Create and send invoices in Sumhour

Invoicing is for owners, admins and accountants. Other roles don’t see the Invoices menu.

Draft an invoice from uninvoiced time

Go to Invoices and click “New invoice”. Pick the “Client” (the invoice bills in its currency). Clients with “Work to bill” come first, the most first, each with the amount and hours a draft would take today: hourly time at its entry rates, the earned part of a fixed fee and billable expenses, with retainer time left to the retainer invoice. With “Invoice only approved time” on, only approved weeks count. The client with the most to bill is picked for you. Pick one with nothing to bill and the page says so straight away, before you fill in dates. Then:

“From” and “Through”. Through defaults to today and can’t be later. Leave From blank to take everything uninvoiced.
“Projects”: the client’s active projects with their uninvoiced hours. Projects with time are ticked.
“Group time by”: “Project and task”, “Project and person”, “Project and date”, “Project only” or “Every entry”. You get one line per group and rate.
“Subject”, “Include billable expenses” (ticked) and “Put entry notes in the descriptions”.

Click “Build draft”, or “Start from scratch” for an empty draft you fill in by hand.

The builder takes billable entries up to the Through date that aren’t on another invoice, weren’t written off and aren’t a running timer. They don’t need to be approved first, unless an admin turns on Invoice only approved time under Settings, Approvals. Then only time from approved or locked weeks goes on drafts, and the builder shows how much is still waiting for approval.

Project type	What lands on the invoice
Hourly	Rate × hours, rounded by Workspace settings → “Invoice rounding” (entries stay as logged)
Fixed fee	One line for the fee still due: the full fee, or fee × “% complete” when it’s set on month end, minus the fee already on earlier invoices. With a payment schedule, one line for each payment that is due instead. Its hours are marked invoiced. Tasks marked “Hourly, on top of the fee” are billed as rate × hours like an hourly project, even once the fee is invoiced.
Retainer	Nothing: “billed by the retainer invoice”. See retainer invoices.
Non-billable	Nothing.

Write-downs from month end come along as a negative line. A new draft takes its terms, notes, discount and taxes from the client’s “Invoice defaults” when the client has them, otherwise from the workspace’s invoice settings. If the invoice covers one project only, that project’s PO number, terms and notes win over both.

A draft locks the entries and expenses on it, so nobody edits them or bills them twice. Removing the line, deleting the draft or voiding the invoice releases them.

Edit the draft

A draft opens with “Next steps” at the top: “Check the lines” (ticked once there are lines and nothing unsaved), “How pays” (the payment providers that take the invoice’s currency, or your bank details or payment link, or a note that nothing tells the client how to pay yet, with links to fix it) and “Send it” (who it goes to, where replies go, and a link to send once everything is saved).

The editor sits beside a live preview that matches the PDF.

“Details”: “Subject”, “PO number”, “Issued”, “Terms” (“On receipt”, “Net 7” up to “Net 60”, or “Custom date”) and “Due”.
“Lines”: description, quantity, unit price and a taxable box. “Add line” adds a free-form line you can file under a project. Removing a time line returns its entries to uninvoiced time.
“Discount and tax”: “Discount %” and two named taxes. The discount comes off the subtotal; taxes apply to the discounted taxable lines. Expense lines start as not taxable.
“Show hours”, “Show rates”, “Notes” and “Terms”.

“Save draft” saves; “Delete draft” discards. Once sent, lines and totals are fixed.

Invoice numbers

Drafts get the next number, INV-2026-0001 by default. Change “Prefix”, “Digits”, “Next number” and “Put the year in the number” under Invoice settings → “Numbering”. Numbers are never reused, not even from voided invoices or deleted drafts.

Send an invoice

“Send” opens a drawer with “To” (the client’s billing email; separate several with commas), “Cc” (billing contacts pre-filled), “Message” and “Attach the PDF”. Click “Send invoice” and the draft becomes Sent. “Send again” works later.

