Invoicing

The following document discusses working with invoices. If you are looking for documentation regarding configuration of invoice related settings, please visit Invoicing Setup.

Searching Invoices

There are a number of ways to search for and locate invoices.

You can search by Invoice Number using the Intelligent Search from any page of the admin area
For more advanced search options, including searching by line item descriptions, you must use the Invoices List
- There is the global Invoices List that lists invoices for all clients which can be accessed by navigating to Billing > Invoices (selecting a status is optional)
- There is also the clients' Invoices List which is restricted to just a single clients invoices. This can be accessed via the Invoices tab from the Clients Summary page.

Creating Custom Invoices

WHMCS automatically generates invoices for recurring products and services.

To create a one-off custom invoice, follow the steps below:

Navigate to the client you wish to generate an invoice for
Click the Create Invoice link located in the Invoices/Billing panel on the Client Summary page
A new invoice will be created in Draft status
The due date for manually created invoices defaults to the same number of days in the future as you allow for automatic invoice generation. The due date can be customised via the Options tab when managing an invoice.
You can immediately begin adding line items to the invoice
For each one you wish to add, enter a description and amount, followed by the Save Changes button. A new row will then appear to allow adding further line items.
If you wish to customise any of the invoice options including due dates, payment method, tax rates, etc..., you can do so via the Options tab located at the top of the invoice

You can navigate away from the invoice at any time during this process and return to it later. WHMCS will store the invoice as a draft and it will not be visible to the customer until you have marked it as complete and published it. (WHMCS 6.2+)

Publishing an Invoice

To publish an invoice, click the Publish button located to the top right of the invoice creation screen. Two publish options are available:

Publish & Send Email - clicking this button converts the invoice to Unpaid and sends the Invoice Creation email to the customer.
Publish - clicking this button converts the invoice to Unpaid without notifying the customer.

Please Note: The publish buttons will only be displayed when the invoice is in Draft status.

Sending Emails

WHMCS has a range of Invoice related Email Templates which are all fully customisable.

Most of these emails are sent when various automated triggers occur, but all of them can also be sent on-demand by admin level users.

To send an email:

Navigate to the invoice you wish to send an email for
Select the email template you wish to send in the dropdown located under the invoice status banner
Click Send Email to perform the send

Please Note: The system will not allow you to send emails relating to an invoice that is in Draft status. You must first publish the draft invoice before sending an email.

Mass Payment

Mass Payment of Invoices allows customers to pay for multiple invoices in a single transaction.

This is often quicker and more convenient for customers with multiple invoices outstanding, plus it can reduce your transaction costs by only processing a single transaction.

Clients can request to perform Mass Payment via the client area providing it is enabled.

Admin users can also create Mass Payment invoices:

Navigate to the Clients Invoices list within the admin area (accessible from the Client Summary page)
Tick the checkboxes next to the invoices you wish to combine for payment
Click the Mass Pay button located at the bottom of the list of invoices

Mass Payment is different from Merging invoices. With Mass Pay, the separate invoices are maintained, and when the Combined invoice is paid, the original invoices are marked paid by way of credit being applied. Merging invoices on the other hand will actually combine all the individual invoice line items into a single invoice, deleting all but one of the merged invoices.

Mass Payment invoices that are generated do not count towards the total balance due by a customer and are not displayed within the client area.

Adding Funds

Adding of funds or credit to an account allows a client to prefund their account ahead of time.

When this option is enabled, clients can deposit funds into their account between a minimum and maximum amount that you define. These funds are known as the clients Credit Balance.

Automatically generated invoices will always check to see if a client has a positive Credit Balance and auto apply money from the credit to the invoices when generated. If sufficient, the Credit Balance will zero the balance on the invoice and result in it being processed as paid automatically without the customer having to do anything.

Admin users can create add funds invoices:

Navigate to the Client Summary page for the client in question
Click the Create Add Funds Invoice option found under the Billing/Invoices section
Enter the desired amount to be deposit to the account where requested
Click Submit to complete the process and create the invoice

The customer will receive an email that an invoice has been generated along with a link to pay.

This feature should be used any time you want to charge a customer and add the amount immediately to their credit balance to allow it to be applied to future or current invoices.

Splitting Invoices

Splitting invoices allows you to separate one or more line items from an invoice into a separate invoice.

This is useful if you have a situation where items have been grouped together on a single invoice that a client wants to renew separately, or where a merge has been done incorrectly.

To split items from an invoice:

Navigate to the invoice you wish to split items from
Tick the checkboxes next to all the line items that you wish to split out into a new invoice
Note: All the line items you select here will be moved to a single new invoice.
Select the Split to New Invoice option in the dropdown located immediately below the invoice line items
The form will auto submit and the page will re-load with the new invoice containing only the line items you had selected

This process does not send any email to the customer. If you wish, you should then use the Send Email option to notify the customer of the new invoice.

Merging Invoices

Merging invoices allows you to combine multiple separate invoices into a single invoice.

This is useful for when a client would like to pay for items that were invoiced separately together at the same time.

To merge invoices, follow the steps below:

Navigate to the Clients Invoices list within the admin area (accessible from the Client Summary page)
Tick the checkboxes next to the invoices you wish to combine for payment
Click the Merge button located at the bottom of the list of invoices

No email notification is sent to customers when performing this action so if you wish to notify the customer, you should use the Send Email option in the resulting invoice.

Refunding Payments

If you are using a gateway in WHMCS that has automated refunds implemented (which includes PayPal, Authorize.net, Quantum Gateway, 2Checkout etc...), then WHMCS allows you to issue a refund without ever logging into your gateway. A real time saver!

Even if the refund can't be automated, you can still use this process to enter the refund billing entry into WHMCS which will update the income totals and reflect the refund on the invoice. Then you would go to your gateway and actually send the refund from there.

And as a final alternative you can issue a refund to the clients credit balance with you which instead of losing the money entirely allows you to just give the user a credit against future purchases or renewals from you.

So to perform a refund, simply follow these steps below:

Locate the invoice you wish to issue a refund for either by searching or from Billing > List Paid Invoices and click the invoice ID to view it
Select the Refund tab
Choose the transaction you want to refund if more than one has been applied towards the invoice
Enter the amount you want to refund if only giving a partial refund or leave blank for full
Then select the Refund Type from the options "Refund through Gateway", "Add to Client's Credit Balance" or "Record Only"
Tick the Send Email checkbox if you wish to send a refund confirmation email to the client, it contains useful information on the refund including the amount and refund type.
Click the Refund button to submit

Notes

If "Refund through Gateway" is chosen, the results of the refund will then be displayed. If successful the relevant transaction entry will also be added. If it fails, you can check in Transactions > Gateway Log for the detailed response from that gateway as to why.

If refunding a payment that has been added to a clients credit then you must first check that the credit hasn't been used and manually remove the credit. This is because the system does not known that the amount you refunded was (a) linked to a credit and (b) not yet used as a credit.