Invoicing

Invoices are the core of the Billing module. They represent a request for payment sent to a contact or company for goods and services. concorbit handles the full invoice lifecycle, from creation and line item configuration through sending, payment recording, and PDF generation.

Invoice Lifecycle

Every invoice progresses through a series of statuses:

£0 invoice lifecycle

A £0 invoice (totalling exactly zero, for example a fully-discounted trial conversion) is a real case the lifecycle has to handle. The rule, enforced by an Invoice::saving hook:

• When a fresh invoice is saved with total_amount = 0, the status is promoted to paid on the spot and paid_at is stamped. No ledger row is written (there is no money to settle).

• When an invoice's total is edited back down to zero, the same promote happens.

• When a paid £0 invoice's total is edited back up above zero, the status is demoted to sent and paid_at is cleared. This is the £0 lifecycle's symmetric path.

The hook only fires on concorbit-governed invoices. AT-governed and QB-governed invoices are left alone, AT or QB owns their paid state.

Governance gate

invoices.governance is captured at creation and decides whose lifecycle applies to the row:

• concorbit: the default for natively-created invoices. The full lifecycle above applies.

• autotask: AT owns the mutable state. Every AutotaskInvoiceSync pass hard-sets the status from AT's flags. concorbit-side actions (record payment, void, refund) refuse on the row.

• quickbooks: QB owns the lifecycle. concorbit refuses payment writes on the row. AT wins over QB if both are linked.

Recording a payment, voiding, or refunding through concorbit's UI on a non-concorbit-governed invoice is refused with an explicit error. Do those actions in the system that owns the invoice and let the next sync pull mirror the result. See Autotask: Governance for the flip that moves a contract's invoices to concorbit.

Creating an Invoice

1. Navigate to Invoices in the sidebar.

2. Click New Invoice.

3. Fill in the invoice details:

   • Contact: Select the contact being invoiced (from CRM).

   • Company: Optionally link the invoice to a company.

   • Net terms: Payment terms in days (e.g. 14 for Net 14). The due date is calculated from the issue date.

   • Currency: Defaults to your workspace currency.

4. Add line items (see "Line Items" below).

5. Add optional notes and terms.

6. Click Save as Draft.

Line Items

Invoice line items represent the goods or services being invoiced. Each line item contains:

Adding Products as Line Items

You can add line items from your product catalogue:

1. In the line items section, click Add Product.

2. Search for and select a product.

3. The product's name, price, and default tax rate are populated automatically.

4. Adjust the quantity as needed.

Custom Line Items

You can also add custom line items that are not in your product catalogue:

1. Click Add Item.

2. Enter the description, quantity, and unit price manually.

3. Select a tax rate.

Tax Calculation

Tax is calculated per line item:

1. Each line item's subtotal is calculated: quantity x unit price.

2. The tax rate assigned to the line item is applied to the subtotal.

3. The invoice totals aggregate across all line items.

The invoice displays:

• Subtotal: Sum of all line item totals before tax.

• Discount: Any discount applied (if applicable).

• Tax: Total tax across all line items.

• Total: Subtotal - discount + tax.

See Tax Configuration for details on setting up tax rates.

Invoice Numbering

concorbit auto-generates sequential invoice numbers in the format INV-00001, INV-00002, etc. Numbers are unique per workspace and generated using a database lock to prevent duplicates, even under concurrent access.

The numbering sequence is continuous and cannot be manually overridden. If invoice INV-00005 is voided, the next invoice will still be INV-00006.

Due Dates and Net Terms

The due date is calculated from the issue date plus the net terms:

• Net 7: Due 7 days after issue.

• Net 14: Due 14 days after issue.

• Net 30: Due 30 days after issue.

You can also set a custom number of days. The due date is displayed on the invoice and determines when it transitions to Overdue status.

Sending an Invoice

Via Email

1. Open a draft or sent invoice.

2. Click Send Invoice or Send via Email.

3. concorbit sends the invoice to the contact's email address using the "Invoice sent" system email template.

4. The invoice status changes to Sent (if it was in Draft).

5. The contact receives an email with a link to view the invoice in the client portal.

The invoice email uses a customisable system template. You can modify the template's content and design from the Email module's template editor (under System emails).

