How-to

How to send an invoice and get paid, from your own site

A step-by-step guide to invoicing with the Invoices Tool: set up your details once, pick a layout, send a PDF by email, record payments as they arrive, and raise self-billing invoices for the suppliers you pay.

By Darryl Waterhouse · · 3 min read

Small businesses lose hours to invoicing: a spreadsheet for the numbers, a word processor for the layout, an email client to send it, and a list somewhere of who has paid. The Invoices Tool does all of it inside your site, next to your customers and your shop.

This guide follows our made-up company, ACME Ltd, from a new invoice to a paid one.

1. Set up your details once

Open the cog and add yourself as an issuer: your trading name, address, VAT number and bank details. If you trade under more than one name, add each one. Then add your customers as receivers, or let them build up as you go.

Invoices numbers itself, for example INV-2026-0001. Numbers restart each year and are never reused.

2. Pick a layout

Under Settings > Templates there are three: Classic with your logo top left, Modern with a dark band across the top, and Minimal, which prints cleanly in black and white. Click one to preview it, then Use this template.

Invoice Settings, Templates tab: Classic, Modern and Minimal, with a live preview

3. Write the invoice

Choose the issuer and the customer, add the lines, and set the VAT rate and due date. The totals work themselves out as you type.

The invoice editor: line items, VAT, a payment recorded and the balance due

4. Send it

Click Send. The customer's address is already filled in, along with a subject and a short covering note you can change. If you use Contacts, Add a contact and Add a group pick more people to send to.

The Send Invoice panel: the customer's email address, subject, covering note and Attach a PDF

Leave Attach a PDF on and your customer gets a proper A4 invoice, with your bank details at the bottom. A draft becomes Sent.

The downloaded PDF of a part-paid invoice, with VAT, the payment received, the balance due and bank details

You can also Download PDF or Print it yourself.

5. Record payments as they arrive

When money comes in, record it on the invoice. A part payment leaves a balance, and the PDF shows what has been paid and what is still due. Once the balance is cleared, the invoice moves to Paid on its own.

The list shows everything at a glance: what is outstanding, what is overdue and what has been paid. An invoice becomes overdue once its due date passes with a balance still to pay, and the sidebar badge turns red until it is settled.

Invoices with totals, outstanding and overdue, and a part-paid invoice showing what is still owed

6. Paying suppliers? Use self-billing

If you pay lots of small suppliers, such as contractors, tutors or a sharpening service, you can raise their invoices for them under a self-billing agreement. Mark the supplier as a self-billing supplier in Receivers, with the agreement date, review date and their VAT number. Then make an invoice with Kind: Self-billing.

It numbers in its own sequence (SB- by default), prints with the supplier as the issuer and you as the customer, and is marked SELF-BILLING, as HMRC expects. When an agreement's review date comes round, Invoices reminds you.

A self-billing invoice raised for a supplier, with their details as issuer and the SELF-BILLING note

Quick checklist

  1. Add your issuer details and bank account once.
  2. Choose a layout.
  3. Write the invoice, then Send it with the PDF attached.
  4. Record each payment as it arrives.
  5. Keep an eye on the red badge for anything overdue.

Need to agree a price first? Invoices does quotes too: your customer accepts online and you turn the quote into an invoice in one click.

Explore Invoices.

The screens above come from our made-up demo company, ACME Ltd.

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