Guide

Jobs vs. Invoices

When to use a job, when to use an invoice, and how the two connect.

PUBLISHED MAY 12, 2026 38 MIN

A job is work you're going to do. An invoice is money you're owed. They're separate on purpose — one invoice can cover several jobs, and plenty of invoices have no job behind them at all.

Whether a job ever touches an invoice comes down to one setting on the job — its Payment Method — and there are only two options.

The one setting that decides everything

Every job carries a Payment Method: — you pick it on the New Booking form when you create the job. It decides whether that job will ever appear on an invoice, and there are only two options.

Credit/Debit Card
The job charges its own card on file. No invoice — ever. Called a card job throughout this guide. → path 1
Invoice/Cash/Check
The job waits to be put on an invoice — that's where the money lives. Called an invoice job throughout this guide. → path 2

A charge with no job behind it — a late fee, a deposit — is the exception. It's an invoice standing on its own, with nothing to schedule and so no payment method to pick. → path 3

Get this one right at the start.

You can still change a job's Payment Method: on the Edit Booking screen — but it locks for good the moment either of these is true: the job has been added to an invoice (including a draft one), or a card hold or charge already exists on it. If it's locked by an invoice, voiding that invoice releases the job and the setting opens back up.

Which setup do I need?

The quick version — whichever list you're nodding along to is where you start.

Start with a job when…
  • Someone wants work done on a date.
  • It needs to land on a route or a crew's day.
  • It repeats — weekly mow, monthly cleanup.
  • You want it counted in Revenue, Jobs or Services.
Start with an invoice when…
  • The work is done and you want to get paid for it.
  • You're billing a month of visits in one go.
  • You're charging for something with no visit — a deposit, materials, a late fee.
  • It needs to show in accounts receivable.

The precise version is two questions. Pick the option that best matches what you're trying to do, then read the matching setup below.

Question 1

What are you setting up?

Choose one
Question 2

How does this customer pay for the work?

Choose one
Question 2

Besides the labor, is there anything else to bill?

Choose one

Your answers, and what they mean

What you're setting up How it gets paid / what's on the bill Your setup
Scheduled service work Card on file — charged per visit Jobs only — Card on file
Scheduled service work One bill on a schedule — handled for me Jobs + automatic invoicing
Scheduled service work One bill I'll build myself when I'm ready Jobs + one invoice you build
A project that's done Just the labor — all of it is a catalog service Jobs + one invoice you build
A project that's done Labor plus materials, permits, or fees Jobs + materials on one invoice
A charge that isn't service work — Invoice only — no job

Jobs only — Card on file

The simplest setup in LawnBeast. The job collects its own money — there's no invoice, and one can't be added.

  • Save the customer's card on the customer record
  • Create the job (recurring or one-time), payment method Credit/Debit Card
  • The night before each visit, the card is pre-authorized for the job amount — but only if you've switched on Auto Pre-Auth Card Payments under Service Provider - Automations
  • Complete the visit, then charge the held card — or charge it manually anytime
  • A receipt emails automatically; if the card declines or the hold expires (~7 days), the job flips to that state and the customer is notified

Nothing charges on its own. Completing the visit doesn't take the money — pre-authorizing puts a hold on the card, and the charge itself is always your click. A job can sit completed with a live hold on it until you charge it.

Requires: Stripe Connect with charges enabled.

Heads up: Card jobs can never go on an invoice — if you'll ever want to bundle or add materials, use Invoice/Cash/Check instead.

See it in action → Weekly mow, card on file

Jobs + automatic invoicing

Schedule the work as invoice jobs, set up an Invoice Schedule for the customer, and LawnBeast bundles the completed visits onto one invoice for you — daily, weekly, monthly, or as each job is completed.

  • Create the jobs, payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  • Set up an Invoice Schedule for the customer — on the Invoices page, Auto Invoice Rules → New Automatic Invoicing Rule. Choose All customers or Specific customer, pick the frequency (Daily, Weekly plus a Day of week, Monthly plus a Day of month, or On job completion), and set Net terms (days)
  • Pick a delivery mode: Draft for review (the default) or Send automatically
  • Switch the rule on. That's the moment billing starts — anything completed before it is never picked up
  • On the rule's day, completed-but-not-yet-invoiced invoice jobs are grouped into one invoice per customer — held at Draft for you, or marked Open and emailed if you chose to send automatically
  • Multi-property customers get one invoice grouped by property
  • Customer pays by pay-link, cash, or check; you record the payment → the invoice (and the jobs' "paid" state) flip to paid
Draft is the default — nothing goes out unseen

A new rule creates its invoices as Drafts: the customer can't see them and no email is sent until you review each one and send it. Switch the rule to Send automatically only once you trust what it's producing. Either way the create-rule page previews exactly what the rule would bill before you turn it on.

