Invoices

The Invoices tab allows you to configure how WHMCS generates and sends invoices and applies late fees.

The Invoices tab in General Settings

You can access this tab at Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings.

Continuous Invoice Generation

Whether to use Continuous Invoice Generation. When you enable Continuous Invoice Generation, the system creates invoices regardless of whether unpaid invoices exist for the service. Use this setting when the product has a minimum term and the client must pay all invoices.

  • The system generates invoices if the service status is Active or Suspended.
  • The system will not generate invoices if the service status is Pending, Completed, Cancelled, or Terminated.

If you disable this, the system will not generate additional invoices until the client pays the unpaid invoice.

After enabling this option, if there are users who are due invoices for months that you haven’t yet invoiced, the system will generate one invoice for the client on each cron run.
For more information, see Billing Logic.

Enable Metric Usage Invoicing

Whether to bill any enabled billing metrics for a given product at the time of service renewal. Each metric generates a line item that reports the total usage value and a breakdown of the system’s calculation of the billed amount.

  • The line item’s description will vary based on the pricing scheme type, the pricing brackets, and the incurred usage.
  • All possible descriptions are available for translation via the language file system.
Only the Bandwidth metric type is aggregate. For example, an annual service can have 11 stored snapshots of usage on a renewal invoice. Other metric types like Disk Space will only have a snapshot of the usage at the time of renewal invoice generation (the current month).

Service termination triggers the creation of a one-time usage invoice for current snapshot metrics and unbilled usage to date. This will look similar to the standard renewal invoice excluding the service.

For more information, see Usage Billing.

Enable PDF Invoices

Whether to attach a copy of the invoice to invoice notification emails as a PDF file.

The Invoices tab's PDF settings in General Settings

PDF Paper Size

The size of the individual pages in a PDF invoice. For example, the A4 paper size is slightly larger than a standard letter, allowing you to include more information per page.

PDF Font Family

The font to use in PDF invoices and quotes.

You can upload additional fonts for use in PDFs. For more information, see Custom PDF Invoices.

Store Client Data Snapshot

Whether to save clients’ name, addresses, and custom field data (for example, VAT numbers) during invoice generation. Both Client Area and PDF invoice views will display the name and address information as it was at the time of initial creation. Editing the client or billing contact only causes future invoices to change; existing invoices will keep their current addressees.

The Store Client Data Snapshot setting in the Invoices tab in General Settings

After you enable this, the system will begin to save invoice data in this way.

This setting does not change or fix existing invoices.

Enable Mass Payment

Whether to allow clients to pay several invoices in one transaction using the options in the Due Invoices section of the Client Area Homepage.

For more information, see Merge Invoices and Create a Mass Payment Invoice.

Clients Choose Gateway

Whether to add a menu to the invoice allowing customers to choose which gateway they use to pay each invoice. If you disable this, each invoice will use the gateway that the client chose upon signup.

Group Similar Line Items

Whether to group similar items on a single invoice. If you enable this setting, WHMCS automatically groups products, services, addons and domains into a single invoice if they are due on the same date with the same payment method and the same person. The customer only receives a single invoice and only needs to make a single payment. This, then, reduces your transaction fees.

For example, enabling this automatically groups any identical line items on these invoices into a quantity x description format. For example, three entries of Monthly Lease $15.95 would become one line item for 3 x Monthly Lease @15.95 $47.85.

  • Only the client invoice uses this format. In the Admin Area, you will still see the individual line items.
  • If you have a client for whom you do not wish this grouping to occur, you can disable it with the Profile tab in the client’s profile or in a client group.

Cancellation Request Handling

Whether to cancel any unpaid invoices for a service automatically when a client submits a cancellation request.

If the invoice for the service renewal includes other items, this setting only removes the cancelled item and any related discounts or group discounts from the invoice.

Automatic Subscription Management

Whether to automatically cancel PayPal® Basic and 2CheckOut subscriptions if any of the following circumstances occur:

  • The client or an admin submits a cancellation request.
  • An admin cancels the order or sets it to fraud via the Admin Area.
  • The API passes cancelsub=true to cancel the order or set it to fraud.
  • The client or an admin submits an upgrade order for the service.
PayPal Basic supports automated subscription cancellation for subscription profiles that start with I. It does not support automated subscription cancellation or other management actions via API for subscription profiles that start with S.

Enable Proforma Invoicing

Whether to cause invoices to display Proforma invoice when the status is Unpaid and Invoice when the status is Paid.

You must enable Sequential Paid Invoice Numbering (below) with this setting. The system will not allow you to disable Sequential Paid Invoice Numbering if you have enabled this setting.
For more information, see Enable Proforma Invoicing.

Sequential Paid Invoice Numbering

Whether to number paid invoices separately from unpaid invoices.

Invoice numbering settings in the Invoices tab in General Settings

You must enable this setting with Enable Proforma Invoicing (above). The system will not allow you to disable this setting if you have enabled Enable Proforma Invoicing.
For more information, see Enable Proforma Invoicing.

Sequential Invoice Number Format

The format for sequential invoice numbering. The default value of this is {NUMBER}, which will contain only the value from Next Invoice Number. The format can contain any text in the invoice number that the client will see.

You can also enter tags that the system will replace when it generates the invoice. For more information, see Invoice Numbering Format Tags.

Next Paid Invoice Number

A number to use to number the next invoice that WHMCS generates.

Late Fee Type

Whether the one-time fee on late payments is a percentage or a fixed amount.

Late fee settings in the Invoices tab in General Settings

Late Fee Amount

An amount to charge to customers who fail to pay an invoice by the due date.

Set this to 0 to disable late fees.

Late Fee Minimum

The minimum amount to charge for late fees. For example, if the late fee is $0.50 and this value is 1.00, the system will charge the client $1.00.

Accepted Credit Card Types

The types of credit cards to accept via your payment gateway.

Hold Ctrl and left-click to select multiple cards.

Issue Number/Start Date

Whether to prompt customers to enter the issue number and start date that some card types require.

Invoice # Incrementation

The amount by which each invoice number will increase. For example:

  • Entering 1 would cause the first four invoice numbers to be 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  • Entering 2 would cause the first four invoice numbers to be 1, 3, 5, and 7.
In WHMCS 8.9 and later, this setting has a maximum value of 999.

Invoice Starting #

The invoice number that WHMCS will start with when it generates the next invoice. This is useful if you want to start invoicing at a number other than 1 or start invoices for a new year from a new number.

  • Only enter numbers that are greater than the most recent invoice’s number.
  • Do not enter a number unless you specifically want to change the invoice numbering.
  • In WHMCS 8.9 and later, this setting has a maximum value of 499,999,999.
  • When the page reloads after saving your changes, Invoice Starting # will be empty. This does not indicate a problem.

Last modified: October 30, 2024