Recurring invoices
Schedule repeatable fees, eligible hourly time and expenses, or hybrid invoices as drafts or guarded automatic emails.
Recurring invoices put repeat billing on a schedule. A recurring series stores what should be billed and when; each due occurrence becomes an ordinary Hoursmith invoice only when its date arrives.
- Plan
- StudioAgency
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Recurring invoices require Studio or Agency and a manager-tier role. Members cannot access invoices or recurring billing.
Where to find them
Open Invoices → Recurring (/invoices/recurring). The Invoices area has separate Invoices
and Recurring tabs, while the create menu offers New invoice and New recurring invoice.
The ordinary Invoices tab and its totals contain real invoices only. Future projections are scheduling aids—not receivables, revenue, quota use, or reserved invoice numbers.
What can repeat
| Series type | What each occurrence includes |
|---|---|
| Manual fee | One or more repeatable quantity-and-price lines, such as a monthly service fee or annual licence renewal. |
| Usage | Eligible, still-unbilled time from Hourly projects and/or billable expenses through the service-period cutoff. |
| Hybrid | Recurring manual base lines plus eligible time or expenses. |
A usage-only period with nothing eligible is recorded as Skipped—no billable work. It receives no invoice number and sends no email. A hybrid still generates its manual base charge when no usage is available.
Recurring auto-send is not autopay. Hoursmith can create and email the invoice with its normal payment link, but it never charges a saved card, creates a payment mandate, or takes payment automatically.
Each occurrence becomes a normal invoice
When an occurrence is due, Hoursmith assigns the next invoice number and creates a normal Draft. It uses the ordinary invoice lifecycle and keeps the same:
- bill-to and currency snapshots;
- Decimal totals, discount, tax, and payment methods;
- claimed time and expenses;
- PDF, supporting timesheet, and eligible expense receipts;
- public payment link, reminders, and payments; and
- editable Draft and immutable Sent behavior.
Generated invoices stay linked to the series for history, but you can open and work with them like any other invoice.
What you can manage
From a series page you can:
- preview upcoming issue dates, due dates, and service periods;
- edit one scheduled invoice or that invoice and all future ones;
- pause indefinitely or until a date;
- resume without generating a backlog;
- skip or undo the next occurrence;
- generate the next eligible occurrence immediately as a Draft;
- end the schedule permanently; and
- clone the series into a reviewable new schedule.
Past generated invoices never change when the series changes.
Important boundaries
Recurring billing does not currently provide:
- automatic payment collection;
- included-hours, rollover, prepaid-balance, or retainer-consumption accounting;
- automatic allocation from a Fixed fee project's bounded contract balance;
- reusable static file attachments on every future invoice; or
- recurring-series creation or editing through the REST API or MCP.
Use repeatable manual lines for a recurring service charge. A project-linked Fixed fee balance still requires review in the ordinary invoice builder.
Create a recurring invoice
Choose content, schedule, ending, and delivery.
Manage a recurring series
Edit one or future invoices, pause, skip, resume, end, or clone.
Guarded auto-send
Recipients, amount ceilings, review holds, and delivery safety.