Set up a recurring invoice

Set up a recurring invoice when a customer pays the same lines on a schedule. See Recurring invoices for how they work.

Before you start

You need Invoice Add and Edit. With Own records only, you must be the owner. Decide:

• what each invoice bills: the lines, prices, tax and currency;
• how often a period comes round, and the day the first period starts;
• when it ends, if it does;
• whether each invoice is raised on the first day of its period, the last day, or a day of the month.

The currency, start, frequency and raise day cannot be changed after saving.

Steps

1. Start it in one of three ways:
   • on Recurring invoices, or an account’s Recurring invoices tab, select New recurring invoice;
   • open a recurring invoice and select Copy to a new recurring invoice, to reuse its customer and lines;
   • open an issued invoice and choose Make recurring in the ··· menu, to start from its customer, currency and lines.
2. Choose the Contact; the Account follows. The Currency and Payment term follow the account until you change them. A blank Payment term reads Blank: the customer’s term, else the company default (NET 30), with your actual default: each invoice is then raised on the customer’s term, or the company default when the customer has none.
3. Choose the Owner.
4. Under Schedule, set Repeats every (a number of weeks, months, quarters or years) and First period starts.
5. Choose when it Ends: Never, On a date, or After a number of periods.
6. Choose when to Raise the invoice on: the first day of each period, the last day, or a day of the month.
7. Leave Raise each period’s draft automatically on, or turn it off to raise each draft yourself.
8. Add the Lines repeated every period, and the tax, terms and remark. A description can use [Month], [Year], [PeriodStart], [PeriodEnd] and [Period n/N], which are filled in on each draft.
9. Select Create recurring invoice.

What happens next

The recurring invoice is Active. It appears under Recurring invoices and on the account’s tab, with its periods. With automatic drafts on, each period’s draft is raised within the hour of its day; open it, check it and issue it.

To change it later, select Edit. You can change the contact, owner, payment term, end date (unless it runs for a fixed number of periods), the lines and the automatic drafts switch. A change to the lines affects drafts raised afterwards only. To change the currency, start, frequency or raise day, copy it to a new recurring invoice.

Rules to know

• Make recurring is offered on an issued invoice that is not cancelled and was not raised as a stage of a quotation, such as a deposit, a claim or a billing-plan period. It copies the invoice’s customer, currency and lines; taxes follow the rates in force on each invoice’s date. The form shows what it copies and asks for the schedule; to change the lines, select Edit once it is created. The first period starts one step after the invoice’s date, because that invoice already billed its own period; you can change the date.
• A copy takes the customer, currency, payment term and lines. Its schedule starts blank, and nothing of the original’s periods or invoices is carried over.
• Automatic drafts start from the day you save or turn them on. A first period already in the past is Due - for you: generate or skip it yourself.
• Starting from the account’s tab fills in the contact only when the account has exactly one contact you can see.
• Drafts are never issued or sent automatically.
• Changing the owner needs Invoice Edit at All records.
• Repeats every takes 1 to 12, Number of periods 1 to 120, and Day of the month 1 to 31. A recurring invoice needs at least one line.
• Each period is counted from the first, so a start on 31 January stays at each month’s end: 28 or 29 February, then 31 March. A Day of the month of 29, 30 or 31 falls on the last day of a shorter month.
• With On a date, the last period is the one that starts on or before the end date.
• On each draft, [Month] and [Year] become the month and year the period starts, such as “October 2026”; [PeriodStart] and [PeriodEnd] its first and last days, such as “1 Oct 2026”; and [Period n/N] “Period 3 of 12”, or “Period 3” when it has no fixed number of periods.
• A draft is dated its period’s planned day, or the day it is raised if that is later. Its payment term is the recurring invoice’s own, else the customer’s, else your company’s default, read when the draft is raised, so a later change of the default applies to periods raised after it. With a term such as NET 14, its due date is that many days after the draft’s date; COD makes it the same day. The term shows on the invoice. Its taxes follow the tax in force on that date.

