Approving & Sending Invoices

Approving an invoice is what makes it real: it draws the invoice number, puts the amount into your receivables and shows the invoice to your customer. Emailing a copy is a separate act, and you can do it later, more than once, or not at all.

Approve and review the email

This is the common case. Open the draft invoice and select Approve & Email.

AxiomBlue saves your changes, approves the invoice and opens the Send Invoice window. Review the recipient, CC, BCC, subject, message and PDF template, then select Send Invoice to email the copy with the PDF attached. Cancelling this window leaves the invoice approved without sending an email.

The Email Template button displays the active template's name. Use the arrow beside it to choose an email template. Selecting a template fills the subject and message with this invoice's details; clicking the template name restores its copy after inline edits. You can edit either field before sending. An unchanged template keeps its HTML formatting; editing the message sends your revised copy as plain text. Applying a template does not send an email.

Manage these templates in Email Templates, using the Invoice Email category. Its variable picker includes the invoice number, customer name and email, total, amount due, due date, view/pay link and business contact details. The default Invoice Email template is editable there. Email templates and PDF templates are separate selections.

From the invoices list, the row menu's Approve & Send action approves and emails the customer after confirmation.

Approving does four things at once:

• Replaces the draft placeholder with the real invoice number.
• Records who approved it and when.
• Adds the amount to your receivables and to the Total Outstanding figure.
• Makes the invoice visible to the customer in the customer portal.

Some customers pay a job series automatically. Approving an invoice for one of its visits starts the charge: AxiomBlue charges their saved card or bank account 10 to 15 minutes later. Check the invoice before you approve it. See Billing a Job Series Automatically.

Approve without emailing

Not every invoice goes out by email. Open the dropdown beside Approve & Email for the other ways out of draft:

• Approve only — the invoice becomes real and appears in the customer portal. Nothing is sent.
• Approve & Download PDF — for printing or handing over on site.
• Approve & Copy Link — copies a share link you can send however you like.
• Approve & Mark as Sent — asks how you delivered it yourself, then approves it and records that.
• Submit for approval — appears only when your business has turned on the extra approval stage, which is off unless someone switched it on.

Record a delivery you made yourself

When you print an invoice, post it, or hand it over on site, record that. Your team can then see the customer has a copy.

1. From the invoice, open Options and choose Mark as Sent.
2. Under How was it sent?, pick Printed and handed over, Posted or Sent another way.
3. Select Mark as sent.

The Mark as Sent row action on the invoices list asks the same question. Marking an invoice as sent records the delivery only — it does not change the invoice's status.

Reading the delivery banner

An issued, unpaid invoice carries a banner above the details telling you where delivery stands. It reads one of two ways.

• How and when the last copy went out, plus when the customer first opened it if they have.
• Issued but not sent — the invoice is real and waiting in the customer portal.

Invoice statuses

The status badge on an invoice describes the document, not the delivery:

• Draft — still being prepared. Editable, no real number, not in receivables, invisible to the customer.
• Awaiting Approval — waiting for someone to sign it off. Only used by businesses that turned on the extra approval stage.
• Awaiting Payment — approved and unpaid. This is where an invoice sits after you approve it.
• Partial — some money received, a balance still owing.
• Overdue — past the due date with a balance owing.
• Paid — nothing further owing.
• Void and Cancelled — no longer valid, kept for the record.
• Written Off — abandoned as uncollectable.

Working the invoices list

Banking & Expenses > Accounts Receivable opens on the Invoices tab, alongside Credit Notes and Aged Receivables. The list shows Invoice #, Customer, Issue Date, Due Date, Total, Due and Status, with a red day count against anything past its due date.

Use Filters to narrow by status, customer, issue date range, due date range, or Overdue Only. The search box needs three characters before it runs. Filters and the page you are on are kept in the address, so a refresh brings you back where you were.

Options > Export Invoices, on the Invoices tab, downloads the invoices matching your filters as an Excel-compatible CSV, or in a Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks or Sage import format.

Resending and reprinting

Once an invoice is issued, Options gives you Email Customer, Download PDF and Print Invoice. The invoices list has a Resend row action for emailing another copy.

Every email sent about the invoice is listed on its Email History card, and every payment on Payment History.

Deleting a draft

A draft that has not been approved has no invoice number and nothing in your accounts depends on it, so you can delete it outright. Open Options and select Delete Draft, then confirm. In the invoice list, use the Delete row action. This also works for an invoice that is awaiting approval.

Any job, quote or billing milestone the draft was raised from is released, so you can invoice it again.

Voiding an invoice

Once an invoice has been approved, it can't be deleted. If it should never have been raised, void it. Open Options and select Void Invoice, then confirm.

What you should see

After approving, the invoice carries a real number, its badge reads Awaiting Payment, and its value is counted in Total Outstanding on Accounts Receivable. Next: Recording Payments.