Invoices

Open Invoices to see scheduled invoices building up, issued customer invoices, amounts owed and overdue balances. Bottle uses one invoice-number sequence for your business.

Set the prefix and starting number in Business settings → Invoices → Numbering. The line shows your next invoice number, and the dialog shows how it changes as you type. Existing invoices keep their numbers.

Delivery and cylinder-rent invoices

An order invoice covers a single order, including a payment-link order or a pay-later delivery billed individually.

If the order has a surcharge, it appears as its own named invoice line. A per-item surcharge shows the matching quantity and the amount for each item. The saved quantity, unit amount and VAT basis are sent to connected accounting software, including Xero. Changing the surcharge under Business settings does not rewrite existing orders.

A period invoice groups charges for a customer’s weekly, monthly or quarterly billing period:

• Pay-later deliveries not already invoiced.
• Cylinder rent for the days cylinders were held.
• Deposit credits from returns. Each returned cylinder is refunded by its deposit’s own rule, measured from when that cylinder’s hire started, so a sliding scale needs no receipt. See Refunds on one deposit.

Bottle does not create an empty invoice.

Each delivered product stays as a clear product line. Its delivery date and Bottle order reference appear underneath in smaller text, so the customer can match every charge to a delivery without the product name becoming cluttered. The same context is sent to Xero with the line.

Orders imported from WooCommerce or Shopify are billed by that shop, not Bottle. They do not create a second Bottle invoice or appear as charges to bill again on a customer’s scheduled invoice. See Connecting your shop.

See a scheduled invoice before it is sent

Open Invoices → Pending to see weekly, monthly and quarterly invoices before they go out. Each row shows the customer, the billing period, the date it goes out, the total so far and how many delivered orders are on it.

If you open invoices from a customer record, Pending shows only that customer’s next scheduled invoice.

Hover over Items so far to see every delivery, cylinder rent charge and deposit credit on it so far, with each order’s reference.

A pending invoice has not been raised yet. It has no invoice number, and nothing has gone to the customer or your accounting software. Its total changes as you deliver, as cylinder rent adds up and as deposit credits are recorded. Bottle raises the invoice on the date shown.

Select the customer’s name, or Preview invoice in the row’s menu, to see the invoice as the customer will get it. It shows Not raised yet where the number will go.

Raise an invoice early

Select Raise now on the preview or in the row’s menu, or tick several customers and select Raise now at the foot of the screen. Each invoice covers everything up to and including today and gets its number straight away. If Invoice emails is on, the customer is emailed at once. Their next invoice starts tomorrow and goes out on the usual date.

Raised by mistake? Select Undo straight after raising, or cancel the invoice from the Unpaid tab. Its orders and deposit credits go back onto the next invoice, which goes out on the usual date.

See the orders on an invoice

Select View orders in an invoice’s menu to open Orders with just the orders on it. Tick several invoices to see the orders on all of them. An invoice for cylinder rent or credits only has no orders, so View orders is greyed out on it.

Customers with nothing to bill do not appear. Orders billed by WooCommerce, Shopify or another connected shop are also left out.

Setting a customer’s cycle

On the customer record, choose per-delivery, weekly, monthly or quarterly invoicing.

For scheduled invoices, use the business’s standard days or choose days for that customer:

• Weekly: a day of the week, such as Monday.
• Monthly: a day from the 1st to the 28th, or the last day of the month.
• Quarterly: a day of the month, and which three months: January, April, July and October; February, May, August and November; or March, June, September and December.

Set the standard days in Business settings → Invoices → When invoices go out. Each line shows the next date it gives. Leave them unchanged if they suit your business. They only apply to customers using the business days.

Existing rolling schedules stay unchanged until you choose calendar dates for them. Customer-specific dates are not overwritten by business defaults.

After a date change, the next invoice includes all unbilled charges through the previous day. Previously invoiced orders are not billed again.

Invoice dates

Bottle creates due scheduled invoices overnight. With Invoice emails on under Business settings → Customer emails, it emails every billing contact saved on the customer, with the PDF and available payment methods. Several billing contacts can receive the same invoice. If none are saved, Bottle uses the normal contact emails. Turn that switch off while you send invoices through your existing route: Bottle still creates each invoice, keeps its PDF available and sends its details to connected accounting software. It does not email skipped invoices later when you turn the switch back on.

