Create a recurring invoice
Set up recurring manual charges, unbilled usage, or a hybrid with a calendar-safe schedule and draft or automatic delivery.
The recurring builder uses the same client, line-item, grouping, tax, discount, payment-method, notes, and totals patterns as the ordinary invoice builder. Its Schedule & automation panel decides when future invoices are created and whether they stop as Drafts or are emailed.
- Plan
- StudioAgency
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Creating a recurring series requires Studio or Agency and a manager-tier role.
Create the series
Open the recurring builder
Go to Invoices → Recurring → New recurring invoice, or choose New recurring invoice from the Invoices create menu.
Choose the client and content
Add at least one source:
- Recurring lines for repeatable fees;
- Unbilled time from all active Hourly projects or selected Hourly projects;
- Unbilled expenses for the client; or
- a combination of manual lines and usage.
Currency follows the client's override, or the workspace default when none is set. It is read-only in the builder. Fixed fee project allocations are not available in a recurring template.
Set the schedule
Choose how often the series runs. Presets include Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly, or set every N days, weeks, months, or years.
Choose today or a future start date, the series timezone, and the local generation time. New series default to your timezone and 06:00.
Choose when it ends
Set the series to:
- continue indefinitely;
- end on an inclusive calendar date; or
- end after a number of successfully generated invoices.
Skipped, empty, missed, and failed occurrences do not consume a generated-invoice count.
Choose delivery
Use Create draft to review every generated invoice, or Create and send automatically to email eligible invoices. Auto-send requires explicit recipients. A usage or hybrid series also requires a maximum grand total. See Guarded auto-send.
Review the projections and create
Check the next three issue dates, due dates, service periods, timezone, and local run time. Create the series. No invoice number is assigned until an occurrence is actually generated.
How service periods collect usage
A service period begins on the previous scheduled issue date and ends the day before the current issue date. The first period begins at the source start date shown in the builder.
At generation, Hoursmith selects eligible sources dated from that starting boundary through the service-period end:
- billable, un-invoiced time from active Hourly projects in scope; and
- billable, un-invoiced expenses for the same client, currency, and project scope.
The lower boundary stays stable, so eligible work entered late can be picked up by a later occurrence. Anything already claimed by another invoice is excluded.
Hoursmith prevents active usage series from overlapping when they could claim the same client, projects, and source types. This protects time and expenses from competing schedules.
Calendar edges
Schedules keep their original calendar anchor:
- A monthly schedule that begins January 31 uses February month-end, then returns to March 31.
- A yearly schedule on February 29 uses February 28 in non-leap years and returns to February 29 in leap years.
- Daylight-saving changes may shift the underlying instant, but not the displayed local issue date.
Dates follow your Hoursmith date preference and projections show the series timezone.
Use date tokens
Recurring line descriptions, notes, PO/reference text, and recurring email copy can use:
{{period_start}}and{{period_end}}{{issue_date}}and{{due_date}}{{month}}and{{year}}
Tokens are expanded using the series timezone and the app language captured when that revision is created. Your other text is kept exactly as written.
Start from an existing invoice
Open an ordinary invoice and choose Make recurring. Hoursmith opens the recurring builder in Draft-delivery mode and safely pre-fills reusable settings and manual lines. Compatible time and expense projects are selected for review.
Fixed-project allocations, incompatible or projectless sources, and uploaded attachments are omitted with a visible warning. The source invoice is never changed.
Generate the first invoice now
When creating a new schedule, Generate the first invoice now starts the schedule today and creates the first invoice immediately as a Draft for review. For later occurrences, use Generate next now from the series page; usage content cannot be generated before its service period ends.