Recurring invoices for Canadian businesses
Bill retainers, maintenance contracts and monthly services on a schedule. iBill creates each invoice on its date, and sends it if you choose, so a regular client never waits on you.
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How it works
Create the schedule
Create Recurring Schedule: client, lines, frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly), the start date and, for monthly, the day of the month from 1 to 28.
Choose whether to send
Tick Automatically send invoice to client when generated, or leave it off to review each invoice before you send it yourself.
Let it run
Each invoice is created on its date. Pause the schedule over a slow season, resume it later, or run it now when a client asks early.
Worked example: a monthly cleaning contract in Nova Scotia
A cleaning company in Halifax bills an office client the same amount on the 1st of every month. The client is in Nova Scotia, so each invoice carries HST at the provincial rate.
| Line | Quantity | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office cleaning, monthly contract Three visits a week | 1 | $1,200.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Subtotal | $1,200.00 | ||
| HST (14%, NS) | $168.00 | ||
| Total | $1,368.00 | ||
On the 1st, iBill creates the invoice for $1,368.00. With automatic sending on, the client receives an email with the invoice PDF attached. The schedule's page shows the next run date, how many invoices it has made and the total billed.
If an invoice for that client and amount was created very recently, iBill saves the new one as a draft and doesn't send it, so a double run can't double-bill.
When recurring billing fits
It suits work billed at a fixed amount on a fixed cadence: cleaning and property contracts, monthly bookkeeping, IT support plans, retainers. For work that changes each period, such as hourly consulting, billing from tracked time usually fits better.
Keep automatic sending off for the first month or two, check each invoice, then switch it on once you trust the schedule. When a client stops, deactivate the client: their active schedules pause in the same step, so nothing is billed after they leave.
The schedule's page keeps a history of every run, with the invoice it made. If a run didn't go through, Generate anyway creates the missing invoice, and the duplicate check still stops a second copy for the same client and amount.
What’s included, and what isn’t
- Frequencies: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. Custom intervals such as every two months aren't offered.
- Automatic sending is off until you turn it on. The email includes the invoice PDF; it doesn't include a client portal link or a Pay Online button.
- Payment terms in days (30 by default) and an optional end date, after which the schedule is marked completed.
- Deleting a schedule keeps the invoices it already created.
- Each schedule bills in its own currency: Canadian dollars, US dollars, euros or pounds. Non-CAD invoices store the day's Bank of Canada rate for your books.
- Not included: charging a saved card automatically, and invoices that change amount each period.
Questions
Can recurring invoices be emailed automatically?
Can I pause a schedule?
Do payment reminders work on recurring invoices?
What if a client wants this month's invoice early?
Related
Put regular billing on a schedule
Set it up once and the invoices arrive on time. See the other invoicing features.
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