Invoices

Invoices are for billing clients outside of standard pricing options — custom amounts, one-off projects, or any situation where you need to send a bill with specific line items.

Invoices and payments

An invoice is the request for payment — the document that lays out what's owed. A payment is the record of the attempt to settle it. Every invoice has exactly one payment associated with it, and that payment updates in response to what the client does when they go to pay (or the result of an automated charge).

Invoices aren't only something you create by hand. Arketa also generates one automatically about 1 hour before each subscription renewal and each package charge, then charges the client's default payment method. An invoice "opens" either when you send it manually or right before a package or subscription is charged.

So whether a charge is manual or automatic, the same two records are always at work: the invoice asking for the money, and the payment tracking whether it came through.

Create an invoice

1. Go to Products → Invoices and click Create new, or create one from a client's profile
2. Add:

• Recipient — search for an existing client or enter an email
• Line items — description and amount for each item
• Memo — to add more information to the customer on what they are purchasing (Optional)
• Delivery option for the customer:
• Automatically charge a payment method on file - Will charge the customer with their default payment method, method of your choice, or a new card
• Email invoice with link will email the customer a payment page and PDF of the invoice. You can always add multiple emails here.
  • The client receives an email with the invoice details and a link to pay by card.
  • Expiration date: due date when the payment is expected
• Click Send invoice

Invoice statuses

Status	Meaning
Sent	Invoice delivered to the client

Mark as paid manually

If a client pays by cash, check, or bank transfer:

1. Open the invoice
2. Click Mark as paid
3. Select the payment method and date

On Studio plans with payment method types enabled, you can pick a custom label (for example Check or Zelle) instead of only Cash.

This updates the invoice status without charging their card.

Viewing outstanding invoices

Go to Reporting → All Payments and filter by payment type "Invoice" to see all invoices and their statuses. You can also see invoices on individual client profiles.

Recurring invoices

For clients you bill on a regular schedule, consider creating a monthly membership pricing option instead — it handles billing automatically without you needing to send an invoice each cycle.