Invoices
Requires.
- Invoices with View to see invoices.
- Invoices with Create to create a new one.
- Invoices with Modify to edit an existing one.
- Invoices with Delete to delete an invoice or recurring invoice.
The Invoices pages are where you create, view, and manage every charge against a customer. SecurityTrax has three related kinds:
- One-time invoices — a single charge for a specific thing (a service call, an install, an activation fee). They're created, sent, and eventually paid.
- Quotes — a proposed charge that can be emailed or downloaded, but does not accept payments. A quote can be converted into a real invoice once the customer accepts it.
- Recurring invoices — a schedule that auto-generates a real one-time invoice every period (monthly, quarterly, annually). A recurring invoice is a template, not a real charge itself — the actual invoices it generates live in the one-time list.
They live on related URLs and share the same sub-nav on the Accounting tab.
On lead records, only quotes are available. SecurityTrax hides recurring invoices and blocks invoice, refund receipt, and recurring-invoice creation for leads.
Getting here
- Click Accounting in the customer's header. The landing page is Transactions — every invoice already shows there.
- From the accounting sub-nav, click Recurring to see recurring templates specifically.
- Quick-actions in the header flyout: + New Invoice and + New Recurring Invoice.
- From Accounting → Transactions, use + New Transaction to create New Invoice, New Quote, New Refund Receipt, or New Payment. On lead records, this menu only shows New Quote.
- Direct URLs:
/customers/{id}/customer-invoices— one-time invoice list (though most of the time you'll view this through the Transactions tab)./customers/{id}/customer-invoices/recurring— recurring invoice templates.
The Transactions tab (where invoices actually show)
When you land on Accounting → Transactions, invoices appear mixed in with payments in one unified list. That's by design — a customer's account is a stream of charges and credits together. See Accounting — Transactions for the full list description.
To filter to only invoices, either use the Recurring sub-tab for recurring templates, or click the Charges / Credits column on Transactions to sort. There's no dedicated "invoices-only" list view in the UI.
Creating or duplicating an invoice
Click + New Invoice in the header flyout, or use + New Transaction → New Invoice on Transactions. To create a quote or refund receipt, use + New Transaction → New Quote or + New Transaction → New Refund Receipt.
Invoice form fields
| Field | Required? | Type | Validation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice type | Yes | Select | One-time / Credit memo / Refund Receipt | One-time is the default. Credit memos reduce the balance without receiving payment. Refund receipts record money going back to the customer. |
| Invoice date | Yes | Date picker | — | Defaults to today. |
| Due date | Yes | Date picker | Must be ≥ invoice date | Often auto-computed from an Invoice Terms dropdown (Net 15, Net 30, etc.). |
| Invoice terms | No | Select | From the Invoice Terms catalog | Picking a term auto-fills the due date. |
| Line items | Yes (at least one) | Multi-row | Description up to 6,000 characters; quantity and unit price numeric | Each row has Quantity, Item, Description, Unit Cost, Amount, and Tax %. Quantity defaults to 1.00 on a new row. Pick an Invoice Billable Item to fill Description and Unit Cost, then edit them. The credit card processing fee catalog item (PP-CC-FEE-PERCENT) is not in this dropdown — add it from Actions → Quick Add instead (see below). Description grows with the text you type; line breaks appear on the emailed and downloaded invoice. |
| Subtotal, tax, total | — | Computed | — | Auto-calculated from line items. Displayed amounts use thousands separators (10,000.00) on the form and on the emailed and downloaded invoice. |
| Discount | No | Percent or fixed dollar | ≥ 0 | Applies to the subtotal. |
| Notes (internal) | No | Text | — | Hidden from the customer. When an administrator turns on Note under Admin → Global Settings → Appearance → Customer Lists, a preview of this field appears as the last column on the customer's Transactions list. |
| Customer-facing notes | No | Text | — | Printed on the invoice PDF and visible to the customer. |
| Memo | No | Text | — | Internal reference for your accounting team. |
Quick Add: credit card processing fee
The full setup-then-add walkthrough is Credit card processing fee. Short version: an admin sets the percent on PP-CC-FEE-PERCENT; you add the line here.
When your company has a credit card processing fee configured (see Billing Admin), invoices, quotes, and unlocked recurring invoices show Actions → Quick Add → Credit Card Fee (N%), where N is the catalog percent (for example Credit Card Fee (3%)).
