Batch Invoicing: Billing Many Clients on the Same Cycle

Batch invoicing means preparing and sending invoices for a group of clients in one billing run, on the same date, instead of writing each invoice when you remember to. Rent for a set of tenants, monthly retainers for agency clients and fixed fees for regular service contracts are typical examples.

It pays off when three things are true: you bill the same clients on a regular schedule, the amounts are fixed or follow a known rule, and the work of writing invoices one by one is taking real time or causing mistakes such as a missed client or an old rate. If you bill a few clients now and then, one invoice at a time is fine.

The goal is a billing run you set up once and then only check: the right clients, the right amounts, sent on the right date, with a clear list afterward of who has paid and who hasn't.

Billed's product pages list recurring invoices, which you can use to run a regular billing cycle for many clients in Billed.

Every client billed on a regular schedule gets its own recurring profile, which you create once and then reuse for each cycle. Billed's invoice software page says you choose "the billing frequency (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) and how many invoices to send, or keep sending until you stop." Billed then "creates the invoices automatically and either sends them or saves them as drafts for you to check." You can create more than one recurring profile for the same client, for example one for a monthly fee and one for a yearly charge.

Each invoice draws on what you have saved: products and services you pull into invoices instead of retyping them, tax rates that Billed applies automatically, discounts or coupons, and a currency chosen for each customer or invoice. Invoices reach clients by email. You can tailor the email wording and have it sent from your own email account through custom SMTP settings.

Clients whose amount changes each cycle don't have to fit a recurring profile. If you bill them for hours, log their hours on a project billed at an hourly rate, then turn the tracked time into an invoice when the cycle ends.

Moving a client list into Billed? Client imports are supported, according to Billed's client management page, which saves typing in every contact before you create profiles.

Example Office Cleaning bills 20 office clients for each month's service, with invoices due in 14 days. The figures below are made up and leave out sales tax; when you do charge tax, Billed works it out from the tax rates you have saved.

12 clients have a weekly clean at a fixed 480.00 a month. Each has a monthly recurring profile set to send automatically: 12 × 480.00 = 5,760.00.

6 clients have a twice-weekly clean at a fixed 860.00 a month, also on monthly profiles that send automatically: 6 × 860.00 = 5,160.00.

2 clients pay by the hour at 38.00, so the company tracks time for each and creates their invoices from the tracked time at month end: 22 hours = 836.00 and 31 hours = 1,178.00, together 2,014.00.

The month's run is 20 invoices for 5,760.00 + 5,160.00 + 2,014.00 = 12,934.00. Setting up the 18 recurring profiles is a one-time job; each month after that, the work is checking that the automatic invoices went out and creating the 2 hourly invoices.

Two weeks later, the invoice report shows 17 invoices paid in full, 1 twice-weekly client who paid 430.00 of 860.00 (430.00 still owed), and 2 invoices past due and unpaid: 480.00 and 836.00. That's 1,746.00 outstanding and 12,934.00 − 1,746.00 = 11,188.00 collected. The company sends a payment reminder to the 3 clients who still owe money, and when one of them pays by check, it records that as an offline payment so the reports stay complete.

Clients pay from the invoice. With your Stripe account connected, Billed's invoice software page says "each invoice gets a pay button for card payments, or connect PayPal to add a PayPal option." Billed's invoice software page says clients can also "link a credit card to make recurring payments easier." The same page says "When a client pays by check or cash, record it as an offline payment," including for recurring invoices from the recurring invoices dashboard.

To see where the run stands, invoice reports show "which invoices are paid, partially paid or past due," as Billed's invoice software page puts it, and each client's profile shows their invoices, payments and outstanding balance. Each recurring profile also keeps its own invoices and payments in one place.

For anyone who hasn't paid, send a payment reminder. Billed's pages say reminders can be customized. Billed's invoice software page says "After a client pays, you can send them a payment receipt."

In Billed, a regular billing cycle is a set of recurring profiles, one or more per client.

Plans differ in what they include; check the pricing page for the plan you choose before you set up a large client list.