Create and send your first invoice

Before you start

This guide walks through a plain invoice from start to finish: you pick the client, add what you sold from your catalogue, check the taxes and total, issue the invoice and email it. Your client gets the PDF and a link that opens the invoice in their browser, with no account to create.

What you need first:

• Your sales taxes and payment terms set in Business settings. If you haven't done that yet, start with the setup guide.
• The client in Clients. A client's Document language decides the language of their invoices and emails, and an email address is needed to send to them.
• What you sell in Products & services. You can also add an item while you write the invoice.

In the video, Karim of Haddad Renovations bills Hélène Tremblay for a finished bathroom: tiling work, the tile itself and a new vanity faucet.

Step by step

1. 1Start a new invoice

   Select Invoices in the sidebar, then New invoice. A blank draft opens with today as the Issue date.

2. 2Choose the client

   Open Client and pick who you're billing. Two things follow from the client:

   • Due date is filled in from the payment terms: the client's own, if they have some on their record, or your business's (30 days unless you changed it). A note under the field says which, for example "Your payment terms: 30 days after the issue date." Change the date if this invoice is different.
   • The invoice is written in the client's Document language, so a French-speaking client gets a French invoice and email, whoever sends it.

   If your client has a purchase order number, enter it in PO reference.

3. 3Open your catalogue

   Select Add item. Add from your catalogue opens with the services, products and fees you sell, each with its price. You can filter by Kind (Service, Product or Fee) and type in Search by name or SKU. For a product you track, the stock on hand is shown beside it.

   Selling something that isn't in the catalogue yet? Select New item, enter a Name and Price, and select Create and add: it's saved to your catalogue and added to the invoice.

4. 4Add the first line and its quantity

   Pick an item. It's added as a line with its description and unit price, and your default taxes. Then set its Quantity. Karim picks Tiling and finishing and enters 12, for twelve hours.

   Each line also has Unit (such as hour or item), Unit price, Discount and Taxes on this line, so you can take a tax off one line if it doesn't apply.

5. 5Add the other lines

   Select Add item again for each thing you sold. Karim adds the tile, nine boxes, and the vanity faucet, finding each by typing part of its name. For a one-off that you'll never sell again, select Add a line instead and type the description and price yourself.

   Below the lines, Invoice discount takes a Percentage or a Fixed amount off the whole invoice. Notes and Terms are printed on the invoice, and Internal notes are never shown to the client.

6. 6Check the total

   The totals card shows the Subtotal, each tax and the Total. NextiaInvoices works out the GST and QST on every line itself: the card says "Totals are calculated by the server." Karim's invoice comes to $1,870.00 before taxes, plus GST $93.50 and QST $186.53, for a Total of $2,150.03.

7. 7Save the draft

   Select Save draft. Nothing goes to the client yet, and a draft has no number. You can leave and come back to it, change anything, and attach files the client needs, such as a timesheet: up to 10 files, each under 10 MB, added while the invoice is still a draft. View document shows the PDF your client will get; a draft's copy is watermarked.

8. 8Finalize it

   Select Finalize. A window asks Finalize this invoice? and explains what it means: the invoice gets its number and becomes an accounting record, so it can't be edited afterwards. Select Finalize again to confirm.

   To be finalized, an invoice needs a client, at least one line and a due date. NextiaInvoices recalculates the totals one last time as it issues it.

9. 9See it issued

   The invoice now shows its number and the status Issued, with the notice "This invoice has been issued, so it can no longer be edited." The number is the next one in your sequence, set in Invoice defaults.

10. 10Send it by email

    Select Send. In Send this invoice:

    • Send to: leave it blank to use the client's address, or type other addresses separated by commas.
    • CC: filled from the client's Also send to list, if they have one. Each address gets its own copy.
    • Message: a few words of your own, added above the standard text.

    Select Send. The invoice is emailed with the PDF attached and a secure link the client can open. Its delivery is tracked on the invoice: queued, sent, delivered, or not delivered with the reason.

11. 11What the client receives

    Your client gets an email from your business, with the invoice PDF attached and a View your invoice button. It's in the invoice's language.

12. 12The client opens the link

    Selecting View your invoice opens the invoice in their browser.

13. 13The invoice in their browser

    No account or password is needed. Your client sees every line, the taxes, the total and the balance due, and can select Download PDF to keep a copy. If you show a payment link on documents (Business settings → Payments), it's there too.

What happens next

The invoice is listed in Invoices as issued, and it counts in what clients owe you until it's paid. When the client pays you by e-Transfer, cheque or cash, record the payment on the invoice so its balance comes down. If it goes past its due date, it shows as Overdue and appears in Who to chase, and automatic reminders can go out if you've switched them on.

On the Free plan, your emails, PDFs and the client's page carry a small "Sent with NextiaInvoices" line. Any paid plan removes it.

If something goes wrong

Questions

Related guides

• Set up your business: taxes, logo, numbering set your taxes, logo and invoice numbers before your first invoice
• Record a payment, part or full record the payment when your client pays
• Credit notes, refunds and write-offs take something off an invoice you already issued
• Payment reminders and who to chase see who's overdue and remind them