Invoicing

If you are looking for documentation regarding configuration of invoice related settings, visit Invoicing Setup.

Searching Invoices

To search for and locate invoices, use either of the following methods:

Search by invoice number using the Intelligent Search in the Admin Area.
Search using advanced search options, including searching by line item descriptions, using the list at Billing > Invoices.

Creating Invoices

WHMCS automatically generates invoices for recurring products and services. You can also create custom one-time invoices for specific clients.

To create a one-time custom invoice for a specific client:

Perform one of the following methods to create the draft invoice. The system will create a new invoice 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. You can customize this via the Options tab when managing an invoice.
- From the client's profile's Summary tab, click Create Invoice.
- From anywhere in the Admin Area, click the + icon at the top of the interface and choose New Invoice.
  1. Choose a client.
  2. Enter invoice and due dates.
  3. Select a payment method.
  4. Click Create Invoice.
To configure the invoice's details:
1. Update the desired settings in the Options tab.
2. Click Save Changes.
Under Invoice Items, for each invoice item that you wish to add:
1. Enter a description and amount.
2. Click Save Changes. A new row will then appear to allow adding further line items.
To publish the invoice, choose the Summary tab and click a publishing option. These options only display when the invoice is in the Draft status, and clicking them will set the Invoice Date value to the current date.
- Publish & Send Email — Convert the invoice to Unpaid and send the Invoice Creation email to the customer.
- Publish — Convert the invoice to Unpaid without notifying the customer.

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+)

Sending Emails

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

The system sends most of these emails when various automated triggers occur, but admin-level users can also send all of them on demand.

To send an email:

Navigate to the invoice you wish to send an email for.
Select the email template that you wish to send from the menu under the invoice status banner.
Click Send Email.

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, and then send an email.

Mass Payment

Mass Payment is different from Merging invoices. With Mass Pay, the system maintains separate invoices, and when a client pays the Combined invoice, the system marks the original invoices as paid through applying credit. Merging invoices will actually combine all the individual invoice line items into a single invoice, deleting all but one of the merged invoices.

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. It can also reduce your transaction costs by only processing a single transaction.

Clients can request to perform Mass Payment via the client area if it is enabled.
Admin users can also create Mass Payment invoices in the client profile Invoices tab.

Generated Mass Payment invoices do not count towards the total balance due by a customer and the client area does not display them.

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 the client's 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 the system generates them. If sufficient, the applied Credit Balance will reduce the invoice amount to zero and result in the system processing it as paid automatically, without the customer having to do anything.

Admin users can create and add funds to invoices by clicking Create Add Funds Invoice in the client profile Summary tab. For more information, see Add Funds.

Use this feature whenever you want to charge a customer and add the amount immediately to their credit balance. This will allow it to apply 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 appear 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.
Select 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 move to a single new invoice.
Select the Split to New Invoice option in the menu immediately below the invoice line items. The form will auto submit and the page will reload 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.

When splitting an invoice, the system sets the due date of the resulting invoice based on the current date and the Invoice Generation value in Configuration () > System Settings > Automation Settings or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Automation Settings.

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 on separate invoices together at the same time.

To merge invoices, follow the steps below:

Navigate to the Clients Invoices list within the admin area (which you can access from the Client Summary page).
Select the checkboxes next to the invoices you wish to combine for payment.
Click the Merge button at the bottom of the list of invoices.

The system won't send an email notification to customers when performing this action, so if you wish to notify the customer, use the Send Email option in the resulting invoice.

Refunding Transactions

Refunding transactions allows you to issue credits and refunds for payments that clients have made.

If the system can't automate a refund for your particular gateway, you can still use this process to enter the refund billing entry into WHMCS. It will update the income totals and reflect the refund on the invoice. Then, go to your payment gateway to send the refund.

To perform a refund, follow these steps:

Navigate to the invoice you wish to perform a refund for at Billing > Invoices.
Select the Refund tab.
If there have been multiple transactions for the invoice, select the transaction you wish to issue a refund against.
You can only refund one transaction at a time, and the refund amount cannot exceed the total amount of the transaction.
Enter the amount to refund for a partial amount. Otherwise, leave this blank to refund the entire transaction value.
Choose the appropriate Refund Type (see above).
- Refund through Gateway — Many payment gateways in WHMCS support automatic refund capability. With this functionality, WHMCS communicates with the payment gateway and instructs the refund amount for the payment gateway to process. This will return the money to the payment method that the customer used to pay.
- Manual Refund Processed Externally — This allows you to record refunds against invoices when something outside of the system processed the refund. For example, you may use this if you process a refund directly within your payment gateway or if a chargeback or dispute occurs.
- Add to Client's Credit Balance — This allows you to refund money to the client's credit balance for use towards future invoices.
Check Reverse Payment if you want to reverse the effects of the original payment (for example, when you set the invoice status to Collections and reverse the service's Next Due Date.
- When you check this, the system's actions depend on the configuration in Configuration () > System Settings > Automation Settings or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Automation Settings.
- This setting does not alter the system's treatment of any affiliate commissions (see the steps below).
- For more information on this feature, see Payment Reversals.
If you do not wish to send an email confirming the refund has been processed, uncheck Send Email.
Click Refund to perform the refund.
In WHMCS 8.3 and later, if the transaction is associated with an affiliate commission and the payment gateway supports reversals, WHMCS can also reverse the commission.
- When you perform a full refund, WHMCS automatically reverses all of the associated commissions.
- When you perform a partial refund, WHMCS will ask you whether to also reverse the commission. You cannot, however, choose an amount of the commission to reverse. This action reverses the entire amount.
- If you choose not to perform a commission reversal, the commission payment will not be affected. The page will reload and display the results of the refund attempt if you chose Refund through Gateway. If it fails for any reason, the Gateway Log can provide more information.

Reverse Payment

When making a refund, there is the option to reverse the effects of the original payment. For example, you might prefer to set the invoice status to Collections status and reverse the Next Due Date for associated services.

When you select this option, the system's actions while issuing a refund depend on the configuration in Configuration () > System Settings > Automation Settings or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Automation Settings. For more information on this feature, refer to the Payment Reversals page.