Send an invoice

An invoice goes out by email, by post, or you hand it over yourself. In every case, its status changes to Sent: it is issued, frozen and in the books, and To Bill follows its payment.

By email

1. Open the invoice: in Invoices, click its number.

2. Click Send, at the top right.

3. Recipient: the client’s email address is suggested. Click a contact under Other contacts to use it, or type another address.

4. Email subject: “Invoice” followed by the number; change it if you wish.

5. Message type: Complete HTML template (with your logo and the invoice summary) or Plain text message (your own text, without formatting). The Live preview, on the right, shows what your client will receive: Email shows the message, Attached PDF the invoice PDF that goes with it.

6. Click Send.

   

The client receives the email with the PDF invoice attached, QR-bill included, and an Access your client portal link. The sending date is shown on the invoice’s page (Sent on) and in its History.

To send several invoices at once: in the list, tick them, then Send › By email. Each invoice goes to its client’s email address.

From the editor

You do not need to leave an invoice’s editor to send it. At the top right, Send (1) saves the invoice, then opens the same email sending window. Its arrow (2) offers By e-mail and By post: By post opens the Send by post window for this invoice (see below).

If something prevents the invoice from being saved, To Bill does not send it: a Before you continue message says what to correct, for example “Add a line to save the draft.”, and the editor goes to the part concerned.

Send from your own address

By default, emails go out from To Bill’s sending service, in your company’s name. To send them from your own mailbox, set up your outgoing mail server in Settings › SMTP.

Before the first sending: the QR-bill and the logo

Your QR-bill or your logo is not set up yet? The sending window asks for them first, in the Before you send your invoice box.

1. In IBAN to receive payments (1), paste or type the IBAN of your company’s account, with or without spaces.

2. Read the green line below it: it says which account To Bill has recognised. For example “QR account detected: your invoices will carry a QR reference, and payments will be recognised automatically.”, or “Swiss bank account”, with the bank’s name, for an ordinary IBAN. If it is red, correct the IBAN: see When To Bill refuses the IBAN.

3. Click Switch on the QR-bill. For your logo, click Add a logo and choose a PNG or JPG image of 5 MB at most.

   

4. Send the invoice as usual: it goes out with its QR-bill.

Not now puts the QR-bill or the logo off until later: the invoice goes out without them. You will find them again in the Get started card on the dashboard and in Settings. The box disappears once both are in place; only people who can change the company settings see it. Do you invoice in euros with a QR account? Also enter the IBAN for euros, in the settings: see Your invoices in euros.

By post

To Bill has the invoice printed and posted to the client’s address by its postal partner (Pingen). You have nothing to print or stamp.

1. In Invoices, tick the invoice or invoices to post.

2. Click Send, then By post (2).

   

3. The Send by post window counts the pages of each letter and shows its cost, then the total.

4. Click Send, followed by the number of credits. The credits are debited and the invoice’s status changes to Sent.

Letter	Cost
First page	3.90 credits
Each additional page	0.25 credits

1 credit = CHF 1.00. Your balance is shown on the Subscription page (your account menu), in the Postal credits card; Recharge My Credits buys more, 10 at least. See Subscription and credits.

When By post is greyed out

• Insufficient credits to send by post: top up your credits.
• Incomplete address: complete the client’s street, postcode and city in their record.

Through the client portal

Every invoice email contains the link to your client’s portal. There, they find all their invoices, quotes and credit notes, download the PDFs and can pay online if you have turned that on.

To see this portal: on the invoice’s page, open … › Open the client portal. It opens in a new tab; copy that tab’s address if you want to pass the link on another way. See The client portal.

Hand over the PDF yourself

1. On the invoice’s page, open … › Download the PDF or Print. The icons above the preview do the same.
2. Give the invoice to your client, in person or by your own mail.
3. In the invoice list, tick it, then Change status › Sent.

This last step matters: as long as the invoice is Pending, it is not in the books, not counted in what is still to be collected, and no reminders are sent for it.

After sending

• Resend the invoice, for example to another contact: … › Send again by email.
• The client has paid: see Collections.
• The client is late: see Reminders.
• A mistake: the invoice can no longer be edited. See Credit notes.

Legal basis

The sent invoice is kept as it went out, in electronic form, for ten years: Art. 958f para. 1 and 3 CO.