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Recurring charges

Some of what you bill is not hours. A software licence you pass through to the client every month, hosting, a fixed retainer fee. Until now you typed that line into every invoice by hand. A recurring charge lives on the project, and the invoice wizard adds each period that has not been billed yet.

Recurring charges are free on every plan.

Adding a charge​

Open the project, go to Billing, expand Recurring charges, and click Add charge:

  • Name (required) — what appears on the invoice line, such as "Hosting" or "Adobe licence".
  • Description — an optional note for you. It does not print on the invoice.
  • Amount (required) and Qty — the line's unit price and quantity. Quantity defaults to 1.
  • Repeat every — week, two weeks, month, quarter, or year.
  • First period starts — the first date the charge applies. Each later period starts one interval after it. A charge starting on the 31st falls on the last day of shorter months.
  • Ends — optional. No period starts after this date.

Each charge row on the project shows the amount, the rhythm, and the date the next period starts. Tap a row to edit it, pause it with the Active switch, or delete it. Deleting a charge leaves lines already on invoices untouched.

On the invoice​

When you create an invoice and tick the charge's project in step 1, step 2 shows a Recurring charges section with one row per period that has started and has not been billed, as of the invoice's issue date. For a monthly hosting charge invoiced on October 12, that is "Hosting (Oct 2026)". Every row is pre-ticked. Untick any you want to leave for a later invoice.

Each ticked row becomes a manual line item on the invoice, tagged with the charge and its period, so the same period is never offered again. Cancelling the invoice frees the period for the next one.

A few rules:

  • Periods that have not started yet are never offered. The clock is the invoice's issue date.
  • If a charge has been sitting unbilled for a long time, the wizard offers the most recent 12 periods.
  • Invoices created by a recurring invoice copy the parent's lines as plain items. They do not count as billing a period, so the wizard still offers it on your next manual invoice. For a fixed monthly amount that never changes, a recurring invoice on its own may be the simpler tool.

Charges or services?​

Services describe the kind of work behind your hours and price each hour, day, or item. A recurring charge is a fixed line that recurs whether or not you logged time. Use services for "Design at $95/hour" and a recurring charge for "Hosting, $25 a month".