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Getting StartedYour First Invoice

Your First Invoice

This guide walks you through creating an invoice, sending it to your customer, and recording payment. You’ll be done in a few minutes.

Two Ways to Invoice

There are two paths to creating an invoice. Pick the one that fits your situation:

Path 1: Customer → Job → Invoice (recommended for most work). If you do regular, repeat jobs — lawn care, HVAC maintenance, cleaning — always use this path. Creating a job first lets you track the work, dates, photos, expenses, and profitability all in one place. Your invoices link back to the job so you can see the full picture.

Path 2: Invoice directly (for quick one-offs). If someone calls and asks for a quick invoice on the spot, skip the job and create the invoice directly. Go to Invoices → New Invoice, pick the customer, and add your line items.

This guide uses Path 1 so you can see the full workflow.

What Is a Job?

A job represents a piece of work you’re doing for a customer. It tracks the dates, dollar value, photos, expenses, and all invoices for that work. Think of it as a folder for everything related to one project — “Spring Cleanup at Smith Residence” or “AC Install at 123 Main St.”

You don’t have to use jobs. But if you want to know how much a job cost you versus how much you charged, or if you want to send multiple invoices for one project, jobs make that easy.

Step-by-Step: Your First Invoice

1. Create a Customer

If you didn’t add a customer during onboarding, add one now.

  1. Go to Customers in the sidebar and click New Customer.
  2. Enter the customer’s Name (required). For example, “John Smith” or “Smith Residence.”
  3. Add their Email (optional — needed for emailing invoices), Phone, and Address if you have them.
  4. Click Save Customer.

2. Create a Job

  1. Go to Jobs in the sidebar and click New Job.
  2. Select the customer you just created.
  3. Enter a Job Name — something descriptive like “Spring Cleanup” or “Furnace Repair.”
  4. Set the Start Date and End Date for when you’ll do the work.
  5. Enter the Total Value — the total amount you plan to charge for this job. This helps with tracking and profitability.
  6. Click Save.

3. Create the Invoice

  1. Click New Invoice on the dashboard, or go to Invoices in the sidebar and click Create Invoice.
  2. Select your customer from the dropdown.
  3. Select the job you created. The job dropdown is filtered to show only jobs for the selected customer.
  4. Choose a billing mode. The default is Line Items — see below for all three options.
  5. Add your line items. For each one, enter:
    • Description — what you’re billing for (e.g., “Lawn mowing - front and back yard”)
    • Quantity — how many units (defaults to 1)
    • Unit Price — price per unit (e.g., $75.00)
    • Taxable — checkbox, checked by default
  6. Click Add Item to add more rows.
  7. Set the Due Date — when you expect payment. A common choice is 30 days from today (Net 30). The Issue Date defaults to today.
  8. Review the total. The calculation preview on the right shows your subtotal, discount (if any), tax, and total updating in real time.
  9. Click Save to create the invoice as a draft.

The Three Billing Modes

Every invoice uses one of three billing modes. You choose the mode when creating the invoice.

Line Items — list each thing you’re charging for separately. Labor, materials, travel, disposal fees — whatever applies. This is the default and works best when your customer wants to see a detailed breakdown of what they’re paying for.

Fixed Amount — one flat price for the whole job. Enter a single dollar amount. Best for flat-rate quotes, like “$500 for spring cleanup” or “$150 for dryer vent cleaning.” No line items to fill out.

Percent of Job — charge a percentage of the job’s contracted value. This is great for progress billing. For example, you can charge 30% at the start of a project, 30% at the midpoint, and 40% at completion. The invoice amount calculates automatically from the job’s total value.

See Invoice Modes for more details on each mode.

Set Your Default Tax Rate

If you haven’t set your tax rate yet, go to Settings → Invoice Settings and enter your rate (for example, 8.5%). Once set, every new invoice will use this rate automatically. You can always override it on individual invoices or mark specific line items as non-taxable.

Send the Invoice

Once your invoice is saved, share it with your customer:

  1. Open the invoice and click Share.
  2. In the Link tab, click Copy Link to get a shareable portal link. Text it to your customer, paste it in an email, or send it however you prefer. This works on Free and Pro.
  3. Or switch to the Email tab to send the invoice directly from Service Invoice Pro (Pro only). Select the customer, review the subject line, add an optional message, and click Send.

You can also click Download PDF to save a PDF and attach it to your own email or print it.

What Your Customer Sees

Your customer opens the link and sees the invoice on a clean, branded page with your logo, business info, and invoice details. They can download a PDF copy.

If you’re on the Pro plan with online payments enabled (via Settings → Payments), they’ll also see a Pay Now button. They can pay by credit card or ACH bank transfer. The payment is deposited directly into your connected Stripe account.

Recording Offline Payment

When you receive payment by cash, check, Zelle, or any other method:

  1. Open the invoice.
  2. Click Mark as Paid.
  3. Select the payment method from the dropdown (Cash, Check, Zelle, or Other).
  4. Optionally add a note — for example, “Check #1234” or “Paid via Venmo.”

The invoice status changes to Paid and the amount is reflected in your dashboard revenue.

Draft vs Sent

  • Draft — the invoice is saved but your customer can’t see it yet. You can edit it freely.
  • Sent — once you share the link or send the email, the invoice becomes visible to your customer. Your branding (logo, colors) is locked in at this point so the customer always sees a consistent document.

Tips

  • Your invoice number is assigned automatically (e.g., “INV-00001”). Customize the prefix and starting number in Settings → Invoice Settings.
  • Add Notes (visible to the customer) for project details, or Terms for payment conditions like “Due upon receipt” or “Net 30.”
  • You can add a Discount (percentage or flat amount) in the invoice form.
  • You can add a PO Number if your customer requires one for their records.

Next Steps

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