BuildBook Invoicing allows you to quickly create professional invoices to send out to your clients letting them know you're ready to collect payment.
How to access Invoicing
Invoicing will replace the "Payments" section within your Project Budget. There will be two ways to access invoices on a Project.
1. Newly created Projects
Create a new project from scratch, by using another project as a template or using a template from the Templates tab. Once you create the new project, you'll see a new "Invoicing" tab in the Financials section in place of what was previously "Payments."
2. Old or existing Projects
In order to add Invoicing to your active projects, you first must remove all Payment data from the Payments section within a project's Financials tab.
⚠️ If you choose to delete payment data from your project, you will be permanently deleting all payments associated with that project and you WILL NOT be able to migrate current payment data into Invoicing.
We suggest taking a quick screenshot of the Payments tab to ensure you're not losing information and you can even print out that tab using the Print Budget option in the Project's Financials.
Once your payment data is removed, your "Payments" section within a Project's Financials tab will be updated and renamed to "Invoices."
Invoice Metrics
As you start adding invoices, BuildBook gives you a high-level view of where you stand with your financials based on the invoice Status.
Budgeted - The current project Budget total
Invoiced - The total of all Open, Overdue, and Paid invoices
Outstanding - The total sum of money owed at the present time based on invoices with Open Status, and by extension Overdue
Overdue - The total of all invoices past their due date not marked as Paid
Paid - Total of all paid invoices
Remaining - Remaining project budget that has not been invoiced
Create an Invoice
Create your first invoice by clicking the + Create Your First Invoice button.
Within the invoice you'll see the following sections that are customizable:
Description
Enter the description of the invoice to quickly denote what the Invoice is for. This appears at the top of the invoice and below the Invoice Number in the main Invoices tab.
Status
The Status is chosen and adjusted within the invoice. The default Status is Draft.
Draft - the Invoice is not finalized and has not yet been sent to the client
Open - the Invoice was sent to the client and has not yet been paid
Paid - the Invoice was paid
Void - the Invoice was voided
Overdue - applied automatically when an invoice has an Open Status and the Due Date is in the past
Only Draft invoices can be edited. Once an invoice is moved to Open, the invoice cannot be edited. To make an invoice editable again, you must move it back to Draft.
Payable To
Your company name and address appear in the Payable To section, which comes directly from your Company Settings (https://buildbook.co/team). Clicking Edit will take you to these settings.
Keep in mind that any changes made in Company Settings apply not only to the invoice but to other areas of BuildBook including the Client Dashboard and Portfolio.
Bill To
Choose an existing contact, create a new contact, or edit an existing contact from the Bill To section. This automatically populates with the first client found on the project.
Add Someone - click the Add Someone link. Then choose from existing contacts under the People dropdown.
Add Someone New - Click the Add Someone link and choose the Add Someone New link beneath the People dropdown.
Edit an existing contact - Once someone is added under Bill To you can edit their contact information by clicking Edit underneath their name.
Remove - Once someone is added under Bill To you can remove them by clicking Remove underneath their name.
Bill Date and Due Date
The Bill Date is the date the invoice was prepared and billed to the client. The Due Date is the date the invoice needs to be paid.
Add Line Items
Add Budget Items
To build your Invoice by adding existing Budget Line Items click + Budget Line Items.
Select one or more items from your Budget to add to the invoice.
Choose the percentage that you'd like to Invoice from those Budget items. You can choose to invoice for 100% of the item's price or use the Calculate Percentage at the bottom to choose how much you'll invoice for that particular item.
If any Budget Item has been previously Invoiced, you will see the remaining balance on that item represented in the "Remaining" column.
If you've selected multiple items you CANNOT assign a dollar amount to each item. You must enter a dollar amount within "Total to Add to Invoice", and it will be split by an equal percentage across all items you've selected.
Once a Budget Item(s) has been added to an invoice, you can manually edit individual line items by clicking on them. From here you can re-adjust the invoice amount for that individual Budget Item.
Add Custom Line Items
To build your Invoice by adding Line Items that are not Budget items click + Add Custom Item.
Custom items can include Bills or Expenses that are not linked to line items or things like your Management Fee.
Line Items can include:
Name
Description
Tax
Quantity
Unit Cost
Markup
The Tax, Quantity, and Unit Cost calculate the Cost. If Markup is applied, this calculates the final Price.
Add as many Line Items as needed to build the invoice.
In order for the Cost to appear in the total, there must be a Quantity of at least 1.
Calculating by Percentage
Calculate based on Projected Price: Perfect when you want to Invoice installments or at specific milestones. Set 25% in the “Projected” area and the Invoice will automatically calculate 25% against your Project’s Projected Price.
Calculate based on Remaining Price: This allows you to Invoice against the remaining balance of a Project. If you’ve already created a few Invoices, this will allow you to set 25% in the “Remaining” area and the invoice will automatically calculate 25% against the Remaining Costs of the Project.
Notes: Notes are shown in the exported invoice and are meant to include any applicable notes related to the invoice for the client to see.
Payment Terms: Payment Terms outline any specific information regarding how payment should be made, such as by check only or by including a specific link that the client should visit to pay the invoice.
Share an Invoice
When you're ready to share the invoice, click the blue Share Invoice button and choose to Email Invoice, Copy Link to Invoice, Download PDF, or Print the invoice.
Email Invoices
When emailing an Invoice to your client from BuildBook you can customize the
The pro's name is included as the sender's name and in the signature
The pro's logo is included at the top of the email
Personalize the email messages
Copy Link to Invoice
When you copy a link it creates a unique URL for you to share with your client so they can view the Invoice online, without needing to be logged into their account or download a PDF.
Invoice Settings
In invoice settings you can control how you would like your Due Date to be set and initial payment terms on new invoices.
Payment Terms
When you create a new invoice, the Due Date will automatically be set based on your Invoice Settings.
The following due date terms are available:
Upon receipt (sets the due date to today's date)
7 days (sets the due date to 7 days from today's date)
15 days (sets the due date to 15 days from today's date)
30 days (sets the due date to 30 days from today's date)
45 days (sets the due date to 45 days from today's date)
60 days (sets the due date to 60 days from today's date)
90 days (sets the due date to 90 days from today's date)
Payment Terms
Here you can specify default payment terms that you would like to use for new invoices.
When you create a new invoice, the Payment Terms will automatically be set based on your Invoice Setting. Once applied, you can edit the payment terms on the individual invoice.
Delete an Invoice
To delete an invoice, click the invoice number to open it. Then click the ellipsis menu in the upper right and select Delete Invoice.