The email comes from Sumhour’s sending address, in your company’s name. When a client replies, the reply goes to the “Billing email” under Settings, Invoices. If that is empty, the drawer warns you: the reply would land in a no-reply inbox, so set a billing email before the first send.

“Mark as sent” is for invoices you deliver some other way. On a self-hosted server without email set up, sending only writes to the server log.

The public link and PDF

Each invoice has an unguessable public link (/i/…), copied with “Copy link”. It shows the invoice, the amount due, a “PDF” button and, if you set one, “Pay online”. Drafts are never shown, and search engines are asked not to index it. When the client first opens the page or PDF, the status becomes Viewed. No tracking pixel is used.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Editable, invisible to the client
Sent	Out, not opened yet
Viewed	The client opened the link or PDF
Partly paid	Some money recorded, some still due
Overdue	Past the due date, not fully paid
Paid	Payments cover the total
Void	Cancelled; the number stays used

Record a payment

On a sent invoice, fill in “Amount” (pre-filled with what’s due), “Paid on”, “Method” (“Bank transfer”, “Card”, “Cash / cheque”, “Other”) and an optional “Reference”, then click “Record payment”. Part payments are fine; more than what’s due is refused. When payments cover the total, the invoice is Paid and owners, admins and accountants get a notification. The bin icon removes a payment.

Getting paid online

Clients can pay an invoice from its page through your own account at a payment provider. Under Settings → “Online payments”, pick the providers you have an account with and paste the keys from their dashboard: Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, GoCardless, Authorize.net, Razorpay, Paystack, Flutterwave, SSLCommerz (bKash, Nagad, Rocket and cards), Xendit or Mercado Pago. Self-hosted servers also offer Square. Each card says where the keys are; start with the provider’s test keys to try it. A payment made through test keys shows the client “Test payment went through” and is never recorded on the invoice, so a real invoice can’t be marked paid by a test card. Switch to live keys before you send invoices. Authorize.net works in one currency per account: pick it under “Account currency”, and only invoices in that currency get the button.

The invoice page then shows “Pay with …” for every provider that is on and takes the invoice’s currency. The client pays the amount still due on the provider’s own page. When the provider confirms the payment, Sumhour records it, marks the invoice paid and tells owners, admins and accountants. The money goes straight to your account; Sumhour sees no card details and takes no fee.

Some providers (GoCardless, Xendit, Razorpay, Paystack, Flutterwave) only send payment notices to an address you add in their dashboard. That step is optional: without it Sumhour checks when the client comes back from paying, then every few minutes for the next hour and less often for three days. If a payment comes back for a different amount or currency, or the provider flags it as risky, Sumhour records nothing and asks you to check it. The same happens when money arrives for an invoice that is already paid or void. A bank payment that clears after those three days, or a second card the client tries after the first was declined, is still recorded when the provider’s notice arrives or the client comes back.

You can also add a “Payment link” (any hosted checkout) and “How to pay” text for bank details under Invoice settings → “Getting paid”. They show on the public page, the PDF and the invoice email, and reminders carry the link. Estimates never show them. Record those payments when they land.

E-invoices: ZUGFeRD and XRechnung

Some clients need invoices their software can read. In Germany every business must be able to receive them since 2025, larger businesses must send them from 2027 and everyone from 2028; public bodies ask for XRechnung. Sumhour makes two kinds from any sent invoice: ZUGFeRD, the PDF with the invoice data inside it, which people read and software imports, and XRechnung, the XML file alone.

To turn it on, open Invoice settings → “E-invoices” and add your street, postcode, city and country, your VAT id or tax number (Steuernummer), a contact name and phone, and your IBAN. Tick “Small business, no VAT charged” if you invoice under § 19 UStG. Then open each client that needs e-invoices, expand “E-invoice details” and add their street, postcode, city, country, VAT id (for EU businesses) and, for German public bodies, their Leitweg-ID under “Buyer reference”.

