How to set up a recurring invoice?

You can now easily set up and create automatic recurring invoices for your clients at a specific frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or custom frequency) directly from your Qonto account to make your invoicing process more efficient and less time-consuming.

Starting on 01/10 these features are available with Accounts Receivable add-on

according to the new pricing (more details here) and can be accessed using the 💻 web app by Owners and Admins.

Note: Users on mobile devices will be able to see the informational note saying: 'This invoice was created automatically as part of a recurring invoice.'

Setting up your recurring invoice

You can create a recurring invoice in two ways:

1. From Invoices > Client invoices section > click on “New Invoice” and mark it as recurrent
2. From Invoices > Recurring invoices section > click on “New Invoice”

When setting up a recurring invoice, you need to select:

• Recurrence: Recurring
• Start date: this indicates the start of the recurrence. The start date can be in the future. If you select a start date in the future, the first invoice will be created date, with issue date in the future and it will sent at the future date. The following invoices will be created based on the recurrence and the start date. Example: If you create an monthly recurring invoices on March 15th, with start date on April 1st: on march 15th we will create the first invoice with issue date April 1st, on April 1st we will send it and on May 1st we will create the second invoice
• End date: this indicates the end of the recurrence (optional). If you don’t select an end date, invoices will continue to be created indefinitely until you decide to suspend or cancel the recurring invoice.
• Frequency: This indicates how often invoices will be issued (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or custom).
• Add custom data: Custom data are special text strings in the context of invoicing that automatically fill in specific information based on predefined rules or variables. These data allow you to create invoices that adapt to constantly changing data without requiring manual updates. More details in How to use custom dates?
• Payment terms: this indicates the due date of each created invoice. For example, if the payment terms are 15 days, each invoice will need to be paid within 15 days from the issue date.
• Payment methods: the user can choose between credit card payments, online payments (Apple Pay, PayPal), bank transfer, and, if you are eligible, direct debits.
• Email details: here you can enter the recipient's email address (or addresses) and the email subject and message that will be used when each invoice is automatically sent. You can either choose to create and automatically send the invoice to your client, meaning the invoice will be generated and sent using the predefined message you chose every time the recurring schedule triggers without requiring any manual intervention, or opt to save the invoice as a draft, which allows you to review, adjust details, and modify the content of the email before each invoice is actually sent to your client. You will be notified via email once the draft invoice is created and ready to be finalized.
• Payment details: just like with one-off client invoices, you can choose between credit card payments, online payments (Apple Pay, PayPal) and bank transfer. Additionally if you’re eligible, for direct debit collection, you can enable the option to automatically debit your client. Learn more about eligibility.

The individual invoices created from a recurring invoice will be listed together with normal one-off invoices (Client invoices section). They will be identified with an informational note saying: 'This invoice was created automatically as part of a recurring invoice.

💡 Direct debit makes collecting payment from recurring invoices effortless.

Here’s how it works:

1. Automatic collection setup

When you select direct debit as your collection method during invoice creation, we automatically handle the collection process for you - no need to manually create the collections for the invoices

2. Assigning a direct debit mandate

During the invoice creation, you'll be prompted to assign a mandate to the direct debit collection:

• Existing mandate: If your client has one or more active mandates, they'll appear in the dropdown menu for you to select.
• New mandate: If no active mandate exists, you can create a new one directly.

Important: Collection will only begin after your client signs the mandate.

What are the different recurring invoice statuses and what actions can I take?

Recurring invoices have 5 statuses:

• Active → this is a recurring invoice that is currently running
• Suspended → this is a recurring invoice that has been paused
• Scheduled → this is a recurring invoice that has a start date in the future
• Completed → this is a recurring invoice that has ended
• Canceled → this is a recurring invoice that has been canceled

You can only perform some actions if the recurring invoice has the Active, Suspended or Scheduled statuses:

• Edit → You can edit Active, Suspended or Scheduled recurring invoices.
• Suspend → You can suspend Active recurring invoices. No invoices will be created while a recurring invoice is suspended. On the end date, the recurring invoice will move to Completed.
• Reactivate → You can reactivate Suspended recurring invoices. By reactivating a recurring invoice, we will resume creating invoices.
• Cancel → You can cancel Active, Suspended, and Scheduled recurring invoices. By canceling a recurring invoice, we stop creating invoices.
• You can also view all invoices created from a recurring invoice and their status (Paid, To be paid, Canceled) by clicking on the table row and opening the right-hand side panel.

What should I take into account when managing my recurring invoices?

⚠️ Important: If you need to pause a recurring invoice, you should cancel or suspend it on the day before the next invoice is issued. This will avoid you having to manually cancel it.

• If you delete a client that is used on an Active, Suspended, or Scheduled recurring invoice, we’ll mark this recurring invoice as Canceled.
• If your company’s account is closed, all Active, Suspended, or Scheduledrecurring invoices will be marked as Canceled.

• For recurring invoices, we apply automatic numbering. This means that, if you have a recurring invoice that is Active, Suspended, or Scheduled, you will not be able to switch between automatic numbering and manual numbering whenever you want to create one-off invoices or quotes. If you have no recurring invoices or all recurring invoices are Completed or Canceled, you will then be able to switch again between the two numbering modes.

   

🇮🇹 Note: For Italian businesses, invoices created automatically as part of a recurring invoice are no different from normal one-off invoices and are, thus, forwarded directly to the SDI, to comply with e-invoicing requirements for Italy.