Help & Documentation

Every invoice moves through clear states. Drafts are freely editable; once finalised, the document is locked for tax compliance.

• Draft — editable, no number yet, PDF carries a 'DRAFT' watermark.
• Finalised — a gap-free number is assigned and the content is locked.
• Sent — emailed to the customer from the app with 'Send by email', or handed over another way and marked with 'Mark as sent…': a button beside 'Not emailed yet' in the invoice, also in the invoice's ⋯ menu in the list. It asks for the day the invoice was handed over and sends nothing; the invoice and the list then read 'Handed over on <date> (not emailed)'.
• Paid / partially paid — 'Mark as paid' settles the whole invoice, or records a partial payment when you choose 'Partial' on an invoice with a Mahnung; a linked bank transaction sets paid or, for part of the total, partially paid.
• Overdue — set by the app once the due date of a finalised or sent invoice has passed. The check runs when you open the app, at most once every four hours.
• Cancelled — the state a finalised invoice enters after you issue a Storno.
• Limits: at most 10 CC and BCC addresses per email, 10 emails per hour to one address, and 60 invoices, reminders and quotes per hour from one account. A send past a limit is refused; try again later.

Start an invoice blank, or seed it from a project, an accepted quote, a sub-rental, or a timesheet so the line items are pre-filled. Since v0.711.0 both the document discount and each line discount carry a 'Discount to a target total' helper: type the total you want to end up at and the percentage is worked out for you, with the achieved total shown first so you can see whether two decimal places of percentage land exactly on your figure. It always writes a percentage, so applying it switches the discount type to %.

1. Go to Accounting → Invoices and click 'New invoice' — or 'From quote / project / subrental / timesheet' to pull lines from a source (only accepted quotes are offered).
2. Pick the customer from your contacts, or enter a one-off address directly.
3. Add line items with 'Add position' (a free-form line), 'Add product' (from your product catalogue), 'Add timesheet' (logged hours as labour lines) or 'Add expense' (an expense you paid; it is then linked back to this invoice).
4. Structure a long invoice with groups: 'Add group heading' starts a group, and every position below it belongs to it up to the next heading. The heading shows the group's total. Once there is a heading, each position has a 'Group' selection: 'No group' takes it out of its group, a group moves it to the end of that group. Move up and down on a heading moves the whole group; removing a heading keeps its positions.
5. To print a group as a single position, tick 'Show as one position on the document (hide its positions)' on its heading. The PDF and the e-invoice then show the heading's title, its description and the group's total; the positions stay in the editor, are marked 'Not listed on the document' and still count towards the totals. A group with two VAT rates prints one position per rate.
6. 'Add text line' adds a line of text without a price, and 'Add subtotal' a row with the sum of its group (above the first heading: the sum so far). Headings, text lines and subtotals are never billed and do not appear in the e-invoice.
7. Set quantity, net unit price, and the tax rate per line; add a line or document-level discount if needed.
8. Choose payment terms (Net 7 / 14 / 30 / 60, due on receipt, or custom) — the due date is calculated for you.
9. Optionally set a service date (Leistungsdatum) and a Skonto early-payment discount.
10. The draft saves itself as you go; 'Save draft' saves at once and returns to the list (see 'Save a draft').

The editor keeps every change on its own: half a second after you stop typing, the draft is written on this device and reaches the cloud a moment later. 'Save draft' does the same at once and takes you back to the invoice list. The status line under the title always says what happened.

• Save draft appears only on drafts. A finalized invoice can no longer change, so it has no save button.
• An untouched new invoice is discarded: if you create one and leave without changing anything and without saving, the empty draft is deleted and a message says so. Until then the status line reads 'New draft — not saved yet'.
• A change typed just before you leave the editor (breadcrumb, back button) is still saved.
• A deleted draft is deleted in the cloud too, so it no longer comes back after a reload or on your other devices.

1. Click 'Save draft' in the action bar at the top of the editor (it stays pinned while you scroll): the draft is saved on this device, the cloud upload starts immediately, and you return to Invoices.
2. To save without leaving, press Cmd+S (Mac) or Ctrl+S (Windows, Linux). The browser's own 'Save page' dialog does not open.
3. Read the status line under the title: 'Saving…', 'Saved at 14:32', 'Saved on this device — syncs when you're back online', or 'Not saved: …' with the reason.
4. The arrow (←) left of the title returns to Invoices; your changes are already saved.

Tie an existing invoice to the project or sub-rental it bills, so it shows up in that record’s Linked invoices panel.

• Select invoices in the list and choose Re-link, or use Re-link in a single row’s menu.
• Pick Project or Sub-rental, search, choose the target and confirm.
• The links are independent: linking a sub-rental keeps the project link and vice versa.
• Cancelled invoices are skipped.
• Under the notes, Linked documents shows a chip for every related document: the source quote, project, sub-rental and time tracking, the invoice a correction or Storno belongs to (and back), and the rest of an Abschlag chain. A deleted one stays greyed out as unavailable.