Click it to add one Credit Card Processing Fee line. SecurityTrax calculates the dollar amount as that percent of the amount due excluding the fee itself — other lines' quantity × unit cost, plus their tax, minus anything already paid — then rounds to the nearest cent. There is no fee-on-fee.
The fee line locks Quantity, Item, Unit Cost, and Tax %. You can still edit Description or delete the line. There is no manual override of the dollar amount: delete the line and Quick Add it again to recalculate.
The fee is not included in All the above. It never appears on refund receipts. A locked recurring invoice (line items disabled after generation has begun) cannot Quick Add. Recurring generation copies the stored dollar amount onto each generated invoice; it does not re-apply the percent.
A fee you added this session with Quick Add updates live as other lines change. A fee that was already saved, or copied by Duplicate, stays at the stored dollars until you delete it.
When you finish the form:
| Button | What happens |
|---|---|
| Save | Creates the invoice and takes you to Accounting → Transactions. Recurring invoices go to the Recurring list instead. |
| Save & Stay | Creates the record and opens it so you can email it, download the PDF, or (on invoices) record a payment without finding it on the list first. |
Save & Stay is also available when you edit an existing invoice — it saves your changes and keeps you on that invoice. Create uses Invoices Create; edit uses Invoices Modify.
To copy an existing invoice, open the invoice, choose Actions, then click Duplicate. SecurityTrax opens a new invoice form with a Duplicating invoice callout at the top and a link back to the original invoice.
Duplicating an invoice pre-fills the new draft with the original invoice's visible invoice details and line-item values. The copy uses today's date, and it does not carry over payments, generated-invoice links, QuickBooks or other external sync records, or any saved line-item record IDs. The new invoice is not created until you click Save or Save & Stay.
Emailing the invoice to the customer
Opening a saved invoice or quote shows Actions → Email when it can be emailed. Your admin controls which Invoice Quote Templates get used for the PDF.
Whether the emailed invoice is sent as a PDF attachment or rendered inline in the email body is controlled by your admin under Global Settings → Billing & Invoicing → Attach Invoice as PDF When Emailing. Dollar amounts on both the email body and the PDF use thousands separators (10,000.00).
Send history — when this invoice went out, and to whom
A Send History card appears below a saved invoice or quote once it has been emailed at least once. It never shows on a new invoice, and it stays hidden entirely on one that has never been sent, so a print-only invoice doesn't carry an empty card.
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Sent | Date and time of that send. Every send gets its own row, so re-sends build a history rather than overwriting the last one. A red Failed badge appears when the email could not be handed off at all. |
| Subject | The subject line that went out. Sends recorded before SecurityTrax started capturing this show Not recorded. |
| Sent To | The exact recipients that send went to, as recorded at the time. |
| How | On its own for a normal per-invoice email, or In the combined email to {Parent} when it went out inside a parent's consolidated invoice email — with "with N other invoices" underneath when the same email covered others. |
| Sent By | The user who sent it, or SecurityTrax for the automatic nightly emails. |
This covers every path an invoice can leave by: the Actions → Email button, the automatic email at generation, and the consolidated parent emails (the invoice digest and the charge-failure notice). Use it to answer "did this actually go out, and to which address" without guessing from the customer's mailbox.
Note. A Failed row means SecurityTrax could not hand the email off at all — the reason is shown beside the subject, and nothing was sent. Everything else means the email left our system successfully. What happens after that (delivery, bounces, spam filtering, whether anyone opened it) is not tracked.
Downloading the invoice as a PDF
Opening a saved invoice or quote shows Actions → Download. Click it to download the invoice or quote as a PDF to your device. This action is always available on a saved invoice or quote and does not depend on the email-attachment setting above.
Quote actions
Saved quotes have Actions → Email, Actions → Download, and Actions → Convert to Invoice. They do not show payment actions such as Record Payment or Manage Payments because quotes are not posted charges.
Converting a quote to an invoice
Note. Converting requires Invoices with both Modify and Create. Quotes on lead records can't be converted — convert the lead to a customer first.
When the customer accepts a quote, turn it into a real invoice:
- Open the saved quote and choose Actions → Convert to Invoice.
- Fill in the conversion dialog:
| Field | Required? | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sale Date | Yes | Date picker | Defaults to today. |
| Term | Yes | Select | From the Invoice Terms catalog. The invoice's due date is set automatically to the sale date plus the term's days — the dialog shows the resulting due date before you convert. |
| PO Number | No | Text | Left blank, the quote's existing PO number (if any) is kept. |
- Click Convert.
