Invoices

An invoice turns approved work into a document with a number, a frozen copy of what it said, and a link the client can open. Once issued, the header and the lines cannot change: a correction is a credit note, not an edit.

Finance must be turned on. See Finance Setup.

A saved payment also updates the invoice’s active payment plan. Open Payment options and collections to check settled instalments and the remaining schedule. See Payment Plans before correcting an older receipt or changing a schedule.

Who can do what

Capability	Lets you
finance:view_invoices	See invoices, credit notes and payments
finance:draft_invoices	Compose and edit drafts
finance:issue_invoices	Issue, send, credit, void and manage the client link
finance:record_payments	Record payments, refunds and write-offs
finance:manage_receivables	Reminders, statements, holds and promised dates

Editing an existing draft, raising a credit note, voiding, marking a dispute or recording a promised date also needs View invoices for that document, alongside the action permission. If that access has been removed, the change is refused without saving it.

Adding sources, removing lines or selecting credit lines must also leave a document you can view. A project grant must cover all its projects. If no project remains, you need access for its client or the whole organisation. Ask someone who manages permissions to check your access before retrying. See Finance permissions.

Figures only appear with finance:view_prices. Without it, the document preview and the PDF are refused rather than shown empty. Cost never appears on an invoice.

Invoices composed from budgets, schedules, time or purchases use prices before tax. The invoice adds the applicable tax, even when the billing entity normally uses tax-inclusive entry. Enter any extra manual prices on that draft before tax too. Standalone manual invoices can use inclusive entry.

You cannot add finance sources to an inclusive draft. Change it to exclusive entry and review its manual prices first. An older inclusive draft composed from sources also needs this review before it can be issued.

Draft an invoice

Start from Finance > Uninvoiced work and choose Draft invoice on a budget, or open Finance > Invoices and choose New invoice.

The composer asks what to bill:

Method	Bills
Uninvoiced work	Approved time and expenses that are not yet on an invoice
Schedule items ready to bill	Deposits, milestones and remaining amounts on previously invoiced schedule items
Percentage of the budget	A share of the sold amount
Custom amount	A figure you enter, allocated across lines
Remaining	Everything not yet billed on the budget
Consolidated	Several budgets for one client on one invoice
Standalone	An invoice with no budget behind it
Retention release	Retention held on an earlier invoice

Choose the budget and billing entity, then choose the work. The budget identifies the client. For standalone lines without a budget, select the client directly. The composer shows each approved entry with its recognisable amount and why an entry is not available: held, over the cap, already on another draft, included in a fixed fee, or unvalued. Group as decides how lines are grouped, and Runnit remembers the last choice for that client. Attach the timesheet appendix adds the detail behind the hours. Apply any deposit held puts a deposit line on the invoice. Taxable and exempt work stay on separate lines when grouped. Deposits share the remaining invoice balance, and deposit and retention deductions preserve the original tax components to the cent. Partial retention releases carry the remaining net and tax separately.

A credit against a retention release keeps the tax amounts recorded on that release. A partial credit returns only its share to the retention held. Other credit drafts count towards the amount still available. Discard an unused draft before trying to credit that amount again. The balance changes when you issue the credit note.

Approved time keeps the amount shown when you select it. If displaying rounded hours would change that amount, the invoice line shows one item with the approved price and includes the minutes in its description. The timesheet appendix retains the underlying time details. Changing the grouping does not reprice the work.

If an older draft differs from the selected time total and you have not deliberately changed its prices, discard the draft and compose it again from the same work. Check the new total before issuing. Issued invoices stay unchanged; use a credit note when an issued invoice needs correction.

You can select expenses and purchased items without selecting any time entries. If sources cannot load, choose Try again before creating the draft. Correct an invalid custom amount or percentage before continuing; Runnit keeps your entered value visible.

If a schedule item was only partly billed, choose it again to bill the remaining amount shown in the composer. Runnit keeps that remainder against its original budget lines. A credit marked for reissue restores the credited work; a write-off credit does not. Percentage schedules apply to fixed and percentage work, excluding time and materials.

You can reduce a draft line to bill part now. Issue refuses an amount above the remaining allocation. If you remove the first line of a split schedule, the other lines stay reserved on that draft. Review the final lines and tax before issuing.