The tax treatment you choose drives the whole document. Switching to an exempt treatment zeroes the VAT and inserts the legally required notice automatically.

• Standard — normal invoicing; per-line rates apply (typically 19% or 7%).
• Kleinunternehmer (§ 19 UStG) — no VAT charged; the statutory exemption note is added for you.
• Reverse charge (§ 13b UStG) — intra-EU B2B; VAT is zero and the recipient accounts for it. Goods to another EU country print 'tax-exempt intra-Community supply' instead; a German buyer gets the § 13b wording.
• Outside EU — no German VAT for non-EU customers. A service prints 'Not taxable in Germany (§ 3a (2) UStG)', goods print the export wording (§ 4 Nr. 1a UStG).
• Supply type — on a reverse-charge or outside-EU invoice, choose services (the default) or goods. It decides the VAT return field: EU services Kz 21, EU goods Kz 41, non-EU services Kz 45, non-EU goods Kz 43; a reverse-charge invoice to a buyer with a German VAT ID goes to Kz 60.
• VAT is calculated per rate group, so a mix of 19% and 7% lines is totalled correctly.

German law (§ 14 UStG) requires gap-free, sequential invoice numbers. The counter lives on the server and increments only when you finalise.

• Set an optional prefix under Settings → Accounting → Numbering; the preview shows the next number (e.g. INV-2026-0001).
• The year and counter are managed for you and reset to 0001 each calendar year.
• Numbers are allocated atomically, so they stay gap-free even across multiple devices.
• With multi-company enabled, each company keeps its own counter.

An invoice prints a proper intro under the salutation and a closing note above the greeting, without you writing either. Both fields show the text that will actually print, plus a badge saying where it comes from.

• Storno invoices and Rechnungskorrekturen get their own wording — 'thank you for your order' is wrong on a reversal.
• The document follows the CUSTOMER's language, not the language you have the app in.
• Placeholders like {invoiceNumber}, {customerName} and {dueDate} resolve when the PDF renders.
• The template's due-date sentence, payment terms and signature line print too: the sentence replaces the standard 'Payable by …' line and the transfer request under it, the payment terms follow it, and the signature line stands under the greeting in place of the sender name. An empty slot prints nothing; your own payment sentence under Settings → Invoice template still comes first. An invoice on a saved PDF layout ends with the same payment lines and signature.

1. Open an invoice and scroll to 'Cover letter & closing note'.
2. Pick a text template, or leave it on 'Use the default' to follow whichever template is marked default.
3. Type in a field to customise it for this one invoice — the badge switches to 'Customised'.
4. Press 'Reset to template' to hand the field back to the template.

Finalising assigns the number, locks the content, and produces the A4 PDF with your company branding. The PDF also embeds machine-readable ZUGFeRD/Factur-X data so your customer's accounting software can import it automatically.

1. Open the draft and click 'Finalize'.
2. Tick the confirmation in the dialog. The invoice number is allocated (this needs an internet connection) and the content is locked.
3. Download the PDF from the editor or the list row's menu — re-download any time; it is rendered from the same frozen content each time.
4. The embedded e-invoice XML rides inside the PDF; most accounting tools read it without a separate file.

Send a finalised invoice straight from the app. Subject and message start from your Email defaults (Settings → Accounting → Email defaults) with the invoice's values filled in; without saved defaults the subject starts as 'Rechnung <number>' ('Invoice <number>' on an English invoice) and the message is empty. The PDF is attached automatically.

1. Click 'Send by email' in the editor. The list row menu has the same entry: it opens the invoice with the send dialog already open.
2. Review the recipient (pre-filled from the customer), subject, and body; add CC/BCC if needed.
3. Keep 'Attach invoice PDF' ticked to send the PDF that 'Download PDF' gives you, with the ZUGFeRD XML inside. Tick 'Attach the ZUGFeRD XML as a separate file' if the customer's software wants the XML on its own; it arrives as factur-x.xml.
4. The dialog shows the PDF exactly as it will be attached, with its file name above it. Click 'Continue…': a second step names the invoice number, the recipients, the attachment and the subject. Only its 'Send' button sends; 'Back' returns to the texts with your edits kept.
5. After sending, the status flips to 'sent' and the send is recorded in the invoice's history.

Mark invoices paid as money arrives, or let the Banking module do it for you when a transaction is matched.