The quote becomes a one-time invoice on the same record — same ID, and every line item and amount carries over unchanged. Payment actions (Record Payment, Manage Payments) become available, and the invoice shows on Transactions as a posted charge.
Recurring invoices
The Recurring sub-tab shows recurring-invoice templates — not actual charges. Each template has:
- Name — your internal label.
- Frequency — monthly, quarterly, annually, or custom.
- Next invoice date — when SecurityTrax will auto-generate the next real invoice.
- Last invoice date — when it last generated one.
- Total invoiced to date — running total of amounts generated.
- Status — active, paused, completed, cancelled.
When a recurring invoice fires on its schedule, SecurityTrax:
- Generates a real one-time invoice based on the template's line items.
- Adds the new invoice to the customer's Transactions list.
- Updates the recurring's Last invoice date and sets Next invoice date to the following cycle.
- If the recurring invoice has a Payment Method selected, SecurityTrax charges that method automatically. Recurring invoices with None selected generate unpaid invoices instead.
Sub-customers: how invoices roll up to the parent
When this customer is a linked sub-customer (parent/child billing), its invoices always belong to the sub-customer but are delivered to and paid by the parent. The sub-customer is never emailed its own rolled-up invoice — the per-invoice email options are hidden.
Both records warn you. When the parent's billing setup won't do what the sub-customers expect — no default billing method, or a billing method with no Bill day of month — the red box at the top of the page says so. On the parent it names the problem; on each sub-customer it explains why that account's invoices behave the way they do and points the fix at the parent. Both cases are explained below.
What happens next depends on how the parent is set up to pay. Two separate things drive it — whether the parent has a default billing method, and whether that method has a day of the month on it — which gives three cases:
If the parent is set up for automatic payment
This is the case when the parent has a credit card or bank account as their default billing method with a day of the month set on it.
Generated invoices come due on the parent's bill day, whatever date each sub-customer's schedule generates on, so the whole family consolidates into one combined charge per cycle. You do not need to align the sub-customers' billing dates. The parent's own recurring invoices join that same charge when they come due the same night on the same billing method.
The parent hears about it four ways, each controlled in Global Settings → Billing & Invoicing:
- Pre-charge statement — about a week before the bill day (configurable), one consolidated statement PDF covering everything that will be charged.
- Generation digest — each night rolled-up invoices generate, one email listing them with each invoice attached as a PDF.
- Consolidated receipt — after the combined charge processes, one receipt covering every invoice it paid.
- Failure notice — if the combined charge is declined, SecurityTrax automatically retries it nightly for several days; when those retries run out with invoices still unpaid, the parent receives one consolidated notice asking them to update their billing information. The retries and the notice are automatic — you don't need to re-send anything.
If the parent's billing method has no day of the month set
This one is almost always an oversight, and it is worth checking on any parent that gets charged more than once a month. Bill day of month is an optional field on the billing method, so a parent can have a card on file with that field left blank.
When it is blank there is no bill day to move due dates to, so invoices never consolidate — each keeps the due date its own terms produce. Charging, though, does not need a bill day: every one of those due dates still triggers its own charge. The family ends up charged several times a month instead of once, each with its own receipt, and no pre-charge statement (that email is scheduled off the bill day).
The family does not appear under needs-attention on Upcoming Billing, because a charge really is going to run — it just runs more often than anyone intended. Instead, the parent's customer record shows a warning in the red box at the top, on every tab.
Fix it with one field. Open the parent's default billing method and set Bill day of month. Invoices generated from then on come due on that day and consolidate normally. Invoices that already exist keep the due dates they were given — contact SecurityTrax support if you need those pulled onto the bill day as well.
If the parent is invoiced instead (email or print/mail, no automatic charge)
This is the case when the parent has no default billing method, or their default method is a manual/statement one — a family you bill and wait to be paid.
Roll-up still does the job it is there for: the parent receives one combined invoice email each night rolled-up invoices generate, listing every sub-customer invoice with each one attached as a PDF, and the parent's Transactions and Statements show the sub-customers' invoices alongside their own. That is the delivery mechanism for these families.
Two differences to be aware of:
- Due dates do not converge. The bill day lives on the parent's default billing method, so with no billing method there is no bill day and each invoice keeps the due date its own terms produce. Invoices for the family will land on different dates unless you align the sub-customers' recurring schedules yourself. Unlike the case above, nothing is charged on those dates, so this is a presentation difference rather than a billing problem.
