An invoice is a single bill addressed to a member (or to a team) for one or more charges. Every invoice has an invoice number, a total amount, a due date, a status, and a set of line items. Deskie creates most invoices for you automatically as members use the space, but you can also create them by hand. This article explains where invoices come from, what fills in their line items, and how to read the invoice detail.
Automatic vs manual invoices
Invoices in Deskie fall into two broad groups: the ones the system generates for you, and the ones you create by hand.
Automatic invoices
Deskie generates invoices automatically in several situations:
- New asset assignments. When a member is assigned a dedicated asset (such as a desk or office), Deskie can generate a first invoice for that assignment. If the member starts partway through a billing cycle, the charge is prorated and the line item is labeled accordingly, for example Prorated Office 12 (9 days). If the assignment starts on the first day of the cycle, or uses a rolling cycle, the full rate is charged and the line item is labeled with the cycle it covers instead. See Assignments.
- Recurring monthly billing. A scheduled sweep rolls up everything a member owes for the period into a single invoice. This bundles ongoing asset assignment charges, resource bookings marked for monthly invoicing, passes added to the invoice, event tickets, and print jobs. Each becomes its own line item on one combined invoice. See Billing cycles and auto-charge.
- Public bookings paid at checkout. When someone books and pays for a resource on your public site, Deskie creates an invoice for that booking that is already marked paid, since payment happened at the time of booking. See Public sign-up and checkout.
The recurring sweep will not double-bill: if invoices were already generated for a given month for a workspace, the run records that and skips generating them again.
Manual invoices
You can also create a one-off invoice yourself from the Invoices area. A manual invoice requires:
- A member to bill.
- A due date that is not in the past.
- At least one line item, each with a description and an amount greater than zero.
The invoice total is calculated by adding up the line items. You can add optional notes. A manual invoice is created with the status sent. When the member is on a team, you can optionally bill the invoice to the team instead of the member, in which case the charge routes to the team's payer. Managers who are scoped to specific locations can only create invoices for members within their accessible locations.
What generates line items
Line items are the individual charges that make up an invoice total. Each line item carries an amount and a description, and many also reference the thing being billed so the invoice can show context.
- Asset assignments. A line item references the asset and is described with the asset name, for example a monthly desk or office charge. On the recurring sweep the description reads as the asset name plus its monthly rate label; on a first or prorated invoice it names the asset and the days or cycle covered.
- Resource bookings. A line item references the resource and includes the booking date and, for hourly bookings, the start and end times. Descriptions vary by interval (full day, full week, a month, or a specific time range). See Booking a resource.
- Passes. A pass purchase that was added to the invoice becomes a line item referencing that purchase. See Passes.
- Event tickets. A ticket purchase becomes a line item describing the event and the number of tickets. See Events.
- Print jobs. A print job becomes a line item describing the file, printer, page count, and whether it was color. See Printers and printing.
- Manual line items. Anything you type in by hand when creating a manual invoice, with the description and amount you enter.
When a recurring coupon applies to an asset or plan charge, the discount is reflected in the line item description and the line amount.
Editing a line item
An admin with billing permission can adjust a single line item's amount on an invoice that has not been paid or voided. When you change a line amount, Deskie recalculates the invoice total from all of its line items and records the change. You can include a reason, and the old and new amounts are written into the invoice's record for the audit trail. Line items cannot be edited on a paid, partially paid, void, or cancelled invoice; once real money has been applied against the total, changing line amounts could undercut what was collected.
The invoice detail
Opening an invoice shows everything tied to it in one place:
- Header. The invoice number, total amount, status, due date, and creation date.
- Recipient. The member the invoice is addressed to, with their name, email, and photo. If the invoice is billed to a team, the team is shown as the responsible payer. The team is rendered as a link only when you can actually open that team's page; otherwise it appears as plain text.
- Line items. Each charge with its description and amount, including booking dates and times where applicable, and asset or resource names where the line references one.
- Payments. Any payment records attached to the invoice, with their amount, status, method, and paid date. See Payments and ACH.
