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Invoices and their lifecycle
Invoices and their lifecycle

Curious on the different options for invoices and how they are created? Curious about the possible statuses of an invoice?

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Written by Tanner
Updated over a week ago

Invoice Types

There are 3 types of invoices. Ones that are charged now, those that are emailed,  and those that are added to the next invoice.

Charge Now

These are invoices that you don't need to send to a member or guest to be paid at a later date. They are invoices where you can enter a credit card (or use one on file) and charge that payment method now. These are typically used when billing a team for things like initiation fees, small purchases, and other one-time payments.

Steps for creating a "Charge Now" Invoice:
Create Invoice > select Team or Guest > select "Charge Now"

Emailed

Don't have a payment source on file? Is this person not a member of Coworks? Use the "Emailed" option to send an invoice that is payable via an emailed invoice link. This is great for collecting money for things like event rentals, day passes, and other one-time charges where you simply do not have a payment source on hand, or the member/guest wants a copy of their invoice before you charge them.

Steps for creating an "Emailed" Invoice:
Create Invoice > select Team or Guest > select "Email"

Add to Next Invoice

This option only applies to teams with active memberships. You can delay sending the invoice, and instead append it to the team's next billing cycle. When their next invoice is automatically raised (as happens with recurring memberships), it will add the line items from this invoice.

Steps for creating an "Add to Next Invoice" invoice:
Create Invoice > select Team or Guest > select "Add to Next Invoice"

Invoice Statuses

Unpaid

The Unpaid status refers to invoices that are open and have not been paid by the member/guest, or they have not been attempted to be collected by you, the manager. If you have a payment source associated with the team, you can use the "Pay Now" button on the invoice detail to charge it. If this is a guest, you or that guest can add their card using the invoice link provided with all created invoices. You can find that link in the invoice detail, as well.

With an Unpaid invoice, your available invoice actions (in the invoice detail) are:
Pay Now, Close, Mark as Paid, and Resend.

Scheduled

The Scheduled status is reserved for invoices that have not yet been sent. This occurs when you create one-off invoices and they have not yet been finalized. You can finalize them which will send them to the member or guest immediately.

With a scheduled invoice, your available invoice actions (in the invoice detail) are to Send or Cancel.

Closed

To cancel, delete, or effectively undo an invoice that has already been finalized, you can "Close" it. Closing it will not actually hide the invoice from your dashboard, but instead maintains a record of when it was created, finalized, and then voided. Invoices with a Closed status are not payable. Closing an invoice effectively zeros its amounts in any reports, ensuring an accounting paper trail.

With a Closed invoice, you can view the Receipt or the Invoice link.

Marked Paid

The Marked Paid status is used for invoices that are paid outside of Coworks. This is useful for members who pay by check or cash.

Note: Invoices are that are marked as paid show as Paid in the billing section.

With a Marked Paid invoice, you can resend an emailed version to the member or guest if needed.

The Paid status is used for invoices that have been paid. Invoices are automatically marked as paid when payments are processed through Stripe.

With a Paid invoice, you can refund the invoice or resend an emailed version to the member or guest.

Refunded

The Refunded status indicates that an invoice has been refunded. Invoices are automatically marked as Refunded when refunds are processed through Stripe. Once it has been refunded, no more action can be taken on this invoice.

Partially Refunded

The Partially Refunded status indicates that an invoice had been only partially refunded. You can issue additional refunds on the invoice until the original invoice amount has been fully refunded, at which point it would transition to the Refunded status.

Paused

The Paused status indicates that an invoice will stop sending reminder emails to customers to pay and/or stop automatically attempting to charge the default payment source on file. Resuming the invoice will cause the invoice to start reminding customers again and will start attempting collection of the amount due. Only invoices that are Unpaid can be Paused/unpaused, and this status doesn't affect the invoice's ability to be charged or paid by the customer, it just doesn't happen automatically.

Pending

The Pending status typically only applies to a successfully charged invoice (paid via ACH) whose payment is pending with the customer's bank. Payments via ACH take 4-5 business days to process and reflect in your account as Pending until then.

Invoice Workflow

When you create an invoice, if you chose Charge Now, that invoice will skip the email process and attempt to collect from the payment source immediately. The member or guest will not receive a receipt for this payment unless you have receipts enabled in your Stripe settings.

If you chose Email, the invoice will enter the invoice finalization process. As a convenience, we schedule all emailed invoices to be sent 1 hour from when they are created. This gives you time to make adjustments, or stop the invoice from being sent. You can skip this process and send the invoice immediately by going to the invoice detail and clicking Finalize. This tells Stripe you're ready to send it, and it will be sent to the email address that was provided at the creation of the invoice. After being sent, it is now actionable with the invoice link.

This is an example of an emailed invoice:

Happy Coworking!

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