the page:

Invoice date shows today and Due date follows the payment terms, until you pick a date yourself. To go back to the default, clear the date.
Customer reference - select Edit to add the customer's reference, such as their order number, and choose its Reference type.
Payment terms - the terms the due date follows, marked (from customer) or (default). A customer's own terms are set on their contact record. On a draft billed to a job, the job's own terms apply.
Job - while the invoice is a draft, you can change the job or clear it. A draft you opened from a job stays with that job.

Add lines

Select Add invoice line.
Choose Manual line to type one in, or From price book to pick one of your price book items. On a draft billing a time and materials job's scope, Add costs and From time entries bring in the scope's unbilled costs and time.
Fill in the Description, Qty and unit price, and pick the Tax rate or No tax.

The price headings say whether you enter prices excluding or including tax, such as Unit price (excl. GST). That follows the Our prices include tax setting in Settings → General. The totals under the lines show the tax and the Total.

You can change the order of the lines. Remove a line with the cross at the end of its row. Select Undo if you removed it by mistake.

If your role can't see sell prices, the lines can't be edited.

Below the lines, add Notes for the customer, Internal notes for your team, and files under Attachments. The side panel holds the invoice's activity and comments.

Scope ceiling warnings

When a draft bills a job scope, a banner warns you if it's close to the scope ceiling, uses up what's left, or would go over it. Once the draft uses up what's left or would go over, and your role can add variations, the banner offers Add variation, which opens the job's scope so you can add more. A similar banner shows when the invoice draws on a customer purchase order.

Claim milestones

The Payment milestones tab lists the payment milestones on your jobs' scopes.

When a milestone is ready, select Mark claimable. It shows as Ready to bill.
Select Claim on the milestone, or tick several and use the Claim button above the list, which shows how many you've ticked. The ticked milestones must all be for one customer. If they aren't, no button shows, only a note asking you to select payment milestones from one customer. To claim only some of a milestone, open the arrow beside its Claim and choose Claim part.

If the customer has paid booking deposits, Booking deposits shows first, as it does for a new invoice from a job. Prevarro creates the draft invoices and opens the last one. Claiming needs a role that can raise invoices and see sell prices.

Retention

Retention holds back a share of each progress claim on a scope, released later by key dates. To use it, turn on Retentions in the Progress claims card of Invoicing's settings.

Then, on a fixed-price job's Invoicing tab, each scope's payment schedule shows its retention. If your role can change the scope's ceiling, select Retention: none (or the retention already set), enter the Retention (%) and, if you like, a Cap (ex-tax) (optional), and select Save. Clear retention removes it.

A claim invoice on that scope shows the amount held as Less retention held in its totals.

Recurring drafts

If your role can raise invoices, a draft billed to a job can become a template for regular drafts.

Select Set as recurring beside the draft's status.
Pick the Frequency - Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly or Quarterly - and the day it falls on.
Select Enable recurring.

Each period a new draft is created with this invoice's lines. The first one comes on the next due date, never backdated. Only the lines you added by hand carry over. Lines that came from somewhere else, such as a milestone or time, are left out. If the draft has any, a confirm lists them before you set the schedule - select Proceed to carry the hand-added lines only, or Cancel.

To stop, select the Template pill on the template, which also shows its frequency, then Disable recurring. Under Stop drafting, choose Now, At the end of the current period or On a date, and confirm with Disable recurring.

Discard a draft

Open the draft's menu (the three dots at the top of the page, or beside Send at the foot on a phone) and select Discard draft, then confirm. The draft leaves your invoices list. It was never issued, so nothing was sent.