• 'Mark as paid' (list row menu, or 'Mark paid' for a selection) settles the whole invoice, with a payment date, method and reference; a cash payment can go into a cash register. On an invoice with a Mahnung, 'Partial' asks for the amount paid and leaves the invoice partially paid until the rest comes in.
• Linking a bank transaction to an invoice sets the paid amount and status automatically: partially paid for part of the total, paid for the rest. Unlinking returns the invoice to the status it had before, and a returned payment (bounced direct debit) is paired with the original so the invoice is unpaid again.
• Past its due date, an open invoice shows its due date in red and appears in the dunning worklist; its status changes to 'overdue' the next time the app checks, or at once when you issue a Mahnung.
• An invoice made from a quote with a deposit keeps its full total. The deposit sits in its own 'Deposit received' block (amount, optional date, remove), the totals and the PDF show 'Deposit received' and 'Amount due', and the payment QR code and e-invoice carry the amount due. Issuing the invoice books the deposit as a first partial payment, so the invoice starts as partially paid and a later payment settles the rest.

When an invoice is overdue you can issue dunning letters (Mahnungen) with a reminder fee and statutory late-payment interest (Verzugszinsen per § 288 BGB).

• Configure your dunning stages — names, how many days after the due date each triggers, and the fee — under Settings → Accounting → Dunning.
• Issuing a Mahnung calculates the accrued late interest and any reminder fee and produces a separate Mahnung PDF.
• Each reminder is recorded against the invoice ('Reminders sent', where 'Withdraw' takes one back); a finalised or sent invoice past its due date is 'overdue' at the latest with its first Mahnung and stays there until it's paid or cancelled.
• Issuing a Mahnung needs an internet connection; its email (Mahnung PDF plus a copy of the invoice) then goes through the same queue as invoice emails.

Finalised invoices can't be edited — that's the GoBD immutability rule. To fix a mistake you issue a Storno (cancellation/credit note): it gets its own number, reverses the original line for line, and leaves a clear paper trail.

• The Storno is a complete cancellation invoice (Stornorechnung) that restates all the legally required fields and references the original.
• Original plus Storno net to exactly zero, so your books reconcile.
• To take back only part of an invoice, use 'Create Rechnungskorrektur' (the invoice's ⋯ menu in the list, or the invoice itself) instead of a Storno. Enter a net amount per line, or 'Credit everything', then 'Create draft'. The draft's lines are fixed; finalising it gives it its own RK number (needs an internet connection) and it names the original invoice. Once the credit is offset against another claim, click 'Mark as settled'; if you paid the money back, link the bank transaction instead.
• What stays editable after finalising is limited to housekeeping: tags, internal notes, payment status, and the linked project.

1. Open the finalised invoice and click 'Cancel (Storno)' (needs an internet connection). If Mahnungen were issued, choose whether their fees are waived or retained.
2. Confirm — a Storno is created with a new number and negated amounts.
3. The original flips to 'cancelled', cross-referenced to the Storno; both stay in your records.

Migrate the sales invoices you already issued (in sevdesk/lexware) into your history. Open the invoices list and choose "Bulk import (AI)".

• Imported invoices are read-only historical records (finalized) with their original number preserved — so your migrated numbering stays intact.
• The counterparty is your CUSTOMER (the bill-to), since these are invoices you issued.
• Requires AI receipt scanning enabled in Settings; documents the AI can’t read are listed rather than dropped.
• Each invoice keeps the document it was read from: the PDF button on its row in the invoice list opens it. On the importing device it works at once. Other devices can open it once the upload has finished. Invoices bulk-imported before v0.887.2 have no original attached.

1. Drop E-Rechnung, PDFs, or images of the invoices you issued.
2. AI reads the invoice number, customer, date, and total from each document.
3. Review the parsed invoices, deselect any you don’t want, and import.

Import a single ZUGFeRD / Factur-X PDF or XRechnung XML that you issued in another system (sevdesk, Lexware, …) straight into your invoice list — no AI needed, because an e-invoice is already structured data. Open the invoices list and choose "Import e-invoice".

• The counterparty is your CUSTOMER (the bill-to), because this is an invoice you issued — not a supplier bill.
• Imported invoices are read-only history: the original number is preserved, your own RE-/RK- numbering is untouched, and they are never dunned.
• Line items, VAT rates and totals come from the document itself, so the imported invoice ties out to the cent against your old system.
• A supplier bill you received belongs in Expenses instead — pick "I received this invoice" and the wizard will tell you where to go.

1. Go to Accounting → Invoices and click "Import e-invoice".
2. Choose the ZUGFeRD / Factur-X PDF or the XRechnung XML file.
3. Confirm which of the two parties on the document is your company — the other one becomes the customer.
4. Check the customer details, tick "already paid" if it is settled, and import.

With the MCP server connected, attach a sales invoice you issued in your AI chat and ask for it to be recorded. Your assistant reads it, so no AI key is needed.

• A "waiting for review" notice appears on this page — Review opens the same bulk-import review screen a dropped file uses.
• The invoice number is required: a record cannot be keyed without one, and your assistant is told to say so rather than invent one.
• Duplicate invoice numbers are flagged and excluded by default, exactly as for a file import.
• Nothing is recorded until you accept it. Imported invoices become read-only finalised history, like a file import.
• Unavailable on multi-company-accounting accounts for now.