Invoices and billing a client
Put a client on Stripe billing with the Bill this client wizard, then watch invoices, payment attempts and refunds — and see what the client sees.
Billing a client happens in two places. The Bill this client wizard lives on the client record and composes their Stripe subscription from your catalog. Everything afterwards — invoices, declines, retries, refunds — lives on FinanceBilling CatalogCustomers.
The client sees their own invoice inside their portal and pays through Stripe.
Before you start
You need Billing edit permission and a connected Stripe account. Build your plans first — the wizard picks line items from the Billing Catalog, and it will tell you "No active plans in the billing catalog yet." if there are none. The wizard is not available in the iOS admin shell; run it from a browser or the desktop app.
Bill a client
Open the client and start the wizard
Clientsthe clientBill this client.
Step 1 — Billing portal
Choose which of the client's portals is billed. A client with several portals bills per portal, not per client.
Step 2 — Line items
Under Add services, pick the plans this portal pays for. Open Advanced if you need to change how Stripe collects, how proration is handled, or when the first charge lands.
Step 3 — Review
Check the combined monthly total, the changed lines and the removed lines, then continue to compose the subscription.
Composing is a live charge on your Stripe account
The review step warns "Composing will switch this portal to Stripe billing." It is real money on your own connected Stripe account, not a draft. Read the combined monthly total before you continue, and if this is the first subscription you have composed, confirm the result in your Stripe dashboard afterwards.
Settings reference
The Advanced fold in step 2.
| Setting | What it changes | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Collection method | Whether Stripe charges the card on file automatically or emails the client an invoice to pay. | — |
| Email invoice every month | Sends an invoice each cycle instead of charging a card. | — |
| Proration | Prorate onto the current cycle, or apply the change at next renewal with no proration. | Prorate onto the current cycle (default) |
| Start billing on | Delays the first charge to a date you choose. First-charge delays apply on creation only — you cannot use this to move an existing subscription's charge date. | — |
Unmapped Stripe line items need review
If the live subscription already contains items that are not catalog plans — set up directly in Stripe, or left over from an older arrangement — the wizard says so rather than silently dropping them. Map them to catalog plans, or handle them in Stripe, before composing.
Watching invoices
Open FinanceBilling CatalogCustomers, click a customer, then open an invoice. You get:
- Payment attempts — the last decline, how many attempts have been made, the next automatic retry and the card on file.
- Refund this invoice — with a reason of Requested by customer, Duplicate or Fraudulent.
Use the Past due and Open invoices filter chips on the Customers tab to find the ones that need you, rather than reading every row.
Consolidating several subscriptions
A client who was billed in stages can end up with more than one live subscription and more than one charge date. Open Clientsthe clientBillingConsolidate billing to merge them into one subscription with a single monthly charge date. The modal shows the Live subscriptions, the Resulting single subscription and a Progress section.
Finish a consolidation you have started
If a consolidation half-completes, the modal warns "The client is being double-billed until this is fixed." Run it through to the end. Do not close the modal and come back tomorrow.
What the client sees
In their portal, a client opens Billing and sees the invoice with its Total, Amount due, and either Paid in full or No payment due. View invoice opens the secure Stripe invoice in a new tab, where they pay.
Invoices raised outside Stripe can still be shown to them for viewing, with the payment handled wherever it was raised.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Bill this client cannot be started | No Stripe account connected, missing Billing edit permission, or you are in the iOS admin shell | Connect Stripe as the owner, grant the Billing permission, and run the wizard from a browser or the desktop app |
| "No active plans in the billing catalog yet." | Every catalog plan is Archived, Hidden or Coming soon | Set at least one plan Active in the Billing Catalog |
| "Unmapped Stripe line items need review" | The live subscription holds items that are not catalog plans | Map them to catalog plans or resolve them in Stripe before composing |
| An invoice keeps failing | The card on file was declined; Stripe is retrying on its own schedule | Open the invoice, read Payment attempts, and ask the client to update the card |
| The client says they were charged twice | A consolidation did not finish | Reopen Consolidate billing and complete the run |
| A plan on the subscription shows the wrong price | The catalog plan and Stripe have drifted | Run Stripe reconcile in the Billing Catalog, then sync the plan |