Sending Invoices

After you have changed the status to "Active" and saved the invoice, you have two options to send the invoice to the payer.

Option 1: Sending via E-Mail.

In the list of invoices, in the line of your invoice, an active icon "Send invoice to payer" will appear (). When you click on the icon, a dialog menu will appear where you can send the invoice to the payer's E-Mail specified in the invoice.

Option 2: Download the invoice from the server.

In the list of invoices, in the line of your invoice, an active icon "Download the invoice for payment in PDF format" will appear (). When you click on the icon, a dialog menu will appear where you can download the invoice to your computer. Then you can send the PDF document to the payer yourself or print it out and transfer it in "paper" form.

Email Delivery

Out of the box, e-Cont.md will send emails to your customers using our carefully tuned email infrastructure. Emails will appear as if they came directly from your business, but the sending email address will be "noreply-invoice@e-cont.md"

Sending via e-Cont.md email servers works just fine for most businesses, and it requires zero set up. However, some businesses might run into deliverability issues when sending to customers with strict spam filters. This issue can be more common when sending to large corporations. If you run into deliverability issues, you can ask your customer to whitelist "noreply-invoice@e-cont.md", although this is not always ideal.

The recommended solution would be to configure e-Cont.md to send email through your email domain. The setup process is about the same level of difficulty as setting up your work email on a new email client or mobile device. Once enabled, e-Cont.md will send any customer emails through your email server using your email address as the sender instead of noreply-invoice@e-cont.md. This can have a significant improvement on email delivery for your customers. Instead of receiving email from a third party (e-Cont.md), it comes directly from you.

Email Bounces

e-Cont.md provides tracking for bounced emails. An email can bounce for a spectrum of reasons from sending to a non-existent email address to the recipient's mailbox being full. When Invoiced receives a returned email we will add it to the corresponding email thread in your A/R Inbox.

The availability of a bounce notification is entirely dependent on the recipient's email provider. If the recipient's email provider does not notify e-Cont.md about the failed delivery then there will be no indication on Invoiced that the bounce occurred. Given the asynchronous nature of email, you might immediately see that an email has bounced or it might take several hours.

If you are sending through your own email server (recommended) instead of through e-Cont.md email infrastructure, then bounce notifications will go to the sender's email address, which would be the email address in Settings → Email → Delivery Settings. If you do not have email forwarding set up for your A/R Inbox then the notification will be sent to your company email address.

Automatically sending new invoices

e-Cont.md can automatically send out new invoices for you. It's as easy as flipping a switch! This works for invoices, estimates, payment plans, and credit notes.

Here is how you set it up:

1. Go to Settings → Emails → Triggers.
2. Click Customize on the New Invoice Email. You can also enable this on the Payment Plan Onboarding Email, Estimate Email, or Credit Note Email to automatically send out payment plans, estimates and credit notes.
3. Turn on the Send automatically when a new invoice is issued setting.
4. Click Save.

Please note there is a 5 minute delay between when an invoice is issued and when the system sends it out. This delay is intentional to give you padding in case a correction needs to be made. If you send out the invoice or mark it as sent before the system has sent it out then your customer will not receive the automated email.

This feature can also be nifty for scheduling invoices. If an invoice is dated in the future then it will not be sent until the issue date.

Also please keep in mind that the system will send out an individual email for each outstanding invoice. If your customer has multiple, newly issued invoices at the same time then they would receive an email for each invoice.

PDF attachments

The default behavior for sending invoices, credit notes, receipts, and statements will attach a PDF of the invoice, in addition to including a View Invoice button (using invoices as an example).

If you wish to change this behavior, you may do so by following these instructions:

1. Click Edit on the email template you want to have a PDF attachments in Settings → Emails.
2. You can enable or disable the Attach PDF option.

Available Email Templates

Invoices

New Invoice - Used when an outstanding invoice is sent to a customer for the first time, or when a manually collected invoice is generated from a subscription. Includes a View Invoice button and a PDF attachment of the invoice.

Invoice Reminder - Used for outstanding invoices that have already been sent but are not past due yet. Includes a View Invoice button and a PDF attachment of the invoice.

Late Payment Reminder - Used for past due invoices. Includes a View Invoice button and a PDF attachment of the invoice.

Thank You - Used for invoices that have been paid in full. Includes a PDF attachment of the invoice. Turned off by default.

Payment Plan Onboarding - Sent when there is a customer has a new payment plan that they need to approve. Turned off by default.

Credit Note - Used for credit notes that have been issued. Includes a View Credit Note button and a PDF attachment of the credit note.

Payments

Payment Receipt - Used for payment receipts. Includes a PDF attachment with the receipt and the invoices associated with that payment on separate pages.

Refund - Send when a charge-type payment is refunded. Includes a PDF attachment with the receipt and the invoices associated with that refund on separate pages.

Failed AutoPay Attempt - Sent when a payment attempt on an AutoPay invoice fails. Includes an Update Payment Info button.

Customers

Statement - Used to send customer statements. Includes a View Statement button and a PDF attachment of the statement.

Subscriptions

Sign Up Confirmation - Sent to confirm a customer has been signed up to a subscription. Includes a Manage Subscription button. Turned off by default.

Billed Soon - Sent to notify a customer their subscription will be billed soon. You specify how many days in advance of the next bill date to send these notices. Includes a Manage Subscription button. Turned off by default.

Cancellation - Sent to confirm a customer's subscription has been canceled. Turned off by default.