PDF Download

1. Open an invoice.

2. Click Download PDF.

3. concorbit generates a PDF of the invoice and downloads it to your browser.

The PDF includes all invoice details: your workspace branding, contact details, line items, tax breakdown, totals, and payment terms.

Recording Payments

Manual Payment

For payments received outside Stripe (bank transfer, cheque, cash):

1. Open the invoice.

2. Click Record Payment.

3. Enter the payment details:

   • Amount: The amount received (in the invoice currency).

   • Method: How the payment was received (bank transfer, cheque, cash, other).

   • Reference: Optional reference number (e.g. bank transfer reference).

   • Notes: Optional notes about the payment.

   • Date: When the payment was received.

4. Click Save.

Partial Payments

concorbit supports partial payments. You can record multiple payments against a single invoice:

• Each payment reduces the outstanding balance.

• When the total of all payments equals or exceeds the invoice total, the invoice status automatically changes to Paid.

• The outstanding amount is calculated as: total amount - amount paid.

Stripe Payments

When Stripe is connected and the contact pays through the portal or via an invoice payment link:

1. Stripe processes the payment.

2. concorbit receives a webhook notification.

3. The payment is automatically recorded against the invoice.

4. The invoice status updates to Paid (or the outstanding balance is reduced for partial payments).

See Payments & Stripe for Stripe setup details.

Voiding an Invoice

To cancel an invoice that should no longer be collected:

1. Open the invoice.

2. Click Void.

3. The invoice status changes to Void.

4. The voided date is recorded.

Voided invoices remain in the system for record-keeping but no longer count toward outstanding or overdue totals. You cannot undo a void, if the invoice is needed again, create a new one.

Refunding an Invoice

To refund a paid invoice:

1. Open the paid invoice.

2. Click Refund.

3. If Stripe was used for payment, the refund is processed through Stripe.

4. The invoice status changes to Refunded.

Partial refunds are supported when processing through Stripe.

Notes and Terms

Each invoice has two free-text fields:

• Notes: Displayed on the invoice. Use for additional context (e.g. "Thank you for your business", project references).

• Terms: Payment terms and conditions displayed at the bottom of the invoice.

These appear on both the on-screen invoice view and the PDF.

Viewing Invoices in the Portal

When you send an invoice, the recipient can view it in the concorbit client portal. The portal view shows:

• Invoice details and line items.

• Outstanding balance.

• Payment history.

• A Pay Now button (if Stripe is connected and the invoice has an outstanding balance).

The contact receives a portal magic link in the invoice email, no password is required.

Invoice Stats

The Invoices page displays summary stats at the top:

Searching and Filtering

On the Invoices page:

• Search by invoice number.

• Filter by status: All, Draft, Sent, Paid, Overdue, Void, Refunded.

Subscription-Generated Invoices

Invoices can be automatically generated by client subscriptions. When a subscription's billing date arrives, concorbit creates a new invoice linked to the subscription with the appropriate line items and sends it automatically. These invoices are tagged with their parent subscription for traceability.

See Client Subscriptions for details on auto-invoicing.

Canvas Panels

The Billing module provides these invoice-related canvas panels:

• Invoice List: Shows recent invoices with status badges. Filters by contact or company when one is selected on the canvas.

• Invoice Stats: Outstanding, overdue, and paid totals at a glance.

• Invoice Detail: Full single-invoice view with inline editing (for drafts) and workflow buttons: send, record payment, void.

These panels are included in the Billing Workspace canvas template.

Editing an Invoice

You can edit all fields of an invoice while it is in Draft status. Once an invoice has been sent, its core fields are locked. To make changes to a sent invoice:

1. Void the existing invoice.

2. Create a new invoice with the corrected details.

Alternatively, issue a Credit Note for the adjustment amount.

Deleting an Invoice

You can delete invoices in Draft status. Deleting soft-deletes the invoice, it is removed from the list but can be recovered if needed. Sent, Paid, and other non-draft invoices must be voided rather than deleted, to maintain a complete financial audit trail.