Immutable snapshots
At generation an invoice freezes its bill-to details, lines, and totals. Later edits to a client or project never change a past invoice.
A finished invoice is a record of what you billed, exactly as your client saw it. Hoursmith guarantees this by freezing the invoice's content the moment it's generated.
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
This behaviour applies to every invoice. Members never see invoices.
What gets frozen
At generation, the invoice captures a snapshot of:
- Bill-to name, address, and tax number
- Line items, with quantities and unit prices (a rate snapshot)
- Subtotal and total
- Discount and tax rate
- Currency
- PO number
- Bank-transfer instructions
From then on, editing the client or project never changes a past invoice. Raise a client's rate or fix their address, and yesterday's invoice still shows the figures and details it was issued with.
This is why you can't edit a Sent or Paid invoice's content. To make changes, cancel and restore it to a Draft, or duplicate it into a fresh one.
What's metadata (and never changes the totals)
Some actions update an invoice's records without touching its frozen lines or totals:
- Recording a payment
- Regenerating the share token
- View tracking
- Reminders
- The payment-method configuration
A card processing fee is a payment-time surcharge — it's recorded on the payment and is never part of the invoice total. See Accept card payments.
Why it matters
- Trust — what you sent is what stays on file, so there are no surprise changes after the fact.
- Consistency — the PDF and the public page always match the snapshot.
- Accuracy — a locked snapshot keeps an invoice in step with the time and expenses behind it.