Invoices and billing

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flowpayroll.ai/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Flow Payroll’s billing module lets you raise invoices for the businesses you run payroll for — for example as a staffing agency or bureau — issue and apply credit notes, and push everything to an external accounting provider such as Xero. Invoices are created per client and can be generated automatically when payroll syncs to billing, or built manually.

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Invoices

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Invoice lifecycle

An invoice moves through the following statuses:

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Viewing invoices

Navigate to Invoices in the main menu to see all invoices across all clients in a single table. You can also view invoices scoped to one client from the client detail page. Filter invoices by status, invoice type (Sales or Purchase), client, amount range, date range, attachments, or line-item warnings (missing attachments, missing PO number).

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Invoice detail

Select any invoice row to open the detail view. It shows:

• Invoice details — client, organisation, amount, balance due, status, type, format, dates, invoice number, reference, currency, and line amount type
• Line items — a table of every line, with amount, tax, account code, and any warnings
• Summary — subtotal, VAT / total tax, total, credits applied, and total balance due
• Credit applied — credit notes allocated against this invoice
• Attachments — documents uploaded at the invoice or line-item level

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Editing a draft invoice

On a Draft invoice, you can change:

• Invoice type — Sales or Purchase
• Due date
• Invoice number
• Reference — e.g. a PO number or internal reference
• Currency — GBP, USD, or EUR
• Line amount type — Exclusive (amounts exclude tax) or Inclusive (amounts include tax)

Select Save details to apply changes. Once an invoice moves to Issued or beyond, these fields are locked.

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Voiding an invoice

On the invoice detail view, select Void invoice to cancel an invoice. Voiding is permanent and cannot be undone.

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Invoice attachments

You can upload supporting documents (PDF, Word, image files) to a draft invoice directly from the invoice detail view. Uploaded files appear in the Invoice attachments section and can be downloaded or deleted while the invoice remains a draft. Line-item level attachments are uploaded and managed per line in the line items table. The invoice header shows a count of line-item attachments separately.

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Pushing to your accounting provider

If you have connected an accounting provider, select Push to [provider] on the invoice detail view to sync the invoice. After a successful sync, a Download PDF button appears to retrieve the rendered invoice document from the provider.

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Credit notes

A credit note reduces an amount owed by a client. You can create a credit note standalone (leaving credit on the client’s account) or allocate it directly against a specific invoice.

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Credit note lifecycle

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Creating a credit note

You can create a credit note from two places:

• The Credits tab on a client detail page
• The Credit applied section on an invoice detail view (when the invoice is in Draft or Issued status)

There are two creation modes:

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Authorising and allocating credit

A credit note must be Authorised before it can be applied to an invoice. To apply credit to an invoice:

1. Open the invoice detail view.
2. In the Credit applied section, select Apply credit.
3. Choose the authorised credit note and enter the amount to allocate.
4. Confirm.

The invoice’s balance due updates immediately. You can remove an allocation from the same section while the invoice is still in Draft. To apply a full credit — creating a credit note for the full invoice amount and allocating it in one step — use Credit entire invoice on the invoice detail view.

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Credit notes on the client page

The Credits tab on a client detail page lists all credit notes for that client with their original amount, available balance, status, and any allocations. Expand a row to see usage (which invoices the credit has been applied to and for how much).

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Finance settings

Finance settings control how invoices and credit notes are created for a client. Configure them in the Finance settings section on the client detail page, or set organisation-wide defaults in Settings → Billing. Key settings: For full details on client-level finance configuration, see managing clients.

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Accounting provider sync

Flow Payroll can push invoices and credit notes to an external accounting provider. When connected:

• Clients are synced as contacts.
• Invoices are pushed individually or in bulk.
• Credit notes are pushed and allocated in the provider.
• Sync status is visible on each invoice, credit note, and client row.

Connect your provider under Settings → Billing → Integrations. You can also import existing contacts from your provider as clients — see managing clients.

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Where to go next