Send an Invoice

Review a draft, send it to the customer, and charge a saved card when autopay is on.

Updated October 19, 2026

Invoice statuses: Draft, Sent, Paid, Past due, Void, Rejected. The invoices list hides Void unless Status includes it — those rows are audit records, not the day-to-day queue. Customers see non-draft invoices in the portal and can pay online when your company takes online payments (Choose How Customers Pay You). Unpaid sent invoices print a Pay Online QR code on the PDF and in the office print preview; see Take Payments on Your Website. Recurring plans often draft themselves on the billing day; you still send unless an automation does it.

Open the draft
Go to Sales and BillingInvoices. A monthly plan invoice is created on the contract's billing day. You can also click New Invoice and choose From a Contract, From a Job, or From a Customer.
Review the lines
Confirm the customer, sites, amounts, and tax. On a monthly plan, the plan fee is first; chemical usage appends below it when chemical billing is on. The Qty column shows the logged amount and, on itemized chemical lines, the inventory unit (for example 2 gal or 8 fl oz) next to the number. Summary-style chemical billing stays a single line at quantity 1.
Send
Click Send To Customer. If the customer has autopay and a card on file, and your company takes online payments, the button reads Send & Auto-Charge instead — sending charges that card. Confirm the dialog Send Invoice To Customer?

What the Customer Receives

Send	The customer's email, text and portal notification
No autopay	The invoice with Pay This Invoice, using your invoice email wording from Customer Notifications.
Autopay, card charged	Your invoice was paid automatically: the invoice number, the total charged, the card fee when one applies ("That is $500.00 for the invoice plus a card processing fee of $15.23."), and the card ("Visa ending in 4242"), with View Invoice. There is no pay button.
Autopay, charge did not go through	The invoice with Pay This Invoice, the same as a customer without autopay. The office gets the failed-payment alert as before.
Mark as Paid with Send invoice copy to customer, paid in full	Your invoice is paid, with View Invoice and no pay button. A part payment sends the invoice for what is left.
Your customers cannot pay online (Online Card / ACH off, or Stripe not connected or not yet taking charges)	The invoice with View Invoice instead of Pay This Invoice, and a Pay by check block when you take checks: the payee, your mailing address, your check notes, and "Please write invoice INV-… on the memo line." A customer with autopay is not charged and gets this same bill; the invoice shows Autopay paused. No charge is tried, so no failed-payment alert goes out. See Choose How Customers Pay You.

The message is chosen after the charge or the recorded payment, so a customer never gets a bill and a receipt for the same send. The paid messages use fixed wording; your own invoice subject and intro are written for a bill and are not used on them.

Send a Draft That Is on Hold

Some drafts are held so that nothing sends them until a person has read them: a draft made with Revert To Draft, one that replaced another draft when its visit was completed, one that bills work from the previous term, one made after its contract was already invoiced in full, and a renewed plan's first invoice. The invoice page shows the reason in an amber notice for as long as it is a draft.

While an invoice you already emailed is back in draft, the customer's pay link from that email shows only the invoice number and This invoice is being updated. You'll receive a new copy when it's ready. — no lines, amounts or notes, and no pay button. Sending it again gives them the new copy.

When you click Send To Customer (Send & Auto-Charge for a customer on autopay) or Mark as Paid on a held draft, the dialog repeats the reason under This draft is on hold. Read it, check the invoice, then confirm. Sending it ends the hold. Close as Paid (no email) works the same way.

If the draft was put on hold after you opened the page, the first click does nothing but show the reason; click again to go ahead. Sending from the Sales and BillingInvoices list shows the same reason in its dialog.

On the phone, the Office app (version 1.4.7) does not send a held draft. It says This draft is on hold, so it was not sent, with the reason. Review the invoice and send it from the invoice page on the web. From its next update after version 1.4.7, the app asks Send This Held Draft? with the reason first.

Resend an Invoice

Resend Invoice on an invoice that has already gone out delivers the email, the text, or both again, to the addresses and phone you pick. It goes out even when the invoice email or text is switched off on its own under SettingsCustomer Notifications, because re-delivering on request is the point.

It never goes out when customer notifications are turned off for your whole company. The dialog says Customer notifications are off before you click, and nothing is emailed or texted.

Resending a Paid invoice sends Your invoice is paid with View Invoice, the same as Mark as Paid with a copy, never a bill for $0.00.

Close a Prepaid Draft Without Emailing

A draft whose remaining balance is already covered by a recorded payment or contract credit stays Draft until someone finishes it. Automatically Send Draft Invoices, a contract's own scheduled sends, and a Send Draft Invoices campaign all skip these on purpose so a customer who prepaid months ago is not emailed a bill.

