Create and send an invoice

What an invoice does

An invoice is the bill you give a customer after a job is done. You build it from line items, save it, then share it or save it as a PDF. Worklog gives each invoice its own number automatically, tracks whether it is still owed, and keeps a copy for your records.

Find an invoice

Once you have a few invoices, the controls at the top of the list help you get to the right one:

• Search invoices — type any part of the customer's name or the invoice number.
• Show ▾ — pick a status (unpaid, part paid, overdue, paid, credited or written off), something to look for (from a repeat, money not logged yet, or owed when your books started), who made it (once two or more people have — everyone's, yours or one person's), and When (this month, last month or this tax year). Each choice shows how many invoices it would leave; each filter you pick sits under the buttons with a ✕ to take it off.
• Under the list, 📄 PDF and 📊 CSV / Excel print the invoices as you have them — searched, narrowed and sorted: number, date, customer, due date, status, the amount before VAT, the VAT, the total and what is still owed, with a total line. A list you have narrowed says so under the PDF's title — for example Showing 3 of 41 invoices · Status: Unpaid.
• Sort ▾ — newest first (the default) or oldest first, customer A → Z or Z → A, total highest or lowest first, or invoice number.

Before you start

• If you charge VAT, set your VAT number first in Business details, under Tax & SARS. Once it is set, invoices work out and show the VAT on their own.
• Adding your customer under Customers first makes them easy to pick, but you can also just type a new name.

Create an invoice

1. Open Invoices from the Sales area.
2. Tap + New in the top right. The New invoice screen opens.
3. If you are billing from a quote you already sent, use Start from a quote - optional at the top and pick it — Worklog carries over the customer and the line items, and reminds you of any deposit the quote asked for. Change the customer if you are invoicing somebody else — the invoice goes to whoever the form shows. A quote can be made into an invoice only once. Leave it on None (blank invoice) to start fresh. (This picker only appears if you have quotes that haven't been invoiced yet.)
4. In Customer / Company name, type the customer's name, or tap the 👤 List button next to it to search and pick a saved customer.
5. Check the Issue date and Due date. The issue date is the day the invoice is issued, and Worklog fills it in as today. You can pick an earlier day, for an invoice you wrote up on paper, but not a day that hasn't come yet. The due date is set 30 days later. Tap either one to change it.
6. Under Line items, tap + Add line item to add a blank line (or pick one from Add from your items), then fill in the Description, the Qty, and the Unit price. Each line shows its Line total, and an amber 🏷️ Set category tag — tap it and pick the SARS heading the line belongs under. Every real line needs one: it is what files the money on your Profit & Loss, and the invoice will not save until they are all set. Pick the customer from the 👤 List and, if they have a usual category, every line you add after that starts filled in for you.
7. Tap + Add line item for another line. Tap the ✕ next to a line to remove it.
8. If you are VAT registered, choose the VAT treatment — Standard-rated (15%), Zero-rated (0%) or Exempt. Most sales are Standard-rated.
9. Add any Terms & conditions - optional. They print at the foot of the invoice, and if you set default invoice terms in Business details they fill in here on their own.
10. Check the summary box. It shows the Subtotal, the VAT if you are VAT-registered and standard-rated, and the Balance due at the bottom.
11. Tap Save invoice. Not ready to finish it? Tap Save as draft instead (see Keep an invoice as a draft, below).

Keep an invoice as a draft

A draft is an invoice you have started and not finished. It has no invoice number until you issue it, and no report, VAT return, statement or reminder counts it.

