Recurring Invoices

Overview

If you bill the same client every month, for a retainer, hosting or support, a recurring schedule saves you rebuilding the same invoice each time. You set up one finalised invoice, the base invoice, and schedule it. Each month Beeswax copies it, gives the copy the next invoice number, finalises it and, if you choose, emails it to your client.

Key points:

• Monthly only — schedules repeat on the same day each month. There's no weekly, quarterly or yearly option.
• Invoices only — expenses and quotes can't be scheduled. Use Duplicate or Templates for those.
• Paid plans — recurring invoices are included on every paid plan and during the trial, but not on the Free plan.
• Owner, Super Admin and Accountant — only these roles can set up and change schedules (see Who can manage them).

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Setting Up a Recurring Invoice

1. Create the invoice in the usual way (see Invoices) with the client, title, transaction groups and lines you want every month to have.
2. Check the invoice Date. The schedule repeats on this day of the month, so an invoice dated the 28th recurs on the 28th.
3. Finalise the invoice. On a draft, Schedule is greyed out.
4. Open the invoice's Actions menu (the dots icon in the invoice header) and choose Schedule.
5. The Schedule Recurring Invoice window opens. Check the date of the first recurring invoice and the title it will have.
6. Optionally set Stop After and choose Email Recipients (both explained below).
7. Click Create Recurring Schedule.

The base invoice now shows a calendar icon, marking it as the original recurring invoice.

The Schedule Window

Field	Required	Description
Recurring date	—	Shown at the top, taken from the base invoice's date (for example, "28th of each month"). You can't type a different day here.
First recurring invoice	—	The date the first copy will be dated and sent.
Invoice title will be	—	The base invoice's title with the billing period added in brackets.
Stop After	No	The last date the schedule can run. Leave it blank to keep the schedule running until you switch it off.
Email Recipients	No	Contacts of the invoice's client business. Each new invoice is emailed to them as a PDF. Leave it empty to create and finalise the invoices without emailing them.
Active	—	Only appears when you reopen an existing schedule. Switch it off to pause the schedule.

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Frequency and Dates

• Day of the month — each copy is dated on the base invoice's day of the month. The day is fixed when you create the schedule, so changing the base invoice's date afterwards doesn't move it.
• Short months — if the base invoice is dated the 29th, 30th or 31st, Beeswax uses the last day of shorter months, such as the 30th in April or the 28th in February.
• Billing period in the title — the period runs from one billing day to the day before the next. An invoice dated the 28th gets a title like "Monthly Hosting [28 Oct - 27 Nov 2026]". If the base invoice is dated the 1st, the title simply shows the month, like "Monthly Hosting [Oct 2026]".
• Due date — worked out from your payment terms, as for any other invoice.
• Stop After — the schedule keeps running up to and including this date. The last invoice is the one on the last billing day on or before it (see When the Schedule Ends).

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What Happens Each Time One Is Due

Beeswax checks the active schedules once a day. When one is due, it:

1. Copies the base invoice — the client, title, transaction groups and every line, with their products, quantities, prices, accounts and tax.
2. Sets the date to this month's billing day and adds the billing period to the title.
3. Finalises the copy, which gives it the next invoice number and posts it to your ledger, just like an invoice you finalise yourself.
4. Emails it, if you chose recipients. The PDF is sent from the project manager (their name appears as the sender and replies go to them), and the invoice is marked as sent. Without recipients, the invoice is finalised but left unsent, ready for you to send or mark as sent.

Each new invoice shows a gear icon, meaning it was auto-generated from a recurring schedule. It's a normal invoice in its own right: you can edit it, send it, record payments against it or void it without affecting the schedule.

The check runs overnight in UTC, so in Australia a new invoice usually appears the morning after its billing day. It is still dated the billing day.

When the Schedule Ends

The last invoice is created on the last billing day on or before the Stop After date. If a schedule bills on the 20th and stops on the 15th, the last invoice is the one on the 20th of the month before.

A week before that last invoice, the account owner and super admins get an email saying the schedule is ending soon, with the date of the last invoice, so there's time to extend it. It's sent once for each last-invoice date; if you move Stop After far enough that the last invoice changes, they'll be told again nearer the new one.

On the last billing day, Beeswax creates the final invoice, switches the schedule off, and emails the account owner and super admins to say the final recurring invoice has been created. They receive both emails if their Invoice reminders email notification is on, which it is by default.

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Managing Recurring Invoices

The Recurring Invoices Page

The Recurring Invoices page lists every active schedule in your business, with:

Column	Description
Invoice #	The base invoice's number. Click it to open the base invoice.
Project	The project the base invoice belongs to.
Day of Month	The day each copy is dated.
Next Run	The next billing date.
End Date	The Stop After date, or "No end date".
Last Generated	When the schedule last created an invoice, or "Never".

The page isn't in the menu yet. To open it, go to app.beeswaxapp.com/recurring_invoices. Paused and finished schedules don't appear here.

Changing a Schedule

Open the base invoice, open its Actions menu and choose Schedule again. The window opens with your current settings. Change Stop After or Email Recipients and click Update.

Changing What Gets Invoiced

Each copy is taken from the base invoice as it is on the day the copy is made. To change the lines or amounts for future months, edit the base invoice. Invoices already created stay as they are.

A base invoice can't be edited once it has been paid or part-paid, or if it falls in a locked period. If you need to change a schedule's content after that, pause the old schedule and set up a new one from an up-to-date invoice.

Pausing and Resuming

1. Open the base invoice and choose Schedule from its Actions menu.
2. Switch Active off and click Update.

The schedule drops off the Recurring Invoices page and the calendar icon leaves the base invoice. Nothing is deleted. To resume, open the base invoice again, switch Active back on and click Update. Beeswax doesn't create invoices for the months it was paused; it picks up from the next billing day.

A schedule that has finished because it reached its Stop After date won't restart until you also set a later Stop After date (or clear it).

Voiding the Base Invoice

Voiding the base invoice switches its schedule off, so no more copies are made from it. A voided invoice can't be scheduled: Schedule is greyed out on it. To keep billing, set up a new schedule from a current invoice.

Removing a Schedule

There's no delete button for a schedule. Switch Active off instead. Deleting the base invoice also deletes its schedule.

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Who Can Manage Them

Action	Owner	Super Admin	Accountant	Manager	Basic / Basic Plus	Client
Set up, change or pause a schedule	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
View the Recurring Invoices page	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Receive the "ending soon" and "final invoice created" emails	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

A Manager can still see Schedule in an invoice's Actions menu, but Beeswax refuses the schedule when they try to save it.

Recurring invoices aren't available on the Free plan: Schedule doesn't appear in the Actions menu and the Recurring Invoices page can't be opened. See Plan Limits.

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Tips and Common Questions

• Get the base invoice right first. Every copy repeats its client, lines, accounts and tax, so check them before you schedule it.
• Check the date before you finalise. The date sets the day of the month, and it can't be changed on the schedule afterwards.
• Archiving a project — a project can't be archived while it has an active recurring schedule. Pause the schedule first.
• Can I choose who the email comes from? No. It's always sent from the project's manager.
• Can I email someone who isn't a contact of the client? No. The recipient list shows the contacts of the invoice's client business. Add the person to that business first (see Contacts).
• Can I change the day of the month? Not on an existing schedule. Pause it, and set up a new schedule from an invoice dated on the day you want.