Send your first invoice

Four steps separate a brand-new company from its first paid invoice: a client, an invoice, sending it, the payment. Allow five minutes.

Before you start

Check that your company is set up properly, especially the address, the UID number and the QR-bill with your IBAN: see Set up your company.

1. Add the client

1. In the menu, click the + next to Clients, or open Clients then Add.

2. Choose Private or Company, then enter the Name.

3. Enter the address: Street and number, Postcode and City. It is printed on the invoice and in its QR-bill.

4. Enter the Email: this is where the invoice will be sent.

   

5. Click Save.

The Payment term is optional: if it is empty, the invoice takes the default term from your settings, 30 days. More details: Create and manage your clients.

2. Create the invoice

1. In the menu, click the + next to Invoices. You can also press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) then ⌥1 (Alt+1): see Find anything with search.
2. Client: choose the client. The date and due date are filled in for you.
3. Lines: add your lines (description, quantity, price); Enter adds the line. The totals, the VAT and the PDF preview, on the right, are worked out by themselves.
4. Options: if needed, add a note under Notes, for example your payment terms.

There is no button to save: as soon as it has a client and a line, the invoice saves itself, with the Pending status, and Saved appears at the top. It has not been sent yet and you can still correct it. The full guide: Create an invoice.

Do your services come back often?

Save them as items, with their price and VAT rate: on the next invoice, you just type their name. See Items.

3. Send the invoice

1. Open the invoice from the Invoices list. Its page shows the PDF as your client will receive it, with the QR-bill on the last page. The status (1) shows Pending.

   

2. Read the PDF through. To correct it, click Edit.

3. Click Send (2), check the recipient and the subject, then click Send.

Are you still in the editor? Send, at the top right, opens the same sending window.

Your QR-bill or your logo are not in place yet? The sending window asks for them first, in the Before you send your invoice box:

• IBAN to receive payments: paste or type the IBAN of your company’s account, with or without spaces. There is nothing else to choose: the line below says which account To Bill has recognised and what will appear on your invoices, for example “QR account detected: your invoices will carry a QR reference, and payments will be recognised automatically.” Click Switch on the QR-bill.
• Your logo: click Add a logo and choose a PNG or JPG image of 5 MB at most.

Not now puts either one off until later and moves on to sending. More details: The QR-bill.

The invoice goes out by email with its PDF, and its status changes to Sent. Once sent, it can no longer be edited: a mistake is corrected with a credit note. See Send an invoice.

4. Receive the payment

Your client scans the QR-bill with their bank’s app: the amount, your IBAN and the reference fill in by themselves.

• You see the payment in your account: on the invoice’s page, click Mark as Paid and enter the day the money arrived.
• You import your bank statements: To Bill recognises the payment by its reference and matches it with the invoice. See Collections.
• No payment by the due date: send a reminder. See Reminders.

Your first invoice is paid: it counts in the Collected figure on the Dashboard.