- Activity. A timeline of what has happened to the invoice, such as created, sent, reminder sent, payment succeeded, payment failed, marked as paid, and voided. If no activity events were recorded, Deskie reconstructs a basic timeline from the creation date and any payments.
- Tax and card fees. For an unpaid invoice, the displayed total reflects your current workspace tax and card-fee settings as a live preview, so the figure updates if you change those settings. A tax-exempt payer never sees a tax line on that preview. For a paid invoice, the tax and fee figures shown are the exact amounts that were charged at payment time, captured as a snapshot so they do not drift if you later change your rates. See Tax and card fees.
Members see their own invoices, plus any invoice billed to a team they belong to, and they do not see Stripe fee figures. Admins and billing-capable managers see invoices within their location scope, including fee data.
Actions on an invoice
Admins with billing permission can:
- Send a reminder. Emails the member a reminder with the invoice details and a link. Reminders cannot be sent for paid, void, or cancelled invoices.
- Mark as paid. Sets the invoice to paid and records a manual payment for the full amount. This notifies your admins by push, SMS, and email. Use this when a member paid you outside Deskie, for example by cash, check, or bank transfer you reconciled yourself.
- Void. Marks an invoice as void so it no longer counts as owed. A paid invoice cannot be voided, and neither can a partially paid one, since real money has already been collected against it; refund its payments first or mark it as paid. An already-void invoice cannot be voided again.
- Delete. Removes the invoice along with its line items and payment records. This is permanent.
Partial payments
An invoice does not have to be settled in one payment. When a member pays an invoice, the payment form shows an Amount to pay field that defaults to the full balance due; entering a smaller amount makes a partial payment, and the form shows exactly how much will remain afterwards. Each payment is recorded individually, so an invoice can accumulate several payments over time.
After a partial payment, the invoice moves to the Partially Paid status and its detail view adds two rows beneath the total: Paid to date, the amount settled so far, and Balance due, what is still owed. These figures are shown in pre-fee terms, because tax and card fees are calculated and charged on each payment individually. When the remaining balance is paid off, the invoice flips to Paid automatically.
A partially paid invoice still counts as open: it appears in outstanding figures for its remaining balance, reminders tell the member what is still owed rather than the original total, and auto-charge and bulk charging collect just the remainder. Because money has already been collected against it, a partially paid invoice cannot be voided and its line items cannot be edited; refund its payments first if the invoice itself was wrong.
Invoice statuses
Every invoice carries one of the following statuses:
- Draft. The default starting state for the underlying record.
- Sent. The invoice is issued and outstanding. Automatic recurring invoices and manual invoices are created in this state.
- Overdue. An outstanding invoice treated the same as sent for collection purposes. Both sent and overdue invoices are considered open and are eligible for reminders, auto-charge, and bulk charging.
- Partially Paid. One or more payments have been applied, but a balance is still owed. Treated as open for reminders, auto-charge, and bulk charging, which collect the remaining balance.
- Paid. The invoice has been settled, either by a successful payment or by being marked as paid.
- Cancelled. The invoice was cancelled and is not collectible.
- Void. The invoice was voided and is not collectible. A paid invoice cannot be voided.
Outstanding revenue figures and bulk-charge lists are built from the sent, overdue, and partially paid statuses (counting only the unpaid remainder of a partially paid invoice), while revenue totals are built from paid invoices.
Numbering
Each invoice gets a sequential number within your workspace. Deskie finds the highest existing number and adds one. Some invoice types use a prefix in front of the number to distinguish them.
Downloading the PDF
Any invoice can be downloaded as a PDF. The PDF includes the invoice number, the issue and due dates, the bill-to member's name and email, each line item with its description and amount (including booking dates and times where present), the total, any notes, and a summary of payments recorded against the invoice. Members can download the PDF for their own invoices, including invoices billed to a team they belong to. Admins and owners can download invoices within their location scope. The file is named after the invoice number, for example invoice-1042.pdf.
Related topics
- Billing cycles and auto-charge for how recurring invoices are generated and collected.
- Payments and ACH for how payments are recorded against invoices.
- Tax and card fees for how surcharges appear on invoices.
- Coupons for how discounts show up on line items.
- Member activity and billing for the member-level view of invoices.