• Save as draft, under the main button, keeps what you have typed. A customer or one line is enough. Nothing is checked yet and no number is used.
• Preview draft shows how the invoice will look. It is on the screen only: it says DRAFT, has no number, and can't be shared or printed.
• Issue invoice is the main button when a draft is open. It checks the invoice, gives it the next number, saves it and takes the draft away, all in one go. If something is wrong you are told, no number is used and the draft stays. The issue date is the day you issue it, so a draft opens dated today.
• Delete draft throws the draft away. Nothing is kept of it.
• The Issued | Drafts switch, above the invoice list, shows your issued invoices, or your drafts with who started each one and when. Tap a draft to finish it. Drafts also show in To finish.
• A draft that is 7 days old is nudged in To finish and in the Drafts list. If your business is VAT registered, the nudge reminds you that a tax invoice has to be issued within 21 days of the date of the supply (VAT Act s20(1)). Drafts never expire.
• A draft started from a quote makes the quote into an invoice only when you issue it. If that quote has been declined, removed or already made into an invoice, the draft can't be issued: delete it, or start a new invoice without the quote.
• If you may only look at invoices, tap a draft to see its lines. You can't change, issue or delete it.
• When you issue a draft, the new invoice opens.
• Drafts are not offered when you invoice from an appointment, from a repeating invoice or from Quick Log. Those make the invoice straight away.

Fill a line from your saved items

If you keep a price list under Items, you don't have to retype the things you sell often. At the top of the Line items section you'll see an Add from your items box (it only appears once you have saved items). Pick an item and Worklog drops in a new line with its name and sell price already filled in — you just set the Qty.

Send it as a PDF or spreadsheet

Worklog does not email invoices. You share them yourself, usually over WhatsApp, or save a PDF. Open the invoice from the Invoices list to find the buttons at the bottom.

1. In the Invoices list, tap the invoice you want.
2. Tap 📄 PDF for the invoice itself. On a phone, each button opens your phone's share menu with the file attached, so you can send it on WhatsApp or email, or save it to your files. On a computer it downloads.
3. Tap 📊 CSV / Excel for the same invoice as a spreadsheet — every line, the VAT and the balance — for a customer's accounts department or your own records. If a PDF can't be made on your device, Worklog opens the document in your browser's print window instead; choose Save as PDF there.

Remind a customer to pay

• Open an invoice that still has something owing and tap Send payment reminder. WhatsApp opens with a friendly message ready: the invoice number, what is still owed including VAT, and when it was due. You read it and press send from your own phone.
• Before the due date it reads as a nudge (“is due on”); once the date has passed it says the invoice was due. It thanks them and asks them to ignore it if they've already paid.
• It needs the customer's phone number on their contact. Without one, the button tells you to add it.
• Only a message goes, not the invoice. If they ask for it again, send the PDF.

Record a payment on an invoice

Money is logged in one place: Banking. When the money comes in, go to Banking, tap + Add and type the line, and under Is this payment for an invoice? pick this invoice. The payment is recorded and the invoice settles in one go, so it shows in Banking, Cash Flow, reconciliation and your Balance Sheet. For a part payment, log what came in; the invoice shows part paid until the rest arrives. The invoice itself has no payment button, so the same money is never entered twice.

There is no longer a button that marks an invoice paid without the money. It left the customer's payment out of your bank balance and your Balance Sheet, so Worklog now refuses to settle an invoice nothing covers.

• Logged the money in Banking without picking the invoice? Open the invoice, tap Already logged the money? Link it, and pick the payment. Nothing is entered twice.
• Price wrong, job cancelled or goods returned? Tap Something wrong? Credit it and raise a credit note. A customer who simply won't pay is a bad debt, not a credit note — that is for whoever does your books, in Adjustments.
• An invoice that shows as paid with no money logged for it (marked paid before this change, or a deposit typed on it before deposits were recorded as money) carries an amber note, and says so in Needs you today, whose line opens a list of just those invoices, each saying why it reads as paid. Tap 💰 Log the amount on it: the money is recorded and the invoice stays as it is. If you had already logged that money, tap Already logged it? Link it instead. The list puts the likeliest payment first: one of exactly what is owed, then the same customer's.

Reversing an invoice

Once you have issued an invoice, don't just delete it if something changes — a returned item, a cancelled job, or an overcharge. Raise a Credit Note against it instead, so your books and your VAT stay straight: open Credit Notes under Sales and tap + New, or open the invoice and tap Something wrong? Credit it. See Credit notes for the full how-to.