- Nothing is charged automatically, and there is no statement or receipt. Record the payment on the parent when it arrives — the parent's payment screen lists the sub-customers' open invoices so one payment can be applied across the family.
Past-due reminders still go out. When a rolled-up invoice for one of these families goes past due, the reminder is emailed on the normal schedule — addressed to the parent, since they are the one who pays. Auto-charged families are the exception: they get no reminder, because a past-due rolled-up invoice there means the combined charge was declined, which already retries on its own and ends in the failure notice above.
Heads up. On Accounting → Upcoming Billing → Rollup Charges, a family like this appears under needs-attention with the reason "parent has no default billing method" rather than as a predicted charge. For a family you invoice on purpose, that is expected — it is telling you no automatic charge will run, not that something is broken.
Creating a recurring invoice
Click + New Recurring Invoice in the header flyout, or + on the Recurring sub-tab. The form has the same line-item structure as a one-time invoice, plus:
Heads up. For a brand-new recurring invoice, Start date must be tomorrow or later. Recurring invoice duplicates open with today's date so you can review the copied schedule immediately before saving.
| Field | Required? | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Yes | Select | Monthly, quarterly, annually, custom. |
| Start date | Yes | Date | Defaults to tomorrow for a new recurring invoice. A duplicated recurring invoice opens with today's date. |
| End date | No | Date | When the schedule stops. Leave blank for open-ended. |
| Bill with parent | — | Automatic | Applies when parent/child is enabled and this customer is linked to a parent. Generated invoices automatically roll up to the parent's AR — there is nothing to check. The form shows a callout with exactly where the parent's consolidated invoice emails go and which of the parent's billing methods is charged. |
| Payment Method | No | Radio cards | Optional. Choose a stored card or bank account to auto-charge generated invoices, or None to leave them unpaid until you record a payment. You can change or clear this later. Hidden when the customer bills with a parent. |
Editing, duplicating, or deleting a recurring invoice
Open a recurring template from the Recurring sub-tab to review it.
For existing recurring invoices, the edit page lets you change or clear the payment method. Clearing it (select None) stops future generated invoices from being auto-charged; invoices already generated are not affected. After generation has begun, schedule and line items are locked; payment method, notes, terms, mailing, and email flags stay editable.
To copy a recurring invoice, open the recurring invoice's edit page, choose Actions, then click Duplicate. SecurityTrax opens a new recurring invoice form with a Duplicating recurring invoice callout at the top and a link back to the original recurring invoice.
Duplicating a recurring invoice pre-fills the new draft with the original schedule details, billing method, notes, email settings, tax override setting, and line-item values. The duplicate start date is set to today so you can review and adjust it before saving. The copy does not carry over generated invoices, payments, external sync records, or any saved line-item record IDs. The new recurring invoice is not created until you click Save or Save & Stay.
To delete a recurring invoice, open the recurring invoice's edit page and click Delete at the bottom of the form. The Delete button is only available on the edit page; it does not appear on the Recurring list.
The Delete button only appears when all of these are true:
- You have Invoices with Delete for the customer.
- The recurring invoice does not have active payments applied.
- The recurring invoice has not already been sent to Avalara.
- The recurring invoice is not linked to an external sync record, such as QuickBooks.
Clicking Delete opens a confirmation modal. If the recurring invoice has already generated unpaid invoices, the modal warns you before you confirm. Deleting the recurring invoice stops future invoices from being generated; already-generated real invoices stay on the customer's Transactions list.
Parent/child recurring rollup
If this customer is a parent and parent/child is enabled, the Recurring sub-tab also shows children's recurring invoices that have Bill with parent = checked. That way the parent's accounting view includes every recurring charge that will eventually post against their AR.
Children's recurrings that don't bill with the parent stay on the child's own page only.
Related
- Accounting — Transactions — the main accounting landing; invoices show up there.
- Payments — apply customer payments against open invoices.
- Billing Methods — configure the default payment method for auto-pay.
- Statements — email the customer a combined view of invoices + payments.
- Credit card processing fee — who turns the percent on, then how to Quick Add it.
- Invoice Billable Items (admin reference) — the line-item catalog, including the credit card processing fee percent.
- Customer Payment Portal — Pay Now adds the same fee only when the invoice does not already have one.
- Invoice Quote Templates (admin reference) — the PDF templates generated invoices render with.