About recurring invoices

If from time to time (e.g. once a month) you issue the same invoices for the same client, InvoiceOcean allows you to automatically issue and send such invoices on a specified date.

To be able to issue recurring invoices, in the menu Settings> Account settings> Your account, in section Recurring invoices, select Enable recurring invoices and save the changes.


 

There are two ways to initiate an invoice cycle:

1. Go to the tab Invoices> Recurring invoices. When you get to the list of recurring invoices, click the New recurring invoice button on the left side of the screen.
   
   
   
   In the menu of recurring invoices, you can also find an Enter keyword filter and a Client filter. These filters help to find particular invoices more quickly.
   The Enter keyword filter only searches by the description of the recurring invoice, while the Client filter searches by the Buyer’s company name.
   
   
   
   After clicking on the New recurring invoice button, a recurring invoice form will open, where you can define its parameters.
   
   
   
   1) Start by selecting the invoice from which the recurring invoice will be generated. When the data on the original invoice changes, the invoice generated in the next cycle will also change. 
   
   2) A detailed description of the Own Definition option can be found here. 
   
   3) Here you can specify the type of recurring documents, whether they are to be found in income or in expenses. 
   
   4) You can give a description of the recurring invoice, specifying here, for example, who is the Buyer of the invoice and what the transaction concerns.
   
   Note. Document cycles can be sorted by the description of each cycle in alphabetical order. Until now, they have been displayed in the order they were created in the system.
    
   5) Enter here the date of the first invoice. 
   
   6) Here you specify the time interval for issuing invoices in a cycle. 
   
   7) Here you can define the exact starting time of issuing recurring invoices on a given day.
   
   Note: If you set recurring invoices to be sent between 12 a.m. and 2.00 a.m. (24:00 and 02:00), there may be delays issuing the invoices in the system (the delay is a maximum of 24 hours). This is related to the time zone of the servers on which the data of invoiceocean.com system is stored. The solution we propose is to change the time of automatic invoicing to 2.00 a.m. – 3.00 a.m. (02:00 - 03:00) or later. 
   
   8) By selecting this option, you can choose the day of the month in which you want the invoice to be issued.
   
   9) Selecting this option will generate invoices only on working days. When the issue date falls on Saturday or Sunday the program will issue an invoice a day or two later. You can find more information here. 
   
   10) When you select this option, you will be able to enter the e-mail address of the contractor to whom the program will automatically send invoices.
   
   
   
   11) You can also use notifications to your own e-mail address about issuing a recurring invoice for a contractor. After issuing a recurring invoice and setting the time at which they are to be issued, there is no need to perform any additional activities (apart from for e. g. downloading them in pdf. or sending them). 
   
   12) With this option, the program generates recurring invoices as paid. 
   
   13) A separate document numbering format can be specified for a particular cycle.
   
   
   
   14) Only year and month as sell date - In the Sale date column on the invoice, the date consists only of the month in which the transaction can be made. 
   
   15) Last day of the month of sale - a specific date is entered in the Sale date section of the invoice, which is the date the sale ends. 
   
   16) End date - here you can define and select a date when you want to end the cycle of automatic invoice generation for a given client. It is best to set it just before or after the next cycle generated by the program. 
   This is also the way to disable the recurring invoice feature.
   
   Note. If you don't enter a date in this field, and you disable the recurring invoices option, these invoices will continue to be generated. More information here.
   
   17) You can add a comment to the created invoice cycle. 
   
   After setting up an invoice cycle, you can check its basic parameters and the list of invoices issued on the basis of this cycle.
   
   



2. Another method for generating recurring invoices is to enter the preview of the invoice, on the basis of which you will generate the cycle and in the pop-up menu select More options> Set recurring.
   
    
    

Note! An important option when generating recurring invoices is also changing the name of the products with the next generated recurring invoice. Put variables in the product name, e. g. week, month, year, which change automatically with each recurring invoice, full details can be found here. 

To delete a recurring invoice once it has been added, you need to click on the icon with a gear wheel next to the selected invoice in the list of recurring invoices and click Delete; or go to the preview of that invoice and click on the Delete button.