On a sent invoice, the “E-invoice” panel shows how VAT is treated and the “ZUGFeRD PDF” and “XRechnung XML” buttons. If something is missing it lists exactly what, with a link to where you add it. The client’s invoice page offers the same two downloads, and under “Attach to the invoice email” you can send the ZUGFeRD PDF in place of the plain PDF, or the XRechnung XML next to it.

Sumhour works out the VAT treatment from the two countries: standard VAT inside one country, reverse charge for an EU business with a VAT id, and “not subject to VAT here” for clients outside the EU. You can set it per client under “VAT treatment”, and when you are unsure, ask your tax adviser. An e-invoice carries one VAT rate and no second tax, so an invoice with a second tax or a mix of taxable and untaxed lines shows what to change.

For Peppol, the network Belgium has required between businesses since 2026, add your Peppol ID under Invoice settings → “E-invoices” (for a Belgian company, 0208 and your enterprise number, like 0208:0123456789) and the client’s under “E-invoice details”. Invoices for that client then also offer a “Peppol UBL” file. Sending it over the Peppol network from inside Sumhour is coming; until then, upload the file in your Peppol provider’s portal.

Every file Sumhour makes is checked in our build against the official German validator (KoSIT, XRechnung 3.0.2), the Mustang ZUGFeRD validator, and the CEN and Peppol BIS 3.0.21 rules.

Reminders for late invoices

Under “Late payment reminders”, tick “Send reminders”, set “Days after the due date” (default 3, 7, 14) and add an “Extra message” if you want. They’re off until you turn them on.

Every day at 08:00 UTC, overdue Sent or Viewed invoices get an email to the client’s billing address with the public link. Each step goes once; after a missed day only the latest step due is sent. Clients without a billing email get nothing.

Recurring invoices

On a sent invoice, click “Make recurring”. On a draft, open the “…” menu and pick “Repeat this invoice” (save the draft first); the draft stays a draft for you to send, and the rule makes the next ones. Set “Name”, “Every” (Week, Month, Quarter or Year) and “First issue on”. The sheet shows the next three issue dates before you press “Create rule”. The lines, taxes and notes are copied; new time isn’t picked up. Tick “Email it to the client automatically” to send each one (the client needs a billing email). Otherwise each run saves a draft for you. After the first run, days past the 28th become the 28th.

Rules run daily at 07:00 UTC, one invoice per rule per run. Invoices → “Recurring” has “Issue now”, “Pause” / “Resume” and “Delete”. Deleting a rule keeps the invoices it made.

Payment schedules

A fixed-fee project can bill its fee in parts: a deposit up front and the rest at milestones. On the project page, “Payment schedule” → “Add a schedule”, pick a split (“50% up front, 50% on delivery”, “50 / 25 / 25” or “30 / 40 / 30”) or add payments yourself, then “Save schedule”. Each payment is a percent of the fee or a fixed amount, and together they must come to the fee. A payment is due at the start, on a date, or when you mark it done.

You can set the schedule while creating the project, too: with the type set to “Fixed fee”, “New project” shows “Payment schedule · optional” under the fee. Pick a split or add payments; the check against the fee runs as you type, and “Create project” waits until they add up. Leave it empty to bill the fee in full or by % complete.

Due payments show “Due now” with “Create invoice”. For a milestone, “Mark done and invoice” does both at once. Any draft for the project also picks up the payments that are due, one line each, and leaves the rest. Deleting the draft or voiding the invoice makes the payment due again. Payments already on an invoice can’t be changed, and neither can the project’s fee: raise it with a change order. Before any payment is invoiced you can change the fee as long as the schedule still adds up to it. An invoice that holds only payments takes no default discount, because the fee is already the agreed price. Percents and amounts take at most two decimals, so what you see is what gets billed.

If the fee is already on an invoice, Sumhour won’t add a schedule, because the client would be billed twice. Void or edit that invoice first.

