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How to Set Up and Manage Recurring Invoices

In this article:

Background

Accounting Premium customers can set up recurring invoices to be automatically created and emailed to your customers at a set frequency of time, either weekly, monthly, or annually.  This is helpful when you regularly invoice your customers for the same products and services.

💡Your customer must also have at least one email address on their record in order to send the invoice emails. If the customer has no email, the invoices will be automatically created, but not emailed.  If you have added more than one email address on the customer record, the reminder email will automatically be sent to all email addresses on their record

Want to create similar invoices for the customer or copy an invoice for another customer without setting up recurring invoices? Learn more about duplicating invoices when you read our article, “Invoicing Your Customers.”

How to Set Up Recurring Invoices

    1. Go to Accounting > Receivables > Invoices
    2. Find the invoice you want to set up as recurring
    3. Click the “cog” icon at the end of the row. 
    4. Click “Create Recurring.”  
      • You can also create a recurring invoice from the Invoice Detail report after you create a new invoice.
    5. Select a Start Date.  The recurring schedule will be set from this date.  
      • The earliest date you can select is tomorrow, as this is when the automatic task will begin.
    6. Choose how often you want this invoice created and emailed.  Note the customer must have an email address on their record in order for Patriot to email their invoices.
      • Weekly: Choose a day of the week
      • Monthly:  The invoice will be created and emailed on same day of each month as the start date.  Note if the Start Date is either the 29th, 30th, or 31st, invoices will not be created and sent in months that do not have those days. This affects February, April, June, September, and November.
      • Last Day of the Month: The invoice will be created and sent whenever the last of the month falls.  For example, the invoice would be created and sent on February 28th (for non-leap years), April 30th, May 31st, etc.
      • Yearly: The invoice will be sent yearly on the same month and day as the Start Date.
    7. Choose the Repeat Schedule:
      • Until Specific Date:  Select the date you want the recurring invoice cycle to end.
      • Until Number of Invoices Created:  Enter the number of total invoices to be created.  The recurring cycle will stop when the total number of invoices has been reached.
      • Forever:  The recurring invoices will continue indefinitely until you stop them.
    8. Add payment options (if applicable): If you integrate with Stripe, you can choose to accept credit card payments or ACH payments on your recurring invoices by checking the appropriate boxes.

    How to Edit or Stop Recurring Invoices

    1. Go to Settings > Accounting Settings > Recurring Invoices
    2. All of your scheduled recurring invoices will be displayed.  
    3. Click “Edit Schedule” to edit the schedule for creating and emailing an invoice,
      • Note, if you have chosen “Until Number of Invoices Created,” you will see only the remaining number of invoices. 
      • This number may be smaller than when you first created the schedule.
    4. Click “Edit Template” for edits to the content of an invoice template, such as changing the products or pricing
    5. Uncheck the “Active” box to immediately stop a recurring invoice.

    How to View Recurring Invoice History

    • Go to Accounting > Customers > Invoices
    • Selected the invoice and go to “Invoice Status History.”
    • The Invoice Status History shows when the recurring invoice was first “Saved” then “Emailed.”

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