Invoices in Flowglad serve as detailed records justifying payments made by your customers. They provide a clear breakdown of charges, whether for recurring subscriptions, one-time purchases, or manually created bills.

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How Invoices are Generated

Invoices are created in several ways within Flowglad:
  1. Subscription Renewals: An invoice is automatically generated for each billing cycle of an active subscription. It reflects the charges for that period based on the subscription plan.
  2. One-Time Purchases: When a customer completes a checkout for a non-subscription product or service, an invoice is generated and typically marked as paid immediately upon successful payment.
  3. Manual Creation (UI): You can create invoices directly from the Customer Details page in the Flowglad dashboard. This is useful for bespoke charges, consultations, or services not tied to a standard product or subscription.
  4. Manual Creation (API): Invoices can be programmatically created using the Flowglad API.
    API: Create Invoice Example
    // Simplified example using a hypothetical SDK
const { invoice, invoiceLineItems } = await flowglad.invoices.create({
  invoice: {
    customerId: 'cust_123',
    currency: 'USD',
    //dueDate: new Date('2024-12-31'), // Optional, defaults to issue date
    // invoiceNumber: 'INV-CUST-001' // Optional, can be assigned
  },
  invoiceLineItems: [
    {
      description: 'Consulting Services',
      quantity: 2,
      price: 50000, // Price in cents (e.g., $500.00)
    },
    {
      description: 'Setup Fee',
      quantity: 1,
      price: 10000, // $100.00
    },
  ],
  autoSend: true, // Optional: Email invoice to customer upon creation
});

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Invoice Structure & Line Items

Each invoice contains essential details like the issue date, due date, customer information, and potentially billing/shipping addresses. A key part of the invoice is its Line Items. When creating invoices manually (via UI or API):
  • Line items detail specific goods or services being charged for.
  • Each line item includes a description, quantity, and price (per unit, specified in the currency’s smallest unit, e.g., cents for USD).
  • Line items can be entirely custom; they do not need to be linked to a pre-existing Product or Price record in Flowglad (the priceId field is optional).

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Paying Invoices

  • Automatic Payment: Invoices generated for subscriptions are automatically paid when the corresponding subscription payment is successfully processed. Similarly, invoices for one-time purchases are settled upon checkout completion.
  • Manual Payment: Manually created invoices (or overdue subscription invoices) can be paid by the customer through a dedicated, secure checkout session. When you create or send an invoice, Flowglad can generate a unique payment link. Clicking this link takes the customer to a checkout page specifically for settling that invoice.

    Invoice Checkout Sessions

    Learn more about how customers can pay standalone invoices using dedicated Checkout Sessions.

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Invoices vs. Payments

Think of an Invoice as the “why” and a Payment as the “how” and “when”.
  • Invoice: Details what a customer owes and why (e.g., Subscription renewal for Plan X, Consulting Services). It’s the bill or statement of charges.
  • Payment: Represents the actual transaction where funds were transferred to settle an invoice (or part of it).
Every payment processed through Flowglad is linked to an invoice (invoiceId) to maintain a clear audit trail.

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Invoice Numbering

Each invoice has a unique invoiceNumber. While you can assign specific numbers via the API during creation, Flowglad ensures uniqueness for tracking purposes.

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Invoice Statuses

An invoice progresses through various statuses during its lifecycle:
  • draft: The invoice is being created and is not yet finalized or sent.
  • open: The invoice has been finalized and issued to the customer, awaiting payment.
  • paid: The invoice has been fully paid.
  • uncollectible: The invoice is deemed unlikely to be paid and has been written off.
  • void: The invoice has been cancelled before payment and is no longer valid.
  • refunded: The full amount of a paid invoice has been refunded. (Note: fully_refunded might be used internally)
  • partially_refunded: A portion of a paid invoice has been refunded.
  • awaiting_payment_confirmation: Payment has been initiated but is pending final confirmation (e.g., for certain bank transfer methods).

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Receipts

Once an invoice is marked as paid, Flowglad automatically generates a corresponding Receipt. This serves as proof of payment for the customer and references the original invoice details. Both invoices and receipts can be viewed and downloaded as PDFs.

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Other API Operations

Besides creation, the Invoices API allows you to:
  • Retrieve (GET): Fetch details of a specific invoice and its line items.
  • List (LIST): Retrieve a list of invoices, with pagination and filtering options.
  • Update (PUT): Modify details of an existing invoice (primarily draft invoices, though some fields on open invoices might be updatable depending on configuration).
  • Send Reminder: Trigger an email reminder to the customer for an open invoice.