In this article you’ll learn how to issue easy-to-use, professional-looking invoices and estimates to your clients, making sure you secure more business and get paid faster.

Invoice & estimate settings

Follow these steps to set the basic information you want to display on all your Invoices and Estimates:

Step 1: Go to Settings > Payments, and click on the Invoices & Estimates tab.

Step 2: Fill out your Billing Address & Business Info

Note on Business Info: Your business billing address is added to the header of all invoices and estimates. The default info displayed is taken from your Business Info Settings.

To change your official business info go to Settings > Business Info

Step 3: Scroll down to Invoice terms & conditions and specify the payment Due Date for your invoices, and enter the Terms & Conditions you want clients to see when they receive your estimate and invoices.

See the image below for sample settings of business information and terms & conditions:

Tip: Since everything in this area will be added to the header of your invoices and estimates, feel free to add more relevant information like your phone number, website URL, tax ID, etc.

Note on Terms & Conditions: You can add your company terms & conditions regarding payment, late payments or other important information that your clients should be aware of when they receive or pay for an invoice. You can do the same for your estimates.

Invoices & estimates templates

The app offers pre-made templates businesses can use to enhance the look and feel of their invoices and estimates. On the Settings>Payments page, go to the 'Templates' tab.

Choose a layout from the following option will be your default:

Classic - The standard layout design includes your business logo and theme color of your choice (default is your brand color)
Styled - An enhanced layout with a cover image to make a long-lasting impression on your clients.
Letter (US) - a US standard letter template designated for printing and sending via single window envelopes.

Customize your template

For each template, you'll be able to choose the brand color and your business logo design and size. You'll need to choose a cover image from the app gallery or upload your own for the styled layout.

Important: for the cover image, it is recommended to use an image size: of 1878 x 498 (High resolution), or 913 x 242 (Medium resolution)

Creating new invoices & estimates

You can easily create a new estimate or invoice wherever you see the New button within the system.

Just click New from anywhere in the system, and select either Estimate or Invoice. For example from your Inbox page, Payments page, or directly from a Client Card.

Important: By default your estimates and invoices will always include your business logo and name on top (see image above). This is configured in Settings > Business Info, and can’t be edited from the invoice or estimate itself.

Before saving or sending your invoice or estimate, follow the section below to learn how to customize each invoice or estimate.

Customizing invoices & estimates

Customize any of the defaults as needed:

Billing address and billing info
Invoice Label: The title that will appear at the top. The default for Invoice is “Invoice” and the default for Estimate is “Estimate”.
Currency: This will take on the default currency for the account.

Note: To change the currency per invoice, you must enable the option to accept different currencies in your Payment Settings

Invoice/Estimate Number: Invoice/Estimate numbers are updated automatically so you don’t have to keep track! The first invoice will be automatically assigned the number 0000001, and each new invoice will go up by one.

Note: Invoice numbers must be unique and can only increase. For example, if you update the invoice number to 0001250, the next invoice must be 0001251 or higher, you will not be able to use the same or a smaller number, like 0001249.

Issue Date / Due Date: The issue date is usually the day you created the invoice, but you can backdate it if you need to. Set the due date of the invoice as well.
Items List: The items list of an estimate/invoice is where you’ll list out the services or products your client is paying for. You can also apply taxes and discounts here. See below for more info.

Note: You can add recipients to your invoice if you need to send it to more than one client. Simply add their email address in the Send to additional recipients field.

Adding items

Step 1: Scroll down to the items section on your invoice or estimate.

Step 2: Click on Please select an item to view and pick from your item list.

You’ll notice that the list comes prefilled with the menu of services that you offer and their prices.

Note: If you don’t see what you need on the list just click Custom… to add a new item on the spot.

Learn how to create a custom item in the section below.

Step 3: Once you have selected a service, you can click on the pencil icon next to the service to modify the quantity of products or services or add taxes or discounts.

Creating custom items

Follow these steps to create a new custom item that does not already exist in your list of services or items.

Step 1: Click on the box that says please select an item and choose Add custom item

Step 2: In the New Item popup box, name the custom item and attach a price to it. You can also modify the quantity, add a description and add taxes or discounts at this point.

Step 3: Select this item to your list for future use, if you want to be able to use this item in the future.

Step 4: Click Add to add the item to the invoice

Editing items

Added an item by mistake? Need to add a 15% discount? Just click the pencil icon next to the line item to edit, or you can select the trash can icon next to the line item to delete the item.

Note: Changes made to the edited item apply only to the current invoice being generated.

Under Terms & notes - Use the Note to client field if you want to add a personalized note to the invoice, as shown here:

You can also check Allow client to pay online if you would like your clients to have the option of paying online.

Note: Enable online payments and set up your partial payment settings under Settings > Payments page.

Note: You will only be able to accept partial payments if you are connected to a credit card processor like PayPal, Stripe, Square, or Payments by vcita.

Deposits

Estimates deposit request

When creating an estimate, you can add a deposit request requiring your clients to pay before the service/products are provided.

Click on "Request a deposit" below the total amount to open the deposit request. You can set your deposit to be one of the following options:

Percentage: Based on the total amount of the estimate. You'll also be able to round up the amount on this option.
Set price: Set the deposit's worth according to your business currency.

There are two ways to collect deposits:

Recording a payment or charging your clients from the Back office. You can go to the estimate page and click "Take payment". To charge a card or record a payment.
Online - If you are connected to a payment gateway, your clients will be required to pay the deposit online to complete the estimate's approval. You can also check the "Disable online payments for this deposit" to have it paid in person.

Note: When online payments are disabled, clients will receive a message to contact the business to pay the deposit after approving the estimate.

Note:Once creating an invoice from an estimate with a required deposit, the invoice will indicate the paid deposit and the remaining balance.

Terms, Notes, Signature and more

Terms: You can edit your default terms and adjust them per a specific invoice or estimate.

Notes: Use the Note to client field if you want to add a personalized message to the Invoice, as shown here:

For Estimates only:

Signature: To require clients to electronically sign on an estimate to approve it, check to 'Client signature is required.'

For Invoices only:

Allow a client to pay online: If you would like your clients to have the option of paying online.
Allow a client to pay a partial amount if you would like your clients to be able to pay in installments.

Note: Enable online payments and set up your partial payment settings under Settings > Payments page.

Note: You will only be able to accept partial payments if you are connected to a credit card processor - either Stripe or Square.

Save or send your estimate & invoice

Once you’re satisfied with the way your estimate/invoice looks, you can either save the invoice as a Save as Draft, or Send it to the client and additional recipients.

This is how your clients will see your invoices and estimates:

Updating invoices & estimates after sending

If you find a mistake or something you want to change, you can still edit an estimate even after you sent it.

To update an existing invoice, go to Payments > Invoices & Bookings, use the right-hand filter to select your invoice, and select Edit from the follow-up actions.

To update an existing estimate, go to Payments > Estimates, use the right-hand filter to select your estimate, and select Edit from the follow-up actions.

Learn more: To learn more about how to track invoices and estimates, visit the Managing and Tracking Payments article. To learn how to send payment reminders for outstanding invoices, visit the Sending Payment Reminders article.