Interrupted processing catches up by billing period without duplicating invoices. See Emails to customers.

Pay-later deliveries

Customers invoiced per delivery receive an invoice after the delivery is completed or its outstanding items are resolved. It bills the actual delivered quantities.

Customers on a weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule receive those charges in their scheduled invoice instead.

The payment deadline uses the customer’s days-to-pay setting or your business default.

Who owes you

The summary shows the total outstanding and overdue, plus the customers with the largest balances. Open a customer to review their account.

Getting paid

Stripe payments update invoices automatically. For other payments, select Mark paid and choose bank transfer, cash or card.

The payment method appears on the invoice and PDF and is included in accounting sync. Incorrect manual payments can be reversed.

Cancel an unpaid invoice when appropriate. It remains recorded as cancelled and keeps its number.

Paying several invoices at once

A customer who owes on two or more invoices can pay them all in one card payment. Each invoice email and reminder then has a Pay all your invoices at once section with their own link. To send it yourself, open the customer and, in Invoices, select Copy link to pay all beside what they owe, for example Copy link to pay all 3 invoices. The button shows when two or more invoices can be paid by card.

The link covers every unpaid invoice that has a card link, oldest due first. The payment page lists each invoice with its amount and what it was for, and asks for the total. Once the customer pays, each invoice is marked paid by card and goes to your accounting software as its own payment. You get one notification for the payment, naming each invoice.

The link prices what is owed each time it is opened, so it stays right as invoices are raised or paid. If an invoice is paid another way or cancelled while the customer is on the payment page, it is left as it is. Its share of the payment shows as a payment to review, so you can refund it. With only one invoice owed, the link opens that invoice’s own payment page.

Correct and reissue an invoice

Owners and admins can select Correct and reissue beside an unpaid invoice, or open the invoice and choose the same action. Add, remove or change product lines, check whether each price includes or excludes VAT, enter a new due date and record the reason for the correction.

Bottle does not edit the issued document. It cancels the original, keeps its PDF and issues the correction under the next invoice number. Open Invoice history on either document to see the original and every corrected issue, including the reason and totals.

Where the connected payment provider supports it, Bottle closes the original payment page before changing the debt and creates a payment page for the corrected total. If the provider reports that the old page was paid first, Bottle stops the correction. Resolve the payment before trying again.

The corrected invoice follows Invoice emails under Business settings → Customer emails. When the switch is on, billing contacts receive the new PDF and payment options. When it is off, Bottle still creates the correction and syncs it to connected accounting software, but does not email it.

A paid invoice cannot be reissued. First confirm how the payment or refund should be handled, then remove the payment only when that is correct.

Branded invoice PDFs

Select an invoice number to expand its details, including lines, totals, payment status and payment instructions. Use Download PDF for a copy.

Emailed invoices include the PDF as an attachment. The email’s subject and its This invoice section say what the invoice is for: the delivery date and order reference for a pay-later delivery, or the period for a scheduled invoice, with the customer’s own reference where the order had one. Overdue reminders carry the same section. The card payment page says the same under the invoice number, and the payment in your Stripe account carries it in its description, so a customer who paid a similar invoice last month can tell this one apart, and so can you when matching payments.

Each line shows its unit price as it was entered on the order. When every line was priced Including VAT, the invoice headings say Unit price inc VAT and Amount inc VAT. Those are the final amounts: the summary says VAT included and does not add VAT again.

When prices were entered Excluding VAT, line amounts are before VAT and the summary adds VAT to reach the total. A historical invoice containing both kinds marks inclusive unit prices with an asterisk and uses before-VAT line amounts so its totals remain clear. See VAT and Prices on an order.

Invoice header

Your business name, logo, company number and registered office come from Business settings → Your business. Each has its own line there: select Edit, Add or Change to update just that part. Your VAT number comes from the VAT line on the same card.

Choose a logo at least 600 pixels wide, then fit it to its frame. A PNG with a see-through background looks best. Bottle trims any plain white or see-through border around it, so it prints at a sensible size. The dialog shows it at the top of an invoice and in your shop’s header before you save. Without one, the invoice displays your business name.

Invoice footer

Set bank details and footer text in Business settings → Invoices → Bank details on invoices. The dialog shows how the foot of an invoice will read. Set how many days customers get to pay in Business settings → Invoices → How customers pay. The default is fourteen days.