While a draft holds work, that work is reserved so a second draft cannot bill it twice. The composer says how many rows are held and until when. A hold that is about to expire says so; issuing or editing the draft renews it.

Reopening a milestone does not change a draft or issued invoice. If you discard the draft, remove its last linked schedule line or let its reservation expire, Runnit checks that milestone again. An open milestone returns the released item to Scheduled, while an achieved milestone returns it to Ready to invoice.

Release security deposits or write off retention

Open the budget’s Billing tab or the invoice composer and find Deposits and retention. You need invoice-issue permission and price access.

For a security deposit with a remaining balance, choose Release security deposit. Enter the amount returned, its date and a reason, then Confirm release. The amount must be above zero and no greater than the remaining deposit. This records returned funds; it does not send a bank payment.

For held retention that cannot be collected, choose Write off retention, enter the reason and choose Confirm write-off. Failed saves keep the form open for correction. To collect retention normally, use the Retention release invoice method instead.

Import an external sales invoice

Use Finance > Receivables > Documents to upload and read an external sales invoice. Review its client, references, dates, totals and each line’s quantity, price before tax and tax rate. Choose Save reviewed fields, then Create invoice draft. Matching existing invoices can be linked instead.

The draft retains the original reference and a View source document link. It follows the normal preview, validation and issue steps below. Importing does not preserve an already-issued ledger balance or send the invoice. See document intake for permissions, supported files and duplicate handling.

Check it

The invoice page shows what still stands in the way:

• Things to fix before issuing are blocking, for example a line with no price, a missing tax identifier, or a client purchase order reference the client’s profile requires.
• Things to check are warnings, for example a draft nobody has touched for a week.
• Statutory rules that ship unconfirmed for your jurisdiction block issuing until an administrator confirms them. With settings permission, choose Review these rules, read each required rule and explicitly confirm its applicability. The invoice refreshes its checks after confirmation. See Tax Rules by Jurisdiction for which countries ship unconfirmed and what a confirmation binds to.

Invoice preview shows the document from the current draft. Line items lets you review the rows and the work behind them. In Invoice details, set the subject, purchase order reference, due date, invoice template, client note and payment terms. Choose Save details before issuing.

Approval

When an approval policy matches the invoice, the approval bar says so. Choose Request approval to send it without issuing. Once approved, Issue with this approval issues it. If the invoice changes after approval, the approval no longer stands and the bar asks for it again.

Issue

Issue does everything in one step: it assigns the number, freezes the document exactly as it reads, values every figure at that moment, consumes the work it held, and queues the PDF. Choose Email invoice when you are ready to send it. It cannot be undone.

The success message belongs to the invoice you acted on. Opening another invoice clears it.

If the period the issue date falls in is soft closed, Runnit asks for a reason. If it is closed, issuing is refused until the period is reopened. Retrying an already completed issue returns that invoice even after its period closes. If another edit changes the issue date during issuing, reload before retrying.

Preview and download

New previews and newly issued documents show line quantities with up to four decimal places, leaving off trailing zeros. For example, a quantity of 1.3333 is shown as 1.3333. Earlier issued documents keep their original presentation.

Choose Refresh preview to reload the saved invoice after changes. A failed refresh displays the error and hides the previous document until it can load.

An issued invoice opens on Invoice preview. PDF displays the saved file with your browser’s page and zoom controls. Reading view shows the document as a page that fits smaller screens. Use Reading view if your browser does not show embedded PDFs. Download PDF saves the same document to open in a PDF reader. These options are also available on the client invoice link.

While the PDF is being prepared, you can use Reading view. If the PDF cannot load, choose Try again. Changes to your templates, business details or logo do not change an invoice that has already been issued. The summary shows the current amount due beside the saved document.

Edit invoice templates

Choose Edit invoice templates to open Document templates in organisation settings. You need finance:manage_settings or finance:manage_integrations.

If templates or document styles cannot be loaded, the panel shows the reason. Choose Try again to reload them without leaving the panel. Wait for the request to finish before trying again. If access was refused, ask an admin to check your permissions. A failed request does not mean there are no templates.

1. Open a built-in template and choose Customise template, or choose Make a copy beside any template.
2. Name your copy. Reorder its blocks, add introduction or footer text, and choose which line, tax, payment and appendix details to show.
3. Edit the font, accent colour, paper size, spacing and logo size in Style. A new template copy has its own style. For an older template using a built-in style, choose Customise style first.
4. Review Live preview. It uses sample invoice details and includes unsaved layout and style changes.
5. Choose Save template and Save style to keep your changes.
6. Choose the template in Invoice details on a draft, then Save details.

