Recurring Invoices

Automate your regular billing by setting up invoices that generate on a schedule.

Overview

Recurring invoices are templates that automatically create new invoices at specified intervals. Ideal for:

• Monthly retainers
• Subscription billing
• Rent collection
• Maintenance contracts
• Regular consulting fees

Creating a recurring invoice

1. Go to Recurring Invoices > New
2. Fill in the template:
   • Customer — Who to bill
   • Line items — What to bill for (descriptions, amounts, VAT)
   • Frequency — How often (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly)
   • Start date — When to start generating
3. Click Save

More options

The new recurring-invoice form keeps optional details behind More options. Notes sit there by default; expand the section when you want to add them.

The recurring invoice is created in Active status and will generate its first invoice on the next scheduled date.

Line items

Recurring invoice line items work the same way as regular invoice lines:

• Each line must have a description. If the description is too long the form will show a validation error.
• Each line can carry a percentage or fixed discount.
• A percentage discount cannot be higher than 100%.
• A discount value cannot be negative.

Frequency options

Frequency	Description
Weekly	Every 7 days
Monthly	Same day each month
Quarterly	Every 3 months
Yearly	Once per year

Managing recurring invoices

Pause

Temporarily stop invoice generation:

1. Open the recurring invoice
2. Click Pause
3. Status changes to Paused — no invoices are generated

Resume

Restart a paused recurring invoice:

1. Open the paused recurring invoice
2. Click Resume
3. Generation continues from the next scheduled date

Edit

Editing a recurring invoice affects future invoices only. Previously generated invoices are not changed.

Delete

Remove the recurring template entirely. Previously generated invoices remain in your records.

Generated invoices

Each time a recurring invoice fires, a new invoice is created:

• It uses the template's line items and customer
• It receives the next automatic invoice number
• It starts as a Draft (review and send) or auto-sends if configured
• Each generated invoice is independent — you can edit it without affecting the template

Locked VAT periods

If the scheduled date falls inside a VAT period that has already been filed and locked, MyCompanyDesk does not create the invoice. That period is skipped permanently for automatic generation (retrying would never succeed on its own), and the schedule moves on to the next due date. You receive a notification so you can decide what to do next: create a current-dated invoice for the customer, or handle the revenue through a supplementary VAT filing.

A paused or recently resumed template is especially likely to hit this case, because the next scheduled date may lag behind the most recently filed quarter.

Viewing history

The recurring invoice detail page shows all previously generated invoices, so you can track the full billing history.

Source link

If an invoice was generated from a recurring template, the invoice detail page shows a created from recurring invoice banner with a link back to that template. This lets you jump straight from a single invoice to the template that produced it.

What happens if my plan changes?

Recurring invoices are part of the Office plan. If you upgrade from Desk to Office, scheduled generation starts from the next due date. If you downgrade from Office to Desk, generation pauses automatically; existing templates and previously generated invoices stay in your workspace, and generation resumes when you upgrade again.

Bulk actions

• Pause / Resume — Toggle multiple recurring invoices
• Delete — Remove multiple templates

Tips

• Combine with contracts for contract-based billing
• Review generated invoices before the first auto-send to make sure everything looks right
• Use the next occurrence preview to see when the next invoice will be created
• Check the active count and metrics at the top of the page