Invoicing & Getting Paid

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Invoice sweep runs mondays · 8am and keeps the Getting Paid dashboard fresh. Mondays — files what you invoiced, marks what has been paid, and says what has gone past its date.
• Invoice chase runs thursdays · 9am, in 2 stages: Brook reads and picks (handing over needs chasing), then Brook drafts the chases (handing over drafted).
• What is captured lands in the Invoice book dataset, which lives at Data/Invoice Book in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Quote book dataset, which lives at Data/Quote Book in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Recurring invoices dataset, which lives at Data/Recurring Invoices in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Getting Paid dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: outstanding · overdue · paid in the last 90 days · invoices on the book · owed, by how late · on the book, by status · raised, month by month · ready to chase · quotes, by where they stand · due to raise · the book · how this board works · your clients.

The wiring, in one breath: Brook holds Invoice capture · Brook holds Invoice chase drafts · Invoice capture writes to Invoice book · Invoice sweep writes to Invoice book · Invoice book shown by Getting Paid · Getting Paid kept fresh by Invoice sweep · Invoice sweep run by Brook · Invoice book feeds Invoice chase · Brook holds Invoice making · Brook holds Quotes and recurring invoices · Invoice making writes to Invoice book · Invoice making writes to Quote book · Quotes and recurring invoices writes to Quote book · Quotes and recurring invoices writes to Recurring invoices · Quote book shown by Getting Paid · Recurring invoices shown by Getting Paid.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Open Getting Paid on a Monday, after the Invoice sweep has run. Outstanding and Overdue are the two numbers; Owed by how late tells you whether this is one stubborn invoice or a drift across the book.
• Say an invoice the moment it goes out — "sent Aisha INV-1042 for the phase-one work, 4,800, thirty days" — and Invoice capture files it exactly where the sweep would have, due date and all.
• When a remittance or a bank statement lands, paste it into the chat or drop it into your vault. Invoice capture matches it against the open rows and marks only what fits, asking when two invoices could take the same payment — that is what keeps Outstanding honest without a spreadsheet.
• Read Ready to chase on Thursday, after the Invoice chase pass, then open your drafts: the wording is already pitched to how late each one is. Change what you want, send the ones you mean to, and leave the rest.
• Ask Brook the questions a ledger would make you compute — "what has Contoso still got out", "what did I invoice last quarter", "what got paid this month" — and the answers come from your own book.
• Tell Brook the standing rules once: your terms, when a chase should first go out and how often after, the client you never chase. Every sweep and every chase pass works by them — and when a row is wrong, say so; that correction is what keeps the board true.
• Ask Brook to make an invoice ("invoice Lena for the brand refresh, 3,400, thirty days") and Invoice making writes it into your vault with the next number in your sequence, your details and how to pay, opens it, and puts it on the book as a draft. Export it as a PDF from the document, send it yourself, and tell Brook when it has gone. Give Brook those details once: the name you trade under, your address, your tax registration and rate if you have them, and how a client should pay you. They are used word for word on every invoice, quote and credit note, and anything you have not given is left off rather than guessed.
• Say when a quote goes out and when it is answered, and Quotes and recurring invoices keeps the Quote book; Quotes, by where they stand shows what is waiting and what turned into work. Ask for the invoice for an accepted quote and it is made from the quote.
• Tell Brook about anything you bill on a cycle (a retainer, a support plan, a yearly fee) with when the next one is due. Due to raise lists what comes round in the next seven days after each Monday sweep, and nothing is raised until you ask.
• For a credit note, a statement for one client, or how a tax rule on invoices works, ask. The credit note is recorded against the invoice it corrects, the statement lists what that client has open, and the tax answer comes from the tax authority's own pages, with the source. Which rate you charge stays yours.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• Your terms — thirty days, forty-five for the bigger clients — said once and used for every row filed after.
• When a chase should first go out and how often after, and the clients who are never chased at all.
• The mailbox your invoices go out from, so the sweep looks in one place instead of everywhere it can reach.
• When the Monday sweep and the Thursday chase pass run — or turning either off and keeping the book by hand.
• Your details for the paperwork (name, address, tax registration and rate, how to pay you, and how you number invoices, quotes and credit notes), said once and used on every document.
• How long a quote holds, and which of your invoices recur, how often and when the next is due.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Adding the Kit ends at the first sweep’s own screen, where the email grant is asked for — that is the whole pitch, so the ask sits in front. Start it and Brook reads back through a year of your sent mail for the invoices you issued — number, client, amount, date due — and through what came back for the remittances that settled them, and builds the book from it. It reads; it never sends anything, never replies, and never chases a client. It is a real run and uses credits like any other.
2. When that first sweep finishes, Brook leaves one short note in your 1Presence inbox saying what it filed — how many invoices, for how many clients — and invites a few minutes on the things only you know: which mailbox your invoices go out from, which of these are actually yours to collect, and what your terms are. That is also where you say what has already been paid, and fill what the mail could not show: a figure that was only in the attached invoice, an invoice raised in an accounting tool, a payment that landed with no email. The same card offers to run the sweep within minutes of new mail from the senders it read, as well as on its schedule: one tap says yes, up to 24 extra runs a day, Gmail only for now.
3. Skip the sweep and the book still works by hand. Brook starts from what 1Presence already knows (anything you have mentioned, and copies of invoices or an export from your accounting tool in your vault), offers what it found for you to confirm, and asks only for the gaps: the number, who it went to, what it was for, the amount and when it was due. Nothing in that conversation touches your mail, and the Invoice sweep waits on your Routines screen until you choose to run it.
4. Whatever is still blank waits on the Kit page with a way back to Brook, and Brook offers it once the next time you talk. Tell it a part does not apply to you (you bill nothing on a cycle, say), or that you have finished setting up, and it stops asking.
5. After that the sweep runs on Monday mornings: it files what is new, marks paid only what a remittance matches beyond doubt, redraws the board, and raises a card only when something has gone past its date, a payment could not be placed, an invoice came without its amount or its due date, a recurring invoice is due to raise, or one you bill on a cycle seems not to have gone out (saying where to get what is missing). On Thursday mornings the chase pass runs — Brook picks the invoices that have gone too long, skipping anything you have already been in touch about in the last fortnight, and writes each chase into your drafts. Nothing is ever sent.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

← All kits