Finding one

Search by customer, invoice number or text from invoice lines. A bare number such as 47 can find INV-BTL00047.

Use payment-status filters and pagination to narrow the list.

Cash at the door

Cash collected against an order updates its invoice balance. Partial payments leave only the remaining amount outstanding.

Handing that cash to the office does not change the customer’s balance again. See Cash.

Reminders about overdue invoices

Turn reminders on with the switch on the Reminders line in Business settings → Invoices. Select Edit to choose the first delay, repeat interval and maximum number.

Paid or cancelled invoices are excluded. Payment-link orders awaiting advance payment are not chased as delivered debts.

If Xero also sends reminders, disable one set to avoid duplicate messages.

Act on several invoices

Tick the box beside each invoice, or the box in the list heading to tick every invoice on the page. Ticks stay when you change page, and clear when you change tab or search.

With the whole page ticked, select Select all to tick every invoice in the tab or search, on every page, up to 500 at once.

The list heading then shows what you can do with them:

• Send reminders emails each customer about their invoice. See below.
• Mark as paid marks each unpaid invoice paid today, by bank transfer, cash or card.
• Download PDFs downloads one zip file with a PDF of each invoice, up to 200 at once.
• Cancel invoices marks each unpaid invoice cancelled and closes any card payment link. You cannot undo this.

Invoices that an action does not apply to, such as a paid invoice when you cancel, are left as they are. Bottle lists them when it finishes.

To change one invoice, such as reissuing it or marking it unpaid, use the buttons on that invoice.

Send reminders yourself

You can send reminders whenever you choose, with automatic reminders on or off.

1. In Invoices, tick the invoices to chase. See Act on several invoices.
2. Select Send reminders.
3. Check who each reminder goes to. Each invoice is sent as its own email to the customer’s billing contacts. Untick any you do not want to send. Paid or cancelled invoices, customers with no email address and invoices reminded in the last 10 minutes are shown but cannot be sent.
4. Select Next and check the wording. The preview shows the email as the first customer will see it. Change the subject or message for this send if you need to.
5. To keep your changes for next time, tick Save this wording for future reminders. Automatic reminders then use it too. Only owners and admins can save the wording.
6. Select Send reminders.

These reminders are sent even when Invoice emails is off in Business settings → Customer emails, because you chose to send them. Each one counts towards the maximum number of automatic reminders for that invoice, and the next automatic reminder waits the repeat interval from it.

Reminder wording

Change the standard wording on the Reminder email line in Business settings → Invoices. Select Edit, change the subject or message, and select Save. Use standard wording puts Bottle’s wording back.

Use the buttons under the message to add details that are filled in for each invoice:

Detail	Written as	Filled in with
Customer name	{customer}	The name on the invoice
Invoice number	{number}	For example INV-BTL00042
Amount owed	{amount}	What is still unpaid, for example £120.00
Due date	{due}	For example 15 September 2026
Your business name	{business}	The name in your business settings

Each line of the message becomes a paragraph. Under your message, every reminder says the invoice is attached and how to pay. It includes the invoice PDF, a button to pay by card when you take card payments, and your bank details when you have added them. An invoice that went out without a card link gets one before the reminder is sent. When the customer owes on more than one invoice, the reminder also has a Pay all your invoices at once link.

Invoice reports

Open the report below the Invoices heading and choose a preset or custom date range.

Review totals including VAT, outstanding amounts and the breakdown before VAT: cylinder rent, goods, delivery charges and deposits. Monthly rows show the same breakdown over time.

Cancelled invoices are excluded. Deposit credits reduce the deposit total. Invoices count in their issue month.

For an overview of invoicing and getting paid in Bottle, see Invoicing and getting paid on the Bottle website.

Order references and changed orders

A customer’s reference or PO number appears beside the order’s invoice lines and on its PDF. Period invoices keep each order’s reference beside the relevant items. An issued invoice retains its saved reference; use invoice correction to change an unpaid invoice’s reference.

Changing items on an unpaid order cancels its old invoice and payment link. Send a new payment link after saving the order. Paid invoices, period invoices and completed deliveries keep their original records. Use a new order, a refund or invoice correction for later financial changes. Actual empties collected at delivery do not recalculate the cylinder-charge lines agreed on the order.