Hectic makes it easy to keep track of your invoices and get paid for your work. This guide will show you how to create, customize, and send professional invoices to your clients.

Make sure you have at least one client set up in Hectic. Our invoicing tools are built to work seamlessly with other features, like time tracking, project management, and expense tracking.

Quick add a new invoice from your homebase focus tab or from the accounting > invoices tab. Click the blue + in the upper right to get started. You'll have the option to create a standard invoice, deposit, or recurring invoice.

Hectic will generate an invoice with any information you have provided for your business information and client information. Click any of the items in the header to edit as necessary.

In the body of the invoice, you will see options based on the items in your account that are outstanding.

Add new line item: your product and service library. These are products and services that are not tied to a project. Create a new line item and it will save for you to use in the future using this line in your invoices.

Add tracked hours or billable projects: anything in Hectic that you have tracked - projects, time, retainer, completed per item tasks - that have not yet been added to an invoice.

Add reimbursable expense: this will not appear if you don't have any expenses. If you have an expense that needs to be reimbursed, you will see this line in that client's invoices until it is added.

Apply deposit credit: this will not appear if you did not ask for a deposit from your client or if there isn't any credit to be added.

You can also add discounts or taxes, as applicable, in the invoice summary section. Discounts and taxes are calculated based on the percentage you set. Note that in order for tax to be added, you must select the taxable items using the "Tax" column.

In the lower section, you have an area for notes that you can use for anything you'd like to say to your client. In payment instructions, you can include your preferred method of payment. For example, if accepting payment via check, you can note what name the check should be made out to. To create universal payment instructions for all invoices and all clients, click on your workspace icon in the lower left > preference > invoices.

Payment terms are set based on the settings you create per each client. To set this up, click on the client and then edit. Click the "Invoicing & payment settings" tab to add your fee structure, billing increment rounding, payment terms, and deposit terms.

Deposit

You can request a deposit before starting work, no matter which fee structure you use. To request a deposit, create an invoice and choose Deposit as the invoice type. Once the deposit is paid, you’ll be able to apply the amount to future invoices.

If you send regular invoices to a particular client, you can schedule them to be generated automatically. To create a recurring invoice, navigate to accounting > invoices, or to your client > invoices and choose "recurring invoice."

Set up your recurring invoice for frequency and a start date. You can toggle whether you want the invoices to send automatically or if you'd like to get a notification to approve the invoice before it it sent. (Notifications are at the bell icon in the upper right corner.)

You can also choose how you want to show your hourly work broken down - daily, weekly, monthly, or just a total. Opt to include tracked hours and/or projects depending on how you bill. For example, you may set a fixed price for a project, but track your hours to that project for your own knowledge. Then you would check "billable projects," but not "billable client hours."

The next time an invoice is scheduled, an automatic invoice will be generated. View and edit invoices from your invoice list in accounting or in your client file.

Once an invoice is ready, you can save it to send later, or send it right away. When sending, you can either copy a link to manually share with the client, or send a Hectic email with the invoice included. If you send the invoice through a Hectic email, select which contact to email the invoice to, and include a note as well. Both the subject line and message of the Hectic email are editable, and a link to the invoice will automatically be added.

You can use templates on the Pro plan to personalize the template that is sent with new invoices, payment confirmation, due date approaching, or past due notifications. Create your template then update your settings by clicking your workspace icon and choosing preferences > invoices.

When you send an invoice, it will appear in your client’s invoices tab with a status of "Sent." If the payment becomes overdue, the status will update to "Late," and the late payment fee you selected in the client’s terms will be applied. There’s no need to resend invoices once they are overdue; the late fee will be added to the total shown when your client opens the invoice.

You have the option to waive late payment fees if desired. Click the invoice to open it, and use the "Waive late payment fee" button to remove the charge. This change is reversible; re-open the invoice to add the fee back.

If you collect payment outside of Hectic (e.g., via check or ACH), document that payment using the "Record a payment" button in the overflow menu. If you decide to stop trying to collect payment on an unpaid invoice, use the "Write off" button.