ForemanFOREMAN

Create & send invoices

Build an invoice from your budget, set the due date, and send it to your client with a payment link — all from the project's Records.

An invoice is a Record, so you build it the same way you build any other Record — from a project, in a split-pane editor. Add line items from the project's budget, then send it to your client with a single recipient and an optional pay link. The document table does not offer custom row creation.

Start a new invoice

  1. From the sidebar, click Records.
  2. Click Create Record.
  3. Pick the Project this invoice belongs to, then choose Invoice (or a kind like Deposit or Progress Invoice) under Client Finances.

Foreman creates an empty draft the moment you land in the editor, so there's always something to edit. It's numbered automatically (for example CF-001) and starts in Draft.

Or start from the budget

If you already know which lines you're billing, start from the sheet and skip the picker:

  1. Open the project's Budget and select the lines you want to bill.
  2. Open Selected row actions in the toolbar, choose Create a record from these lines, then choose Invoice under Client Finances.
  3. The invoice opens with those lines already on it, each pre-filled with what's left to bill. A toast confirms how many landed; if some of them couldn't be billed, it says how many were left out.

The budget is saved before opening the record picker. Imported invoice lines are still pending changes in the editor; click Save to keep them.

Note

If Client Finances is greyed out in that window, none of the lines you selected can be billed yet — the reason sits right under the heading, usually "None of the selected lines are priced on CA-0012, so there is nothing to bill against them yet." Raise a change order for that scope first; the lines then become billable.

Add items

  1. In the editor, click Add items.
  2. Check the items you want to bill. Each row shows its Approved amount, what's already been Invoiced (as a dollar figure and a percent), and an editable This Invoice column. Line-item descriptions aren't shown in the picker.
  3. For each row, set the amount or the percent to bill — bill 100% or a partial amount for progress billing. On the Selected Total row you can type one total to spread across every selected item, or one percent to apply to all of them.
  4. Click Apply (the button shows how many items you selected).

Note

Once a project has a signed client agreement, this list shows only what that agreement priced, and no line can be billed past its approved amount — you can't invoice for work the client hasn't agreed to. To bill something the agreement didn't cover, raise a change order first; the line then appears here with an approved price of its own. Projects with no signed agreement bill straight from the budget as usual.

Note

Lines stay linked to the budget, so what you invoice rolls up into the budget's Invoiced and Collected columns.

Set the details

  1. Rename the invoice from the title in the top bar (click to edit).
  2. Set the Due Date chip in the document header.
  3. Add a Description — anything you want the client to know — above the line items.
  4. In the side panel's tax settings, turn on Charge sales tax and set Tax rate %. The document's Tax row is hidden while the tax amount is zero; when visible and not exempt, its rate can also be edited inline.

Totals (subtotal, tax, and total) recalculate as you edit. The page breaks where the PDF will break, so the invoice you lay out is the invoice that prints.

Send it to your client

  1. In the right-hand panel, add a recipient under Recipients — search your contacts (Add a client...) or click Add new client to create one.
  2. Click Send.

Sending emails your client a PDF copy with a link to view (and pay, if you've enabled a pay link), grants that contact access to the project, and moves the invoice to Sent. When they open it, it flips to Viewed.

Note

Once sent, the line items lock. The editor shows the finalized PDF when available, and the side panel keeps the payment controls. Removing payments does not make a sent invoice editable again. Do not delete a real payment merely to try to unlock the document.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I download the PDF without sending?

Yes. Save pending changes first, then click Download PDF in the side panel.

How do clients pay?

Connect QuickBooks and turn on Pay with QuickBooks in the side panel's Options section — the client's copy of the invoice then shows a Pay Online button backed by a QuickBooks-hosted payment link. Otherwise, tell the client how to pay and record the payment yourself when it arrives with Record Payment. See Manage payments.

NextManage payments