Create an invoice

Invoices work similarly to quotes, but the Invoices page and invoice actions require the invoicing feature and invoice permissions. If the Invoices page or New Invoice button is missing but you need it, contact your business's administrator to review your role.

Online customer payments, saved-card charges, autopay, and Stripe sales tax require a verified Stripe connection. If your business syncs accounting activity, set up the accounting integration and mappings under Settings > Invoicing before relying on invoice and payment sync.

Before you start

• The customer and property must already exist.
• The invoice needs at least one line item and payment terms before you can save it.
• If the work came from a signed quote, create the invoice from that quote to carry over line items, discounts, and attachments.

Create the invoice

1. Open the Invoices page.
2. Click New Invoice in the top right.
3. Choose the customer and property.
4. Add invoice line items, attachments, and payment terms. Discounts — and, when your business allows fee waivers, the invoice's processing fees — are under Additional options below Attachments (see Apply a discount to an invoice and Waive processing fees on an invoice). The Description field supports rich text — bold, italics, underline, headings, lists, divider lines, and tables (see Format descriptions and terms with rich text).
5. If your business keeps more than one invoice document template, pick the design for this invoice in the Template dropdown; the preview updates to match. With a single template there is no dropdown — the invoice uses it automatically (see Choose and customize your invoice document template).
6. Use the preview on the right to check what the customer will see. The Context tab beside it shows the billing details, an asset-group summary, property contacts, and customer facts while you work (see See property, customer, and deficiency context while quoting or invoicing).
7. Save the invoice.

Saving assigns the invoice number automatically and creates the invoice in Draft. You can keep editing while it is in Draft, then send it or finalize it when it is ready.

Admins can set the next invoice number before creating an invoice, for example to start at 50000.

When you link a job, the technicians on any non-cancelled visit of that job automatically receive credit for the invoice's revenue in the Revenue by technician and Technician profitability reports — each report divides the invoice's pre-tax revenue recognized in the period (cash or accrual) evenly among them. There is nothing to select: change who is credited by changing who is assigned to the visit. An invoice with no linked job credits nobody; the Revenue by technician report lists it under Unattributed invoices so you can link a job or fix the assignment.

You can also start an invoice from the New shortcut at the top of any page. When you start from a customer, property, contact, or job page, Essential carries that context into the invoice when it applies, so the customer, property, or related job may already be filled in.

Where to find it: Invoices page, New Invoice button (top right)

Add a customer signature

An administrator can enable Customer signature below Invoice templates under Settings > Invoicing > Invoice, then select Save. The setting is off by default. Existing unsigned invoices keep their appearance, with no signature section added. Signatures are optional: you can still save or finalize an invoice without one.

Customer signature setting, off by default

After adding items and configuring sales tax, find Customer signature above Additional options near the bottom of the invoice form. Before saving or finalizing a draft, select Add signature, enter the customer’s full name, and have them draw their signature. Save the signature, then save or finalize the invoice. The signature and full name appear together at the bottom of the default invoice template and in its PDF, aligned with the rest of the invoice content. Customized document templates also show saved signatures. If either the signature or full name is blank, neither appears on the invoice.

Customer signature after invoice items and sales tax, above Additional options

While the invoice is editable, use the edit icon beside Customer signature to replace it or the trash icon to remove it on the web. This works on desktop web, a phone’s web browser, and the mobile app. In the mobile app, enter the name, tap Draw signature, and then Use This Signature. Signatures stay with saved offline drafts until they sync.

Turning the setting off hides capture controls but keeps signatures already saved on invoices.

Use a different service address

An invoice normally prints its property's address as the Service Address. When the work happened somewhere that is not one of the customer's saved properties — a one-off site, a different building, a trailer — you can print a different service address on this invoice without creating a property.

1. Choose the customer and property as usual. The property stays on the invoice.
2. Under the Property field, select Use a different service address.
3. Enter the address (an optional location name, street, city, state, and zip) and select Save. The preview updates, and the address shows under the Property field with a Custom tag.
4. Save the invoice.

Select Edit to change the address or Use property address to go back to printing the property's address. The billing address is not affected.

Sales tax follows the service address you enter: automatic sales tax looks up the rate for that address, and manual rates limited to a state or city match against it. Changing or clearing the address re-applies the rates for the new address on any line whose tax was applied automatically.

Duplicate an existing invoice

1. Open the invoice you want to use as a starting point.
2. Save any changes, then open the three-dot menu and choose Duplicate.
3. Essential opens an unsaved copy with the original property selected. You can choose another property, including one belonging to another customer.
4. Review its details and select Save to create the draft and assign its invoice number. Leaving without saving creates no invoice. Refreshing reloads the source and discards unsaved edits. Send the saved draft when ready.

The copy keeps the customer, property, a different service address if one was entered, description, line items and groups, saved line-item and discount explanations, taxes, discounts, payment terms, processing-fee waiver and its reason, attachments, and linked jobs. It starts fresh without the original invoice date, sent history, payments, or payment status—even when the original is paid. Duplicating does not send anything to the customer.

Changing the property clears the copied contact, linked jobs, service-address override, job-number override, and PO number. Payment terms and fee waivers use the destination’s defaults. Copied prices and ordinary attachments remain. Automatic taxes follow the new effective service address; review manual rates and items that may have been exempt at the original property. A review warning appears only for a known state/city scope conflict in a copied manual rate or unresolved untaxed items from an exempt source. Valid destination rates need no confirmation. If prompted, select Confirm tax selections after reviewing the affected items.

An unchanged-property copy preserves the source’s applied tax. A source line without a saved rate contributes no tax until you choose a rate or change its destination.

The PO number is copied as text; select a tracked purchase order again if the new invoice should bill against it. Custom fields that require unique values start blank so you can enter new values. The copy is a standalone invoice, separate from the original's quote or subscription.

Duplicate with the Assistant

Ask the Essential Assistant to duplicate a saved invoice. Review the source invoice, destination and total on the action card, then click Confirm. This creates a saved draft for the same customer and property. The completed card links to the new invoice.

The Assistant copies saved commercial content, attachments, linked jobs and non-unique custom fields. Payments, sent history, original dates and tracked purchase-order links do not carry over. Nothing is sent or finalized. Save source edits first. If the source changes before confirmation, request a fresh proposal.

To use a different customer or property, or fill a required field that cannot be copied, use the editable Duplicate form described above.

Related guides

• Create an invoice from a job
• Add a line item to an invoice
• Apply a discount to an invoice
• Attach files or reports to an invoice
• Can I reverse a payment I recorded?
• Feature availability and setup

Link jobs and technicians

Open the linked-records control near the invoice title (initially No Related Records). In Related Records, select technicians directly, or select a property on the invoice and search for its jobs. Jobs can be linked before a visit is completed. Choose Save links to apply your selection, then save a new invoice to keep its links.

Reopen the same control to add, change, or remove links. On saved invoices, Save links saves immediately, including on paid invoices. Jobs added to editable drafts can add billable line items; save the invoice to keep those item changes. Unlinking a job keeps existing line items.

Revenue by technician and Technician profitability combine directly selected technicians with technicians assigned to linked-job visits. Revenue is split equally between distinct people. Removing a direct technician link leaves any credit they receive through linked jobs.