Why it works this way

The schedule is the recurring invoice’s backbone. Every period’s dates and invoice date are worked out from the start, frequency and raise day, and every period is billed in the same currency. Changing one of them after periods were invoiced would re-date or re-price what the customer has already been billed for, so these four are fixed; a copy gives you a new schedule and leaves the old periods as they were.

A recurring invoice made from an invoice starts one step later. The invoice you started from has already billed its own period. Starting the schedule on the same day would bill the customer for that period twice.

Taxes follow each draft’s date. A tax that changes between two periods applies from the first draft dated after the change, so each invoice charges the tax in force on its own date, as an invoice typed by hand would.

In advance or in arrears is your choice. Raising on the first day bills a period before it is used, as a retainer or subscription is billed. Raising on the last day bills it once it has been delivered, as a monthly service is billed in arrears.

Work faster

• Make an invoice you already issued recurring. Make recurring copies its customer, currency and lines, and suggests the next start date. See Recurring invoices.
• Copy for a second site or a new price. Copy to a new recurring invoice keeps the customer, currency, payment term and lines; you set only the new schedule. End the old one if the new one replaces it.
• Let the descriptions date themselves. “Plant styling for [Month] [Year]” saves you editing every draft, and the customer sees which period each invoice covers.
• Start from the customer. New recurring invoice on the account’s Recurring invoices tab fills in the contact, with its currency and payment term, when the account has only one contact you can see.
• Change one month on its draft. A period’s draft is an ordinary draft invoice: change its quantity before you issue it, and the lines repeated every period stay as they were.

Examples

A monthly retainer billed in advance. Lim & Co agrees a plant-styling retainer with Harbour Café from 1 October 2026: SGD 450.00 a month plus GST 9%, on NET 14. Mei Tan selects New recurring invoice on the café’s Recurring invoices tab, sets Repeats every 1 month(s), First period starts 1 October 2026, Ends Never, and Raise the invoice on the first day of each period. Her one line reads “Plant styling for [Month] [Year]”.

On 1 October the draft is raised: “Plant styling for October 2026”, SGD 450.00 plus GST of SGD 40.50 (450.00 × 9%), SGD 490.50 in all, due 15 October. Mei checks it and issues it.

A quarterly refresh made from an invoice. On 15 September 2026 Lim & Co issued INV-10000315 to Seaside Florist for a window display refresh: SGD 1,200.00 plus GST of SGD 108.00, SGD 1,308.00. The florist wants four more refreshes, one a quarter. Daniel Lim opens the invoice and selects Make recurring. With Repeats every 1 quarter(s), First period starts fills in 15 December 2026, one quarter after the invoice. He sets Ends After a number of periods, 4, so the drafts fall on 15 December 2026 and 15 March, 15 June and 15 September 2027. He selects Create recurring invoice, then Edit, and adds “[Period n/N]” to the line’s description, so the first draft reads “Period 1 of 4”. For the four refreshes the florist pays 4 × SGD 1,308.00 = SGD 5,232.00.

Common questions

• How do I create a monthly invoice that repeats? Select New recurring invoice under Recurring invoices, choose the contact and lines, set Repeats every to 1 month(s) and choose the start. easySales raises a draft each month for you to check and issue.
• Can I change how often a recurring invoice repeats? Not on the same one. The currency, start, frequency and raise day are fixed once saved; select Copy to a new recurring invoice, set the new schedule, and end the old one.
• Can I bill a customer in arrears? Yes. Choose the last day of each period under Raise the invoice on, so each draft is raised when the period ends.
• What if the first period starts on the 31st? It stays at the end of each month: 28 or 29 February, 30 April and so on.
• Why is my first period marked Due - for you? Its day had already passed when you saved, and automatic drafts only raise periods from that day on. Select Generate now to raise it, or skip it.
• Do recurring invoices follow a change in the GST rate? Yes. Each draft charges the tax in force on its own date. If a tax on the recurring invoice is no longer in force and has nothing to follow to, the period is not raised and the message asks you to change its taxes.

Related

• Recurring invoices
• Recurring invoices (concept)
• Issue an invoice
• Copy an invoice