Customize your invoice email and receipt templates
Settings -> Quotes & Invoices -> Invoicing is organized into tabs: Payments, Accounting, Invoice, Receipts, Custom Fields, Follow-ups, AI Prompts, and Manual Payment Methods. Alongside the invoice document (PDF) template, you can set default payment terms and customize the emails and receipts your customers receive.
An unchanged built-in document or receipt style is eligible for automatic updates when Essential improves that style. Once you change and save its source, it stays as your custom version. Re-selecting a document style from the library and saving returns it to the auto-updating built-in.
Email templates follow a narrower rule. A configured Receipt email that still exactly matches Essential's current built-in content is eligible for automatic updates. In most setups the same is true for a configured Invoice email; a legacy email shared by more than one automation type is left unchanged so an update to one workflow cannot rewrite another.
Once you save your own email subject or body, that email stays as saved. These email cards do not have a Reset to default control; Discard changes only removes edits you have not saved yet.
If your business has additional offices or brands, the invoice and quote document templates, the invoice email, receipt template, receipt email, and quote email previews include Preview office and brand. Switch among the options to verify each customer-facing name, logo, color, contact details, and Customer Portal link where available. Portal links appear only while the portal is enabled and has a saved URL; an unassigned brand is available as a branding preview but has no portal link until an office uses it. This is an internal preview control only: it does not change the saved template or the brand used for a real send. Essential automatically uses the document's effective office and brand, and the customer never chooses a brand.
Default payment terms
The Invoice tab's Default payment terms are the starting terms for new customers. You can also apply a new default to existing customers:
Choose payment terms (or no default), then select Save changes.
In the modal, choose New customers only or New and existing customers.
If updating existing customers, optionally select Skip customers and Skip customers with matching payment terms. For example, keep selected customers on their negotiated terms and skip everyone currently on Net 60. A customer matching either exclusion is skipped. Active and inactive customers are included; exclusions apply only to this save and are not remembered.
Select Save default only or Save and update customers to confirm. Nothing is saved until you confirm; Cancel leaves the saved default unchanged.
The bulk update changes customer billing defaults. Property-specific billing terms and payment terms on existing invoices stay unchanged. New invoices use the applicable customer or property billing terms.
Invoice email
The Invoice tab holds the Invoice email - the message customers get when you send an invoice, and the template new invoice follow-ups reuse. Edit the Subject and the HTML/Liquid body; a live preview shows how it renders on sample data. Save applies your changes, or Discard removes unsaved edits. Automations controls when invoice follow-ups send; their message content is managed here.
If invoice outreach has not been configured under Automations, the Invoice email card links there and shows Essential's default as a read-only preview. Configure the first invoice-outreach email in Automations before editing it here. Quote outreach is configured separately on the Quote tab under Settings > Quotes.
Set the pre-filled message for quotes and invoices
Choose a default message for your whole team:
Open Settings → Quotes & Invoices → Quotes → Quote for quotes, or Settings → Quotes & Invoices → Invoicing → Invoice for invoices.
Find Default email message and edit Message.
Click Save changes.
The next time you open Send or Resend, Custom Message starts with that text. You can edit it for that send without changing the business default. Quotes and invoices have separate defaults. You need permission to edit quotes or invoices to save their respective settings.
Use {{sender_first_name}} wherever you want the sending team member’s first name. A message beginning with Hi, adds the selected recipient’s first name to the greeting. Line breaks are preserved. Save an empty message if you prefer to start blank, or click Restore default, then Save changes, to return to Essential’s original wording.
Choose where email replies go
The Invoice tab also has an Email reply-to setting with two choices:
Sender (default) pre-fills the sending team member's login email. They can edit the reply-to address before sending.
Business profile email sends replies to the email address saved in your Business profile, including replies to follow-ups. The send dialog hides the Email Reply To field.
Select an option, then click Save changes. Quotes have the same independent setting on the Quote tab under Settings -> Quotes. Changing the invoice choice does not change quote emails, and changing the quote choice does not change invoice emails.
Receipt template
The Receipts tab holds the Receipt template - the PDF customers receive after a payment. Browse templates to pick a style (Classic, Modern, Bold, or Letterhead) with live thumbnails rendered on sample payment data, preview it, then Save. If you can edit the source, Edit code opens the raw HTML/Liquid. A business that has never customized its receipt uses the Classic style, which is also what customers receive until you save your own.
Built-in receipts show Amount Received, the payment method, and its saved reference on a separate row, such as Check #: 1042. Optional fields left blank and disabled fields do not add an empty row. Existing customized receipt designs stay as saved; select a built-in style and Save to use the updated design.
For a custom design, Edit code can use payment.method_name, payment.reference_label, and payment.reference_value. Check both reference fields are nonblank before showing the row, and use Liquid’s escape filter for the label and value. payment.paymentMethod and payment.method_label continue to include the method and reference together for existing designs. Each item in invoice payments also exposes method_name, reference_label, reference_value, and method_label.
Payment Internal Notes are internal only and are not available to receipt or invoice templates. A custom template that references payment.notes (including within payment history) renders no note text. Use the payment reference fields above for details customers should see.
In the built-in receipt styles, taxable line items use a checkmark when one tax entry applies, and the summary shows Sales Tax with its percentage. If several tax entries apply - including entries with the same percentage but different agencies or jurisdictions - the receipt names and totals each one separately. Lines without an applied tax entry do not create an empty tax row.
Receipt email
Also on the Receipts tab, the Receipt email is the message that accompanies a payment receipt. Edit the Subject and the body with a live preview, then Save. As with the receipt template, an uncustomized business sends Essential's polished default.
Quote email
Settings -> Quotes & Invoices -> Quotes is organized the same way, into Quote, Terms & Conditions, Custom Fields, Follow-ups, and AI Prompts tabs. The Quote tab holds the Quote email - the message customers get when you send a quote and the template new quote follow-ups reuse. Edit it the same way as the invoice email; Automations controls the follow-up timing.
Where to find it: Settings -> Invoicing, the Invoice and Receipts tabs; quote email and reply settings are under Settings -> Quotes, the Quote tab
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