Set up recurring invoices

A recurring invoice profile creates the same invoice for a customer on a schedule, such as a monthly support fee. Each invoice can also pick up the customer's unbilled time and expenses. Avaza can email every invoice for you, or save it as a draft for you to check first.

Only Administrators and Finance Managers can see and create recurring invoices. If Recurring Invoices is missing under Invoices, one of them can switch it on in Settings › General, under Enabled/Disabled Modules.

Before you start

Profiles create their invoices at the Recurring/Retainer Invoice Send Time, in your account's time zone. It's 10:00 am unless someone has changed it. Check it before you create your first profile: it's shown at the bottom of the Recurring Invoices list, after "Upcoming Invoices are generated after:". Administrators and Finance Managers can change it in Settings › Invoice & Bill Settings, under Recurring/Retainer Invoices. If you change it, the next invoice of every recurring profile and retainer subscription moves to the new time. Avaza checks for due invoices twice an hour, so an invoice arrives within about half an hour of that time.

Everything else comes from your normal invoicing set-up: the invoice template with your logo and default notes, trading terms and taxes. See getting started with invoices and invoice settings.

Create a profile

1. Go to Invoices › Recurring Invoices and click Create.

2. Choose the Customer, or click Add new customer and enter the company name, currency and, optionally, a contact. Then click Create.
   A new customer is also added to Contacts › Companies, where you can complete their details later: see managing contacts.

3. Enter a Profile Name that says what the invoice is for, such as "Fernleaf Media – Monthly Website Care Plan".

4. Set the schedule.
   Repeat every takes a number of Days or Months: 14 days for every two weeks, 3 months for quarterly. The Start Date is the date of the first invoice, today or later. Number of Invoices is how many the profile creates in total, for example 12 for a one-year contract. Tick Never expires if there's no end date.

   

5. Choose how the invoices go out.
   Tick Automatically Send Invoices and pick the customer's contacts under Send to, and each invoice is emailed as soon as it's created. Leave it unticked to get draft invoices that you check and send yourself. To charge the customer's saved card or bank account, tick Enable Autocharge and choose the Autocharge Payment Method: see Auto Charge. On the Free plan, both tick boxes are greyed out.

6. To bill unbilled time or expenses too, click Add next to Include Unbilled Timesheets or Include Unbilled Expenses (see below).

7. Check Customer Contact, Trading Terms, Invoice Template, Amounts are (tax inclusive or exclusive), Default Discount and Subject. They work as on any invoice.
   The Currency is always the customer's. For a foreign currency, click Edit Rate and choose Market Rate, which uses each invoice date's rate, or enter a fixed rate.

8. Under Invoice Item Details, add the lines to bill every time, with their tax rates and discounts. Add any Notes, then click Save Invoice. The profile opens.

Add unbilled time and expenses

In the Include Timesheets popup, tick Automatically add Unbilled Timesheets?. Then choose where the time comes from: All Projects of this customer, or Specific Projects. All Projects leaves out projects whose billing method is Not Billable. Pick a Grouping of Timesheet Entries: No Grouping, by Project, by Project & Category or by Project & Timesheet User. With No Grouping, tick what each line shows, such as the task, date, user name and notes. Click OK.

Include Expenses works the same way, without grouping: choose the projects and what each line shows.

Each invoice then adds all the uninvoiced time and expenses on top of the fixed lines. As with Add Time on an invoice, only billable entries that are approved, or don't need approval, are added: see why time and expenses can't be added. The profile shows + New Timesheets or + New Expenses under its total, because the amount will grow.

Put the right dates in the text

Smart tags are replaced with real dates when each invoice is created. Use them in the Subject, the line descriptions and the Notes. Every tag starts and ends with ::.

So a subject of "Website Care Plan – ::MonthName(IssueDate):: ::Year(IssueDate)::" becomes "Website Care Plan – September 2026". AddMonths and AddDays also take negative numbers, and carry over into the next or previous year. The smart tags blog post has more examples.

Manage your profiles

Invoices › Recurring Invoices lists every profile with its client, last and next invoice, frequency, Auto Charge details, currency and amount. Filter the list by status, or search by profile name, customer or subject.

Click a profile to open it.

• Associated Invoices lists the invoices the profile has created. Click one to open it.
• Edit changes the profile from the next invoice on. Invoices already created don't change. When you edit, Number of Invoices is called Remaining Cycles: the number still to come. You can't change the customer or currency, so create a new profile instead.
• Stop Recurring Invoice pauses the profile, and Resume Recurring Invoice restarts it. Resuming doesn't create the invoices missed while it was stopped: the next one is the next date in the schedule from today.
• Delete removes the profile. The invoices it already created stay.

Who the emails come from

Recurring invoices are emailed from clientinvoices@mail.avaza.com, which keeps them out of spam folders, with the name of the person who last saved, stopped or resumed the profile, for example "Sofia Alvarez via Avaza". Replies go to that person's email address. To send from someone else, ask them to open the profile, click Edit and click Save without changing anything. The email uses the same template as the invoices you send yourself, with the PDF attached. See why clientinvoices sends invoices on your behalf.

If an invoice isn't created

Administrators and Finance Managers get an email that explains what went wrong:

• The account's monthly invoice limit is reached. Avaza tries again at each check, and creates the invoice once there's room.
• A line has no tax. For unbilled time and expenses, the Default Inventory Item for Timesheets and Default Inventory Item for Expenses (in Settings › Invoice & Bill Settings) need a default tax. Once you fix it, the invoice is created at the next check.
• The market exchange rate couldn't be fetched for a foreign-currency profile. Avaza tries again at the next check.
• There was nothing to bill. If the profile has no lines and finds no unbilled time or expenses, the invoice is saved as a draft and not sent.

To bill customers in advance and draw the work from their payment, use retainer subscriptions. To list the invoices a profile has created, filter the Transaction List report by recurring profile.