Edit a draft invoice
Only Draft invoices can be edited. Change lines, grouping, discount, tax, and details — and how re-running the entry selection rebuilds the lines.
A Draft is fully editable — adjust lines, grouping, discount, tax, and details until it's ready to send. Once an invoice is Sent or Paid, its content is locked.
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Editing an invoice is a manager-tier action, and only Draft invoices can be edited.
Edit a draft
Open the draft
From the invoice list or its detail page, open the Draft and choose
Edit (/invoices/[id]/edit).
Make your changes
Change the grouping, add or remove custom lines, adjust the discount or tax, or update details. You can also re-run the entry selection to pull in different time or expenses, or change a fixed-fee allocation.
Re-running the entry selection rebuilds every line. Hoursmith releases the currently linked time entries, expenses, and fixed-fee reservations, then validates and locks the new selection. Re-check custom lines and allocations after a rebuild.
Fixed-fee balances are checked again when you Save and when you Send. If a project's fee or historical baseline changed and the draft now reserves more than is available, reduce or remove its allocation first.
Unsaved work and recovery
Invoice forms warn before leaving unsaved changes and can offer explicit recovery within the same browser tab, user, and workspace. Recovery expires after 24 hours and is best-effort when browser storage is unavailable. It stores editable form state, not credentials, private attachment bytes, or bank metadata. Restoring does not submit anything; current options and server validation are checked again. Saving, explicit discard, or signing out clears the applicable recovery state.
Other common task, checklist, client, project, and time editors detect stale changes and preserve your editable input instead of silently overwriting a newer version. Review the conflict before retrying.
Editing a Sent or Paid invoice
You can't change the content of a Sent or Paid invoice — that's what keeps a delivered invoice trustworthy. To make changes, either:
- Cancel and restore it back to a Draft, then edit, or
- Duplicate it into a fresh Draft.
See Immutable snapshots for why.
Delete a draft
You can delete a Draft ("Only Draft invoices can be deleted"). Deleting is a soft-delete and releases its time entries and expenses back to billable and returns fixed-fee reservations to their project balances. A non-Draft invoice can't be deleted — cancel it instead.
Troubleshooting
- The Edit button is missing. The invoice isn't a Draft. Cancel and restore it, or duplicate it.
- A line I want to keep disappeared. Re-running the entry selection rebuilds lines from scratch; re-add custom lines as needed.
Supporting documents (timesheet & receipts)
Attach a client-safe timesheet PDF and shared expense receipts to an invoice so clients can see the detail behind what they're paying.
Send an invoice
Email a draft invoice with the PDF attached and a public pay link. Use To, Cc, a message, a live preview, and a test send — or mark it sent silently.