Invoices and their statuses
What each invoice status means, how an invoice moves between them, how to find, rename, duplicate, delete and restore invoices, and how numbering works.
Every invoice in Billow has one of four statuses. The status decides what you can still change, and it moves in one direction only: Draft → Pending → Paid → Refunded.
Invoice statuses
Status | What it means | Badge in the app |
|---|---|---|
Draft | You are still working on it. It has no number, and nobody outside your workspace can see it. You can edit everything. | Draft |
Pending | You sent it or shared its link. It has a number and can no longer be edited. | Awaiting Payment, Due upon receipt, or the number of days overdue, such as 3d Overdue |
Paid | Your client paid, or you marked it paid. | Paid |
Refunded | The payment went back to your client. This is a final status. | Refunded |
Imported invoices carry an extra Imported badge next to their status.
How an invoice changes status
Change | How it happens |
|---|---|
Draft → Pending | |
Pending → Paid | Your client pays by card, or you mark it paid. See Getting paid |
Paid → Refunded | You refund the invoice, or your client wins a card dispute |
No other change is possible. A sent invoice cannot go back to Draft, and a paid invoice cannot go back to Pending.
After you send an invoice
Sending locks the invoice.
You cannot edit it or put it back to draft.
Copying the public link counts as sending. It assigns the number and locks the invoice in the same way, and Billow warns you before it happens.
Check the figures while the invoice is still a draft. To fix a sent invoice, replace it with a corrected copy.
The invoice list
Go to Invoices to see all your invoices. Three tabs sit above the list. The Refunded tab only appears once you have a refunded invoice.
Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
Unpaid | Pending invoices, with your drafts in a Drafts section below them |
Paid | Paid invoices, most recently paid first |
Refunded | Refunded invoices |
Each row in the Drafts section has a Send Invoice button that opens the send dialog. If the draft cannot be sent yet, the button is disabled and shows the reason when you hover over it.
The columns are Invoice, Account, Project, Type, Amount, Date and Status. On the Paid tab, the date column shows the payment date.
You can sort by any column and filter by Account, Project, Contact, Type, Source, Currency, Amount and Invoice date. The Paid tab adds a Paid date filter, and the Unpaid tab adds a Stage filter for Overdue or Awaiting payment invoices. See Filtering and sorting lists.
The row menu
Each row has a … menu at its right end.
Action | Available on |
|---|---|
Rename | Drafts and imported invoices |
Copy Public Link | Every invoice that isn’t imported |
Download PDF | Invoices created in Billow, and invoices imported from a CSV |
Download imported invoice | Invoices imported from a PDF or image. It returns the original file |
Delete Invoice | Every invoice, for owners and admins only, unless a deletion rule blocks it |
Rename an invoice
Renaming changes the title only. You can rename drafts and imported invoices.
Go to Invoices.
Open the … menu on the invoice’s row.
Choose Rename.
Enter the new title under Name.
Click Save.
On an imported invoice, Rename is also in the … menu on the invoice page. Everything else on an imported invoice stays as it was imported. On a draft, you can change the title with Edit instead.
Duplicate an invoice
Duplicating creates a new draft with the same account, project, contact, line items, payment method, currency, tax and note.
Open the invoice.
Open the … menu at the top right of the page.
Choose Duplicate.
The new draft opens straight away. It is dated today, keeps the same payment term, and adds “(copy)” to the title if the original had one.
You cannot duplicate a deposit invoice, or an invoice on a completed, cancelled or rejected project. For a completed project, reopen the project first.
Correct a sent invoice
A sent invoice cannot be edited. To correct one, follow Correct a sent invoice.
Due dates
When you create an invoice, the Due field offers Immediately, 15 days or 30 days from the invoice date. 30 days is the default, and it is also what automatically drafted invoices get. Immediately means the invoice is due on receipt.
Invoice numbers
Billow numbers an invoice when you send it, in the format INV-YYYY-NNNN, for example INV-2026-0001. Numbers count up within each year and start again from 0001 in January.
A draft has no number, so drafts never leave gaps.
Deleting a sent invoice does not free its number.
Imported invoices keep the number from your old tool and do not affect Billow’s numbering.
Regular and deposit invoices
A regular invoice has line items you write yourself.
A deposit invoice belongs to an accepted offer and bills a percentage of it. A project can have one deposit invoice. Billow drafts it for you when your client accepts the offer. You can also create one by hand while the project has no deposit invoice yet: the invoice form then shows an Invoice Type choice, set to Regular Invoice by default.
The type is set when you create the invoice and cannot be changed afterwards. See Deposits and automatic invoices.
Currency and tax on project invoices
On a project with an offer, the invoice takes its currency and tax from the offer. See Invoices on a project.
Delete an invoice
Only owners and admins can delete invoices. A deleted invoice moves to the deleted invoices page, where an owner or admin can restore it.
Open the invoice, or find it in the invoice list.
Open the … menu.
Choose Delete Invoice.
Click Delete in the dialog.
The dialog confirms what happens:
Delete Invoice Are you sure you want to delete [invoice]? This invoice will move to deleted invoices. Its number stays reserved and you can restore it later.
What blocks a deletion
Two rules can block a deletion. Delete Invoice is then disabled, with the reason on it.
Invoice | Can it be deleted? |
|---|---|
Paid through Stripe | No. “Cannot delete an invoice paid through Stripe.” |
A deposit invoice while the project still has regular invoices | Not yet. “Cannot delete deposit invoice while regular invoices exist for this project.” Delete the regular invoices first |
Marked paid by hand, or paid by bank transfer | Yes |
Draft or Pending | Yes |
A deleted invoice keeps its Billow number, whether it was paid or not. Deleting an imported invoice frees the number from your old tool, so you can import a corrected version.
Restore a deleted invoice
Only owners and admins can restore invoices.
Go to Invoices.
Click Deleted invoices at the bottom of the list. The link only appears when you have deleted invoices.
Click the restore button at the end of the invoice’s row.
Click Restore in the dialog.
The invoice comes back with its original number, status and paid date, and its figures are unchanged. If its project was deleted in the meantime, the dialog tells you:
The project this invoice belonged to was deleted. The invoice will be restored without a project.
The invoice then comes back as a standalone invoice.
When an invoice cannot be restored
Four situations block a restore. The restore button is then disabled, with the reason on it.
Situation | Message |
|---|---|
It is an imported invoice and its number now belongs to another invoice | “Cannot restore: invoice number 2024-017 is now used by another invoice.” |
Its account was deleted | “Cannot restore: the client has been deleted.” |
It is a deposit invoice and its project was deleted | “Cannot restore: the project has been deleted.” A deposit invoice must belong to a project |
It is a deposit invoice and the project already has another one | “Cannot restore: the project already has a deposit invoice.” |
