INVOICING AND RECEIVABLES
Turn Client Agreements Into Clear, Trackable Invoices.
Invoicing that already knows what you agreed, what you have delivered and what the client has paid, because it is built on the same records as the work.
From Agreement to Allocated Payment.
Each step is a separate record. That is what lets you tell what you agreed apart from what you billed, and what you billed apart from what arrived.
- Agreement What the client committed to.
- Payment Schedule When each part of it falls due.
- Draft Private, editable, not owed by anyone yet.
- Issued Invoice Numbered, fixed, and now a receivable.
- Client Payment Money that actually arrived.
- Allocation Which invoices that money settles.
Nothing Bills a Client Until You Say So.
Drafts are private and editable. Change lines, fix a price, add something you forgot. Nobody owes anything and nothing has been sent.
Issuing is the moment that changes. The invoice takes its number from the sequence you configured, its contents are fixed, and it becomes a receivable with a due date.
Instalments you already agreed on a payment schedule become an invoice in one step, so the numbers on the document are the numbers you agreed rather than the numbers somebody retyped.
INVOICE STATES
The States an Invoice Can Be In.
Six states, each meaning one thing. Partially paid is a state in its own right, because treating it as unpaid chases a client who has paid and treating it as paid loses the balance.
Draft
Private and editable. Not a receivable.
Issued
Numbered, fixed, and owed.
Partially Paid
Some of it has been settled. The rest is still outstanding.
Paid
Fully settled.
Overdue
Issued, past its due date and not fully settled.
Voided
Withdrawn, and still on the record with its history.
Corrections Are New Records, Not Edits.
Over-billed, billed the wrong thing, agreed a reduction after the fact. A credit note is raised against the issued invoice and reduces what is owed on it.
The original invoice keeps its number, its contents and its payment history. Anyone looking later can see what was billed, what was credited and why, in that order.
This is the same principle the rest of Bikabo runs on. A financial record that can be quietly rewritten is not a record.
Knowing Who Owes You, and How Late.
Three figures that are easy to blur and worth keeping apart: what you agreed with the client, what you have actually billed, and what is still outstanding. An Engagement can be fully delivered and half invoiced.
On the plans that include it, a receivables view ages what is outstanding into buckets by client, so chasing becomes a list rather than an afternoon in a spreadsheet. Due-soon, due-today and overdue reminders go out on a schedule, without anyone having to remember.
Retainers can draft themselves on a recurring rule. You still review and issue them.
The Document the Client Gets.
Your logo, your business details, your terms. It is your invoice, and nothing on it advertises the software that produced it.
You can email it from Bikabo and see when it was opened, or print it and record that you sent it another way. Clients with portal access can pull up any invoice you have sent them without emailing you to ask for it again.
What the document carries is what a client should see. Internal cost, margin and staff compensation live in the same system and never appear on it.
What Invoicing Does Not Replace.
- Bikabo does not take card or bank payments on your client invoices. It records the payment; it does not collect it.
- No bank feed, no reconciliation, no general ledger.
- No tax filing or statutory reporting.
- No approval workflow requiring sign-off before an invoice may be issued.
Invoicing here closes the loop between the work, its cost and what the client actually pays. Your accountant still does the accounting.
Questions About Invoicing
A draft is private and freely editable. Nothing is owed and nothing has been sent. Issuing assigns the number, fixes the contents and turns it into a receivable. Nothing bills a client until you say so.
Yes. Set your prefix and format. Numbers are assigned when an invoice is issued, never reused and never recycled, which is what keeps a numbered sequence meaningful.
On the plans that include it, yes: configurable rates, inclusive or exclusive, applied per line, with the arithmetic done for you. Per-line discounts are supported too. On plans without it, lines are invoiced untaxed.
Both work. A payment can be split across several invoices, several payments can settle one invoice, and the status reflects reality: partially paid is its own state, not a rounding of paid.
Raise a credit note against it. The original invoice and its payment history stay intact, and the credit note records what was corrected and why. Issued records are never edited in place.
No. A credit note reduces what the client owes on a document. A refund is money leaving your account and going back to them. They often follow one another, and Bikabo records them as the separate events they are.
They run on a schedule, set once for the business rather than arranged per client. Both can also be sent from a button whenever you want to run them yourself.
No. Bikabo records what you billed and what you were paid. It does not take card or bank payments on your invoices, does not reconcile against your bank feed, and does not replace accounting software.