Retainer invoices

Retainers bill per period from “Retainer periods” on the project page. “Invoice fee” drafts the period’s retainer fee. “Invoice overage”, shown when the retainer bills overage at a rate, drafts the extra hours at the overage rate (or the project’s hourly rate) and locks that period’s entries. Hours you wrote off use none of the retainer’s hours and are never billed as overage; undoing the write-off counts them again. On the project page this needs owner or admin; month end offers “Invoice retainer” and “Invoice overage” to accountants too. Retainer setup is in projects and clients.

Estimates

Estimates → “New estimate” asks for “Client”, “Subject” and “Valid for” (30 days by default). Click “Create draft”. Estimates are numbered EST-0001 onward and edit like invoices; a blank “Valid until” means no expiry.

“Send” emails a link with “Accept estimate”, “Decline” and a PDF, which expires after the valid-until date. Owners and admins are notified of the answer. On an accepted estimate, “Create project” makes a fixed-fee project with the subtotal as fee and budget, and “Create invoice” makes a draft with the same lines. Each works once.

An estimate can carry a payment schedule too (under “Payment schedule” while it is a draft). The client sees it on the estimate and the PDF before accepting. A payment due “On acceptance” is ready to invoice as soon as you create the project, which takes the schedule with it. An estimate with a schedule offers “Create project” only, so the fee is never billed twice.

Change orders

When a client asks for more than was agreed, price the extra work as a change order instead of absorbing it. On a fixed-fee or hourly project, press “New change order” under “Change orders”. It opens in the estimate editor, numbered CO-0001 onward: add the lines, and on a project with a payment schedule choose “Bill the change”: now as a payment of its own, with the next payment, or with the last one. “Send” emails the client a link to accept or decline, like an estimate.

When the client accepts, the change is added to the project: a fixed fee and an amount budget grow by the change order’s amount (lines less any discount). On a scheduled project the payments already agreed keep their amounts, and the change is billed as you chose. If the client agreed by phone or email, press “Mark approved” instead. Each change order is added once, and the project lists every change order with its state. A change order adds to the fee, so its total must be more than zero; to take work out, lower the open payments or the fee. “Mark approved” and “Create project” change a project’s fee, so they need owner or admin, as the project page does.

Void an invoice

“Void” cancels an invoice that has gone out. The number stays used, and its entries, expenses and write-downs go back to uninvoiced. Remove any payments first. Drafts get deleted, not voided.

Export invoices and payments

Invoices → “Export” gives “Invoices CSV”, “Payments CSV” and “All PDFs (zip)” for the year shown, plus both CSVs under “Everything”. The zip holds up to 300 non-draft invoices. For QuickBooks and Xero, see integrations.

Invoice settings

Invoice settings (from workspace settings or the command palette) sets how every invoice looks:

“Layout” under “Look”: “Classic” (an accent rule under the header, the default), “Modern” (the header and the total on a band of your accent colour) or “Compact” (smaller type and tighter rows for long invoices). The preview, the client page and the PDF all follow it.
“Place the client’s address for a window envelope”, for invoices you print and post: the PDF puts the client’s name and address 45 mm from the top and 20 mm from the left (DIN 5008), where the window of a DL or C5/6 envelope sits, with a small return address above it and fold marks at 105 and 210 mm. Fill in the client’s “Address” for it.
“Logo”: PNG or JPEG up to 2 MB.
“Numbering” and “Payment terms” in days (default 30; 0 means on receipt).
“Sender”: “Company name”, “Address”, “Billing email”, “Tax ID”.
“Default taxes”, and “Look”: “Accent colour”, “Footer line”, “Default notes”.
“Field labels”: rename any label on the PDF and public page, for another language or house style.

“Email messages” holds the text for “When sending an invoice” and the “Thank-you message”. The thank-you goes out once, when an invoice is paid in full, if you tick “Email the client a thank-you when an invoice is paid in full”. The text can use these placeholders:

Placeholder	Becomes
`{number}`	Invoice number
`{client}`	Client name
`{total}`	Amount still due
`{due}`	Due date, written out
`{from}`	Your company name
`{link}`	Public invoice link
`{po}`	PO number

“Send me a test email” sends you a sample.