Recurring auto-send safety

Recurring Create and send automatically first creates an ordinary Draft, then emails it through the same provider pipeline as a manual invoice. Financial creation commits before any email network call begins.

Recipients are versioned

Auto-send requires explicit To recipients and supports Cc. When you first turn it on, Hoursmith suggests the client's resolved billing email only while the To field is untouched.

The recipients are snapshotted into that series revision. Changing a client contact later does not silently redirect future financial email. Edit this or future occurrences when recipients change.

Email content and preview

A recurring revision can:

• inherit the ordinary saved/default invoice email subject and body;
• override the subject, body, or both; and
• provide an optional message where the invoice template uses {{message}}.

Blank subject or body fields inherit independently. The builder preview merges the same templates used for delivery and expands the selected projection's recurring date tokens. Inherited fields use the workspace's current saved Invoice email template; add an override if a series needs fixed wording. The invoice number is shown as a placeholder until generation; the actual email uses the assigned number, total, payment link, payment methods, and immutable content snapshots.

See Email templates for ordinary invoice variables and conditionals.

The grand-total ceiling

Auto-send for a usage or hybrid series requires a maximum grand total. It is the largest generated total Hoursmith may email without review.

If the invoice exceeds that ceiling:

• it remains a Draft;
• the occurrence becomes Blocked—review;
• nothing is partially sent; and
• later occurrences can continue on schedule.

Review the Draft and send it manually, or revise the future series ceiling deliberately. Hoursmith never silently raises the limit.

Auto-send is not autopay

Automatic delivery sends the normal invoice and payment link. It never:

• creates Stripe Checkout itself;
• charges a saved card;
• creates a mandate, payment, or subscription; or
• marks an invoice Paid without a real payment.

The client chooses a configured payment method after receiving the invoice.

Delivery holds and retries

A missing/invalid recipient, amount over the ceiling, or changed generated Draft can hold delivery for review. A deliberate Retry delivery rechecks that the invoice:

• is still an unchanged Draft;
• has a positive grand total;
• remains within the captured ceiling; and
• belongs to a series that can currently deliver.

Pause, End, loss of plan access, or a disabled auto-send service prevents retry. Ordinary Send and Mark sent also respect the recurring delivery state and cannot bypass an uncertain provider attempt.

Delivery status unknown

Delivery status unknown means the provider call may have succeeded but Hoursmith could not confirm the final local status. It never retries automatically, because that could email the client twice.

After checking the email provider's message activity, a Manager+ chooses:

• Resolve as accepted when the provider confirms delivery. Hoursmith marks the existing invoice Sent without sending again.
• Keep as Draft when the provider confirms it rejected or never accepted the message. Review the Draft and recipients before retrying.

If the provider cannot establish what happened, leave the occurrence unresolved until you make an explicit client-contact decision.

Troubleshooting

• The invoice stayed Draft. Open the occurrence and check its recipient, grand-total ceiling, invoice changes, and series status.
• There was no invoice this period. A usage-only occurrence with no eligible work is skipped without a number or email. A hybrid should still create its manual base lines.
• Generate next now is disabled. Usage cannot be generated before its service-period cutoff.
• The series paused after a plan change. Restore Studio/Agency access, review the schedule and recipients, then Resume it manually. Hoursmith does not backfill.
• The status is Unknown. Check provider records first. Do not use ordinary Send or Retry to work around uncertainty.