Good to know: Weekly fires on the one weekday you pick; monthly on any day 1–31, where 31 means the last day of the month, short months included. With Adjust for weekends on, a weekly or monthly date that lands on a Saturday or Sunday waits for Monday, and a daily rule skips the weekend and catches up Monday morning. An On job completion rule invoices about 30 minutes after you mark the job complete — long enough to fix a price first. Card jobs are never swept.

Nothing gets stranded while a rule is on: every run bills all the still-unbilled eligible work back to the day you switched the rule on — not just the last day or week, so a job you complete late is picked up by the next run. If a customer's eligible jobs don't add up to the rule's Minimum amount ($), they're left out of that run and go out on the first run that clears it. Switching a rule off is a full stop, though: work completed while a rule is off is never billed automatically. Re-enabling starts fresh from that day, so invoice any in-between work by hand.

Also: a rule set to All customers skips any customer who has a rule of their own — the specific rule always wins. And on a Send automatically rule, if a customer's email address hasn't been confirmed the invoice is still created and still goes Open, but the email is silently skipped — send it from the invoice yourself.

Keep an eye on it: switch on Auto-invoice daily digest email under Service Provider - Automations and we'll email you a nightly summary of what tomorrow's rules will bill and which drafts are still waiting on you.

Requires: Stripe Connect with charges enabled if you want the pay-link.

See it in action → Recurring, auto-invoiced

Jobs + one invoice you build

Schedule and complete the work as invoice jobs, then create the invoice yourself when you're ready — attach the completed jobs and send it.

  • Create the job(s), payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  • When the work is done, create a draft invoice for that customer
  • Attach the completed jobs as line items — the Add jobs to invoice picker, then Add selected
  • Set due date / net terms, review, then Finalize to send it
  • Customer pays by pay-link, cash, or check; record it with Receive Payment → status flips to Paid

Heads up: A job goes read-only the moment you attach it — a draft invoice counts. Get the job's prices and services right before you attach it; after that you edit the invoice line instead, or void the invoice to release the job.

If a job you expect isn't in the Add jobs to invoice list, it's a card job, or it's already sitting on another invoice — a draft one counts.

See it in action → Recurring, one manual monthly bill

Jobs + materials on one invoice

Put the labor on as job-backed lines and the extras — materials, permits, dump fees — on as hand-typed lines, all on one professional bill.

  • Create job(s) for the labor portion, payment method Invoice/Cash/Check, using your catalog services so the work shows in reports
  • Create a draft invoice and attach the completed jobs
  • Add manual line items for materials / permits / fees — description, quantity, unit price, taxable flag; you can tag each to a property
  • Set due date / net terms, send
  • Customer pays by pay-link, cash, or check; record the payment → status flips to paid

Heads up: Manual lines count toward Collected when the invoice is paid, but not the Revenue, Jobs, or Services reports. Anything you want in those should be a catalog-service job line.

See it in action → Multi-day project + materials / permits

Invoice only — no job

There's nothing to schedule, just a charge. Build an invoice with one or more hand-typed lines and no jobs attached.

  • Create a draft invoice for the customer with no jobs attached
  • Add a manual line item — description, quantity, unit price, taxable flag (tag a property if relevant)
  • Set a due date or net terms
  • Send → customer pays by pay-link, cash, or check; record the payment → status flips to paid

Heads up: Once paid, this counts toward Collected — but not the Revenue, Jobs, or Services reports (those track service work). Expected for a non-service charge; it still shows in A/R aging and on the invoice.

See it in action → Pure charge (late fee / deposit)

Side by side

Job
Invoice
What it is
One visit of scheduled work — one property, one date, one or more catalog services, a crew, a price.
A formal bill — what's owed, when it's due, how to pay.
Created when
You book a service, or a recurring frequency generates the next visit. Accepting a quote does not create one.
You bill completed jobs — by hand or on an Invoice Schedule — or you're charging for something with no work behind it.
Who sees it
You and your crew.
The customer — emailed, and payable from a pay-link.
Its status means
Where the work stands. Derived from the service lines, not a field you set.
Where the money stands: draft → open → paid.
What it affects
Your calendar, your routes and your crew's day — plus the Revenue, Jobs and Services reports, which all read jobs rather than invoices.
What the customer owes, A/R aging, and Collected.

How they connect

Three pictures, one per route the money can take. Which one you're on was decided by the Payment Method: you picked — or, for path 3, by there being no job to pick it on.