When a contract that sends its scheduled invoices automatically drafts one that contract credit already covers in full, the office gets a notification titled Scheduled invoice covered by credit: "INV-… is fully covered by credit — open it and choose Close as Paid. It was not sent to the customer." It is sent once for that invoice, to office users only. When the same automatic run drafted several invoices, there is one notification for all of them, Scheduled invoices created, and it lists the covered invoice numbers: "INV-… is fully covered by credit — open it and choose Close as Paid."

Open the settled draft
On Sales and BillingInvoices, open the draft. A green banner reads Prepaid in full — nothing is owed on this draft. Close as Paid finishes it without emailing the customer.
Close as Paid
Click Close as Paid (no email). The hover text is Finalize this prepaid draft as paid. The customer is not emailed. Status becomes Paid. There is no email, SMS, portal push, or autopay attempt. The paid date is taken from the payment or credit that covered it, not from today.

Send To Customer stays on the page as the secondary button if you do want them to receive a copy. Mark as Paid is hidden on these drafts — there is nothing left to record.

If the draft still owes something, the close path refuses with This draft still has a balance. Record the payment first, or send it to the customer.

When a Payment Is More Than the Invoice

What happens to the extra depends on whether the invoice belongs to a contract, because only a contract has a credit ledger to hold it.

Invoice	What Record Payment does with the extra
Sent, on a contract	The invoice keeps what it was owed and the page confirms $70.00 moved to contract credit. The credit funds the next invoice from that contract.
Draft, on a contract	The whole check stays on the draft; the form says On a draft invoice, the full $250.00 is recorded here. When the invoice is sent or closed, the extra $70.00 is saved as contract credit. Sending it, Mark as Paid, or Close as Paid (no email) then moves the extra to the contract, once.
No contract (draft or sent)	Refused: This payment is $70.00 more than the invoice balance. Record $180.00, or add the extra work to the invoice first.

The check itself is always kept at its full amount in the payment history, so it matches the customer's bank statement.

If you lower the lines on a draft below the contract credit already applied to it, the difference goes back to the contract in the same save and the page confirms it, for example $400.00 of credit went back to the contract. Raising the lines never pulls more credit; use the Apply $… credit button for that.

A draft with no contract that already holds more in payments than its total (the lines were lowered after the payment) cannot be sent or closed until you remove or correct the payment, or add the extra work back.

Two people recording a payment at once

If the invoice changes while you are recording a payment — someone else recorded one, a card or bank payment arrived, or credit was applied — Record Payment answers This invoice changed while you were recording the payment. Reload it and check before recording the payment again. Nothing of yours was saved. Reload, check the payments already there, and record yours only if it is still missing.

Deleting a voided invoice

A company admin sees Delete Permanently on a Void invoice. The dialog is Delete Invoice permanently? — type delete, then Delete Invoice. Contract credit still applied to that invoice goes back to the contract, and the customer's Activity gets an office-only note that names the amount. Recorded payments, or card or bank payments still on the invoice, have to be moved or refunded first. The delete refuses and says why, and the invoice stays.

Removing a credit that paid an invoice

Remove Credit on a contract (a mistaken prepayment, a check that bounced) takes that credit off every invoice it was applied to. An invoice that was Paid and now owes money goes back to Sent, or Past Due when its due date has passed, whatever paid the rest of it. Payments recorded on the invoice stay. Collect the balance with Record Payment, or with the Apply $… credit button when the contract has other credit.

Removing a payment

Remove next to a recorded payment is hidden only while part of that payment really is on the contract as overpayment credit (removing it then would count the money twice). Otherwise Remove takes the payment off and the invoice goes back to its unpaid balance, including on an older invoice that was left showing more paid than its total.

Skip the review click

SettingsAutomations → Automatically Send Draft Invoices emails (and optionally texts) drafts after they sit for the hours you choose. Manual send still goes out immediately.

Verify it worked

The invoice status is Sent (or Paid if autopay succeeded — the customer then gets the paid-automatically message, not a bill — or Paid after Close as Paid (no email) with no customer email). The customer can see non-draft invoices in the portal. If they rejected it, status is Rejected — online pay and mark-paid stay blocked until the office voids or otherwise resolves billing.

What to do next

Invite the customer to the portal to see their invoices (and pay and manage cards, when your company takes online payments), or turn on automatic send.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the button say Send & Auto-Charge?

That customer has autopay on and a card on file. Sending the invoice also charges that card. The office can see brand and last four on the customer page. The customer turns autopay on in the portal under Billing, or through a setup link.

My company takes checks only. What does the invoice email say?

It has a View Invoice button instead of Pay This Invoice, and a Pay by check block with your company name as the payee, your mailing address, and "Please write invoice INV-… on the memo line." The standard invoice text says "View it here:" instead of "Pay:". That happens whenever customers cannot pay online, which means Online Card / ACH is off under Settings → Billing or Stripe is not connected. A customer with autopay is not charged; they get the same bill.

Why did Resend Invoice send nothing?

