Set up recurring invoices

With a recurring invoice you bill a client on a schedule, for example every month for a retainer or every two weeks for a delivery. Recurring invoices are part of the plans that send invoices by email.

How it works

A series is a template and a schedule. The invoice you repeat is the first invoice of the series. On each following date, Norman makes a new, ordinary invoice:

• The invoice date is the scheduled date. The invoice gets the next number of your number sequence at the moment Norman makes it.
• Client, lines, prices and texts come from the template. Your company data and bank details are the current ones, as with Duplicate.
• The payment term is the same as on the first invoice. If the first invoice is due 14 days after its date, so is every invoice.

Norman makes nothing in advance. You only see invoices that really exist.

Repeat a new invoice

1. Under Invoices, create a new invoice as usual and click Next.
2. On the last step, switch on the Repeat automatically card.
3. Set the schedule (see below) and choose what happens On each date.
4. Click Save, or Save and send when the Send to your client card is on. Save as draft starts the series too; its first invoice then stays a draft.

A recurring invoice needs a client.

Repeat an existing invoice

1. Open the invoice in the list.
2. In the sidebar or in the row menu, choose Repeat invoice.
3. Set the schedule and click Repeat invoice.

The invoice becomes the first of the series. Norman makes the next one on the date under Next invoice.

Schedule and end

• Repeats: Weekly or Monthly. Under Interval you choose, for example, Every 2 months. For a yearly invoice, choose Every 12 months.
• Next invoice: the date of the second invoice. Norman suggests the scheduled date after the first invoice's date. The date comes after that invoice and is not in the past. The schedule counts from it.
• Ends: After a number, with 6 invoices as the default, On a date or Never. The number includes the first invoice.

Under Next invoices you see the next dates with the period each invoice bills.

What happens on each date

Under On each date you choose:

• Create a draft: Norman makes a draft. You check it and issue it yourself. This is the default.
• Issue the invoice: Norman issues the invoice but does not send it.
• Issue and send: Norman issues the invoice and emails it to your client. The client needs an email address. You write the email in the Send to your client card or right below this choice.

Norman makes the invoices in the morning of the scheduled date. For each invoice you get a notice in Norman and by email: a draft is ready, the invoice is issued or sent, or Norman could not send it and why.

If a scheduled date is more than three days in the past, for example after an outage, Norman makes the invoice as a draft and does not send it.

Service periods

If the first invoice has a service period, each next invoice bills the period after it. If the first invoice bills September, the next one bills October and the one after that November. When you skip or pause, Norman does not bill an old period later.

If the first invoice has no service period, choose under Each invoice bills: The past period or The coming period. For goods, the delivery date is the invoice date.

Placeholders

You can write placeholders in lines and their descriptions, in notes, payment terms, and the email subject and text. Each invoice fills in its own period, in the invoice's language:

So Hosting {month} {year} becomes "Hosting October 2026". For goods, Norman fills in the invoice date.

The series in the sidebar

The invoice list shows under an invoice's type that it repeats, for example "↻ Monthly". When you open an invoice of the series, the Recurring section shows the status (Active, Paused or Ended), Repeats, the Next invoice and the end. There you control the series:

• Edit recurring invoice: change lines, prices, texts, the schedule, or what happens on each date. The change applies to the next invoices. Invoices already made stay as they are.
• Create next invoice now: Norman makes the next invoice today, for its period. The series then moves on to the date after.
• Skip next invoice: the next date is dropped.
• Pause and Resume: while paused, Norman makes no invoices. After you resume, it carries on with the next date. Norman does not catch up on missed dates.
• End recurring invoice: Norman makes no more invoices. Invoices already made stay as they are.

You restart an ended series with Set up again. That is a new series with its own schedule.

Under Automations, the Recurring invoices card shows how many series are active.

You edit, cancel or correct a single invoice of the series like any other invoice. That does not change the series. Read Cancel or correct an invoice.

When Norman pauses a series

Norman pauses a series itself and tells you when:

• the client was deleted,
• your plan no longer includes recurring invoices,
• an invoice could not be made. Norman tells you the reason.

Fix the cause and click Resume. When you archive a company, Norman pauses its series without a notice. After you restore the company, resume them.

Payment reminders

The reminders of the first invoice apply to every invoice of the series. Norman turns a fixed date into days after the due date: if the first invoice is due on 15 October and a reminder is planned for 20 October, Norman reminds 5 days after the due date of every invoice. More in Payment reminders and dunning notices.

Series from before the rebuild

We rebuilt recurring invoices and ended all older series. Their invoices stay. Open an invoice of the old series and click Set up again to continue.

In the app

In the iPhone and Android app, you repeat an invoice when you create it, or with Repeat invoice on an existing invoice. Tap the series row on one of its invoices to control it. You need the latest version of the app.

Related articles

• Send invoices by email
• Payment reminders and dunning notices
• Invoice status, drafts and payments
• Invoice numbers and number sequences
• Products & Services: your catalog of reusable invoice positions