New documents use the same bundled typefaces in Live preview, Reading view and the PDF. Choose Inter, Source Sans 3, IBM Plex Sans or Roboto, or use Gelasio (Georgia alternative) for a serif and Arimo (Helvetica alternative) for a sans serif. Supported emoji print in black and white. Accents and symbols stay selectable as text. Uncommon characters outside these fonts may still need a different character.

This applies to newly issued documents. Existing issued invoices keep their saved appearance and PDF, including any earlier font limitations. Review the preview before issuing a new invoice.

You can also set a client’s default template in Client billing profiles. Use Billing entities to change the logo on future invoices. Issued invoices retain their saved template.

Email an invoice

For a scheduled email, choose a future date in your organisation’s timezone. The email becomes due at the start of that calendar day.

Choose Email invoice, then select a delivery option:

• Email now sends to the addresses in To, with optional Copy to, Reply to and Message. Recipient defaults come from the client billing profile. The email includes the PDF invoice and a secure link to view it.
• Schedule queues the same email for a future date. Enter recipients and Send on, then choose Schedule it.
• Mark as sent records delivery you completed outside Runnit. It does not send an email.

Email becomes available once the PDF is ready. Your organisation must have an outbound email service configured. The template shown in the email dialog is the one saved when the invoice was issued.

Check Email delivery for queued, scheduled, sending, accepted, delivered or failed attempts. Sent to mail server means the mail service accepted the email; it does not confirm the recipient received it. If the status is Not sent, check your organisation’s email settings before trying again. If an attempt has an unknown outcome, check with the recipient before sending again.

The client link

Every issued document has a link the client can open without signing in. Under Client link, Get a link creates one, Copy copies it, Open opens the client page, Rotate replaces it so the old one stops working, and Revoke stops every link for that document. The page shows the document, lets the client download the PDF and lets them ask a question on an open invoice, which lands in Activity. An unavailable link offers Request a new link, which emails the billing contact. It does not ask the visitor to sign in. It never shows cost, margin or internal notes, and it is not indexed by search engines.

Corrections

Action	What it does
Discard	Only a draft. The work it held returns to uninvoiced
Credit note	Reverses the invoice in full or line by line. Choose whether the work returns to the uninvoiced queue or is written off
Void	Keeps the number but cancels the document. Not possible once paid or credited
Write off	Closes the balance as money that will not arrive. It may need approval
Mark as disputed	Pauses reminders and flags the client, with a note of what they say

A full credit includes agreed negative adjustments as well as positive work. In the credit draft, keep negative quantities negative. Tax treatment stays the same as the original invoice, and you can only credit its existing lines. Review the credit preview before issuing.

Credit prices keep the original invoice’s tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive basis. For tax-inclusive lines, both the before-tax amount and the total must stay within the original line’s remaining amounts. If an edited draft exceeds a limit, correct it before choosing Issue.

The total credit cannot be negative or exceed the remaining invoice balance. Each line is also limited by the amount already credited or held on another credit draft. Discard an unused competing draft, or reduce the selected quantity. For tax-inclusive lines, a credit uses the original line’s remaining before-tax and tax amounts. Crediting a line in full keeps its exact tax, even when the invoice rounded tax by subtotal. A partial credit shares those remaining amounts; its total stays equal to your selection. Review the remaining balance before creating another partial credit. Issued invoices and credits keep their original values.

For lines recognised On invoice, each issued partial credit updates the remaining recognised amount. Crediting a negative adjustment restores the revenue it reduced on that budget line. A voided invoice stays excluded from later recognition runs. Issue and corrections also respect the line’s recognition limit; see Revenue and WIP.

If a correction is refused, the reason stays in the open dialog and the error appears below it. Review the explanation before trying again. Closing and reopening starts a new correction.

An issued credit note shows Credit amount and View original invoice. It reduces the original invoice when issued; the credit document itself is not an amount for the client to pay. Its detail, hosted link, portal and list rows omit due dates and outstanding balances. Delivery and PDF download stay available with the required access.

