Recurring invoices
Bill repeat work on a schedule
Set up the retainer once and let MetroPay raise each period's invoice on schedule. Every one arrives as a draft you can check, or is sent for you once an owner switches automatic sending on.
Off until you turn it onRecurring profiles create drafts on their own. Automatic sending is off until an owner turns it on for the workspace.
The problem
The invoice you send every month is the one you forget
Retainers and repeat packages are the most predictable income a service business has, and the easiest to invoice late. The first of the month arrives, other work is louder, and the invoice goes out on the ninth. A schedule remembers so you do not have to.
Step by step
How it works, in three steps
Create the profile
Customer, lines, payment term, how often, when to start and, if you like, when to stop.
Let the schedule run
On each due date a draft invoice appears, numbered in your sequence, with the period in its notes.
Send it, or let it send
Review and send the draft yourself, or switch automatic sending on and only look when something is unusual.
Schedules
Any interval, a start, and an optional end
A profile repeats every so many days, weeks, months or years from its start date. Give it an end date or a maximum number of invoices, or leave it running. Pause it for a quiet month and resume it later without losing the lines.
- Every day, week, month or year, times any interval
- Start date, optional end date, optional maximum number of periods
- Pause and resume; missed periods are raised when the schedule catches up
Drafts first
Each period arrives as a draft, until you decide otherwise
By default nothing is emailed. The generated invoice sits in your drafts with the period noted, so a price change or a paused project is caught before the customer sees it. When you trust the schedule, an owner turns automatic sending on for the workspace and marks the profiles that should use it.
- Drafts are numbered in your invoice sequence, never a separate one
- Automatic sending is a workspace switch, off by default, plus a per-profile choice
- A per-run cap keeps a misconfigured schedule from sending a flood
In practice
A practical example
Cedar Row Interiors keeps Northline Studio on a $900.00 monthly retainer. Jordan creates a profile that runs on the first of each month with Net 15 terms. On the first, a draft appears; Jordan glances at it and sends it. After three quiet months, Jordan switches automatic sending on, and the retainer invoice goes out on its own from then on.
Northline Studio is a fictional business; none of these figures are real.
Outcomes
What you get
- Retainers and packages are invoiced on the day, every time
- Drafts first, so nothing leaves without a look until you choose
- Missed periods are caught up rather than lost
- Pause a profile for a quiet month and resume it later
- Automatic sending when you are ready, capped so it cannot run away
What it does not do
- It does not send anything automatically until an owner turns that on; each period arrives as a draft
- It does not charge a saved card; the customer pays each invoice from its page
- It does not prorate a partial first period; adjust the first invoice by hand
Questions about recurring invoices
Create your first invoice in minutes
Free to use today, with no card on file and no trial clock. Add a customer, send the first invoice, and the rest of the workspace is there when you need it.