Customer notifications are turned off for your whole company under Settings → Customer Notifications. Resend goes out even when the invoice email or text is switched off on its own, but never when the company-wide switch is off. The dialog warns you first, and the invoice page says customer notifications are turned off for your company, so nothing was emailed or texted.

What does an autopay customer receive when I send their invoice?

One message, decided after the charge. When the card is charged they get "Your invoice was paid automatically" with the amount charged, the card fee if there is one, and the card's brand and last four, with a View Invoice button and no pay button. When the charge does not go through they get the ordinary invoice email with Pay This Invoice. They never get both.

Can I invoice without a job?

Yes. New Invoice → From a Customer is a free-form invoice. From a Contract uses a plan slot. From a Job bills a completed visit.

I voided an invoice and it disappeared from the list.

Status starts with Void unchecked. Check Void on the Status filter (Office mobile — tap Void). Header Search and the invoice URL still open it. List search still respects Status, so searching the invoice number while Void is off will miss the row.

I deleted a voided invoice. Where did its contract credit go?

Delete Permanently (company admins, on a Void invoice) puts contract credit that was still applied to that invoice back on the contract. The customer's Activity gets an office-only note naming the amount. Recorded payments, or card or bank payments still on the invoice, have to be moved or refunded first — the delete refuses and says why.

The draft already shows $0 due. Why would Send To Customer email them?

Recording a payment or applying contract credit on a draft never changes its status, and Automatically Send Draft Invoices skips these (already settled) so it does not bill someone who prepaid. Open the invoice. The green banner reads Prepaid in full — nothing is owed on this draft. Close as Paid finishes it without emailing the customer. Click Close as Paid (no email). Send To Customer is still there as the secondary button if you do want them to receive a copy.

A draft says "This draft replaced INV-… when its visit was completed". What do I do?

Compare it with the draft it replaced, then click Send To Customer. When a visit is completed and its billing cycle already has a draft that no longer matches what the visit bills (you edited the draft's lines or discount, or the visit now has other add-ons or chemicals), OpsVara voids that draft and builds this one in its place. The notice shows both totals and links to the voided draft; anything you had typed on it is not carried over. Because the two can differ, OpsVara never sends the new draft automatically and a Send Draft Invoices campaign leaves it out; sending it yourself ends that. A draft that still matches the visit is not replaced at all.

A draft says "This invoice includes work from the previous term — review it, then send it yourself." What do I do?

Read it, then click Send To Customer. It is a renewed plan's invoice that also bills add-ons or chemicals from the previous term (each such line shows the month it was done), or a final invoice made with Create Final Invoice on an ended contract. Because the work is from a term that is over, OpsVara never sends it automatically and a Send Draft Invoices campaign leaves it out; sending it yourself ends that.

The invoice says Bank payment processing. Why can't I void it or revert it to draft?

The customer started a bank (ACH) payment, which takes 1–5 business days to clear or fail. Until then Void and Revert To Draft answer A bank payment is processing on this invoice. Wait until it clears or fails before voiding it (or before reverting it to draft). The invoice marks itself paid when the funds clear. The customer also cannot pay it a second time meanwhile, because the portal and the pay link hide the pay buttons and show Bank payment processing. If it is still processing after more than five business days, the notice offers Bank Payment Did Not Arrive — Allow Payments Again, which clears it.

A customer's check is for more than the invoice. What happens to the extra?

On an invoice that belongs to a contract, the extra becomes contract credit and funds the next invoice from that contract. On a sent invoice that happens when you record the payment. On a draft the whole check stays on the draft, and the extra moves to the contract when you send it, mark it paid or close it. An invoice with no contract has nowhere to keep the extra, so Record Payment refuses it and tells you the amount to record instead.

Send said "This draft is on hold". What do I do?

The draft is held from automatic sending because someone should read it first — it was reverted to draft, it replaced another draft, it bills work from a previous term, its contract was already invoiced in full, or it is a renewed plan's first invoice. On the web the send dialog shows the reason under This draft is on hold. Check the invoice, then confirm to send it anyway, which ends the hold. On the phone, send it from the invoice page on the web.

Record Payment said "This invoice changed while you were recording the payment". Was my payment saved?

No. Someone else recorded a payment on the same invoice at the same moment, a card or bank payment arrived, or credit was applied, so OpsVara did not save yours on top of it. Reload the invoice, look at the payments already on it, and record yours again only if it is still missing.

I removed a credit from a contract and a Paid invoice went back to Sent. Why?

That credit was paying part of the invoice. With the credit gone the invoice owes that amount again, so it goes back to Sent (or Past Due when its due date has passed) and shows the balance. Payments already recorded on it stay. Use Record Payment, or the Apply $… credit button when the contract has other credit, to settle it.

Why is there no Remove link on a recorded payment?

Part of that payment is sitting on the contract as overpayment credit, so removing it from the invoice would count the money twice. Remove the overpayment credit on the contract first, then the Remove link comes back. When no such credit exists, Remove is offered and takes the payment off the invoice.