You cannot record a payment or refund against a credit note, apply account credit to it, write it off, dispute it or assign collection reminders. A credit against an already paid invoice can create a separate client-credit balance. That balance can be applied to an ordinary invoice or refunded; it is separate from the credit document.

Payments

The Payments panel records what arrives: the amount, the date, the method and a reference. A payment settles the invoice in proportion to its remaining line balances, including each tax component, so part payments always add up. Anything above the invoice becomes a client credit you can apply to another invoice. Refund records a return of cash already received. It uses the remaining cash receipts, most recent receipt first, and keeps the split against each receipt. Client credit and write-offs are not cash to refund. One refund can cover more than one receipt and still appears once in payment history. Enter the reason before selecting Record refund. The saved reason appears as Refund note beneath the refund in Payments and remains after reloading. People who can view invoice prices can read it without permission to record payments. Older refunds with no saved note do not show one.

When a payment creates client credit, its available amount appears in Payments. Choose Apply to this invoice to use it against an open balance. The available credit refreshes after saving, and fully used credit disappears from the choices. Payment history shows Client credit applied with the amount in the invoice’s currency. It remains visible after reloading.

Payment and refund errors appear inside the form, with your amount, date and reference or reason retained. Resolve the problem before selecting the action again. If applying client credit fails, the explanation appears in Payments.

An excessive refund is refused. If earlier refunds do not reconcile to their receipts, creation stops before recording another refund. Review the payment history, or ask Ru to help inspect it, before retrying.

Show what each line settled opens the split. Expand Payment options and collections for online payment status, late fees and payment plans. To stop a plan, choose Cancel the plan, enter a reason and confirm. See Cancelling a plan.

If e-invoicing is not configured or switched on, the invoice shows E-invoicing: Not enabled. Email and PDF delivery remain available. See E-Invoicing.

The invoices list

Finance > Invoices has views for Drafts, Awaiting approval, Unpaid, Overdue, Paid this month and All, with filters for client, budget, project, kind and status, and a search. The strip at the top shows outstanding, overdue, drafted and issued this month; if your access covers only some invoices, it says the figures cover what you can see rather than the whole book.

Search and the selected filters stay in the page address. They remain when you open an invoice and use your browser’s Back button, reload the list or reopen a saved link. Changing the search starts at the first page; clearing it keeps the other filters. Access permissions still apply when you open a saved link. If no invoices match, change or clear the search, or adjust the filters. The message and page controls remain visible on smaller screens.

Select several invoices to Issue, Send, Download or Apply a reminder sequence in one go. The result says how many succeeded and names what each refusal was, so you can fix those and run the action again on them alone. Apply a reminder sequence is available only when every selected row in the current list is an ordinary invoice. Credit notes keep their total but show no due date, overdue count or amount due.

A receipt was removed

Payment history labels a removed receipt and links to View recovery balance when credit was already spent or cash refunded. The original invoice reopens only for its remaining cash settlement. The separate recovery records the other amount still to collect. Each credit application appears once in the history. See Getting Paid for recording recovered money and correcting a recovery receipt.

Next step

Chase what is owed: Getting Paid, or bill a period from a Retainer.

Inline name and quantity fields save when you leave the field. Press Escape to cancel an inline text edit. After saving, cells follow the refreshed invoice. Invalid money must be corrected before it can save; pressing Enter and then leaving the field does not save the amount twice.

Help from Ru

Ask Ru to explain this workflow, inspect records you can access, or carry out supported steps when you authorise them. Your permissions and approval rules still apply. See Finance with Ru.

If another person changes a draft’s date while you issue it, Runnit rechecks the draft and its accounting period before issuing. A closed period still blocks issuance. If the draft keeps changing, refresh it and review the latest values before trying again.

Retainer invoices keep the agreed fee and monetary carry on separate lines. Unused amount carry credits the fee; a correction can add a charge to a later period. A fully covered fee can produce an invoice with nothing to pay. See Retainers for carry and correction rules.

If delivery stops before an outcome is recorded, its history reports an unknown outcome. Check with the recipient before sending again. Provider acceptance does not by itself confirm that the recipient received the document.

To change the logo used on new invoices, open Billing entities in Finance setup. Save the new logo there. Already issued documents retain their original image.

Documents also lists change-order and self-billed invoice templates with readable kind names. Make a copy creates an editable copy of that same kind; it does not change the layout already selected for a saved document.