Path 1 — A card job pays itself

Payment Method · Credit/Debit Card

Path 1 — a job pays itself A weekly mow job at $45 is set to the Credit/Debit Card payment method. Its card is pre-authorized the night before; you charge the held card when you complete the visit, or charge it manually anytime. Once charged it's Paid, and a receipt emails automatically. No invoice is ever created. JOB Weekly mow $45 Credit/Debit Card pre-authorized the night before Held on the card charge on completion or manually anytime Paid Receipt emails automatically Path 1 — a job pays itself A weekly mow job at $45 is set to the Credit/Debit Card payment method. Its card is pre-authorized the night before; you charge the held card when you complete the visit, or charge it manually anytime. Once charged it's Paid, and a receipt emails automatically. No invoice is ever created. JOB Weekly mow $45 Credit/Debit Card pre-authorized the night before Held on the card charge on completion or manually anytime Paid Receipt emails automatically

No invoice is created — or allowed. A card job is self-contained.

Path 2 — Invoice jobs get put on an invoice

Payment Method · Invoice/Cash/Check

Path 2 — three jobs become one invoice Three weekly mow jobs — #001, #002 and #003, weeks 1, 2 and 3 at $45 each — are set to the Invoice/Cash/Check payment method, so they wait to be billed and all three feed into a single invoice. You attach them yourself, or an Invoice Schedule does it for you. The invoice lists the same three jobs by id, one line each, plus a hand-typed mulch line at $40 that has no job behind it: $175 in total. It sits as a Draft until you review it and send it, at which point its status goes Open. JOBS #001 Mow · wk 1 $45 #002 Mow · wk 2 $45 #003 Mow · wk 3 $45 you attach them or a schedule does INVOICE · DRAFT #001 Mow · wk 1 $45 #002 Mow · wk 2 $45 #003 Mow · wk 3 $45 + mulch (typed) $40 Total $175 review the draft when it’s ready Send it goes Open Path 2 — three jobs become one invoice Three weekly mow jobs — #001, #002 and #003, weeks 1, 2 and 3 at $45 each — are set to the Invoice/Cash/Check payment method, so they wait to be billed and all three feed into a single invoice. You attach them yourself, or an Invoice Schedule does it for you. The invoice lists the same three jobs by id, one line each, plus a hand-typed mulch line at $40 that has no job behind it: $175 in total. It sits as a Draft until you review it and send it, at which point its status goes Open. JOBS #001 Mow · wk 1 $45 #002 Mow · wk 2 $45 #003 Mow · wk 3 $45 you attach them or a schedule does INVOICE · DRAFT #001 Mow · wk 1 $45 #002 Mow · wk 2 $45 #003 Mow · wk 3 $45 + mulch (typed) $40 Total $175 review the draft when it’s ready Send it goes Open

This is how most billing works. You attach the completed jobs yourself, or an automatic Invoice Schedule does it for you — either way the invoice carries the money and the jobs just reflect it. Hand-typed lines for materials, permits, or fees can ride along on the same bill. A part payment isn't a dead end: the invoice sits at Partially paid until the rest arrives.

What that label is really saying

Invoice/Cash/Check is a payment method on the job, not the invoice document. It means "LawnBeast isn't charging a card for this one" — the money gets settled some other way, and putting the job on an invoice is how you track it. Cash and check customers sit here too; they just pay the invoice differently.

Path 3 — An invoice can stand alone

No job — not a third payment method

Path 3 — an invoice with no job There's no job to schedule. A draft invoice is created directly with one hand-typed line, Late fee $25, for a total of $25. The customer pays by pay-link, check, or cash; once it's paid in full the invoice moves from Open to Paid. NO JOB nothing to schedule INVOICE Late fee $25 Total $25 Paid Pay-link, check, or cash Paid in full $25 Invoice Open → Paid Path 3 — an invoice with no job There's no job to schedule. A draft invoice is created directly with one hand-typed line, Late fee $25, for a total of $25. The customer pays by pay-link, check, or cash; once it's paid in full the invoice moves from Open to Paid. NO JOB nothing to schedule INVOICE Late fee $25 Total $25 Paid Pay-link, check, or cash Paid in full $25 Invoice Open → Paid

A late fee, a deposit, equipment damage, a returned-check fee — a hand-typed line on an invoice with no jobs attached. There's nothing to schedule, so there's no job and no payment method to pick.

The two records move independently

Completing a job doesn't create an invoice by itself, and recording a payment on an invoice changes nothing stored on the jobs attached to it — their paid state is read off the invoice. That independence is exactly what makes weekly mowing billed monthly possible.

What the statuses mean

Two clocks run side by side. A job's status tracks the work; an invoice's status tracks the money. Neither one moves the other.

Job — the work clock

Scheduled
On the calendar and on a route.
Completed
Every service line marked done. This is what you attach and what the reports count.
Cancelled · Written off
Off-ramps, not a next step — a soft delete, or bad debt.

None of these is a status column you set. Completed is stamped when every service line is marked done; an invoice job's paid or overdue state is read off its invoice. A card job also carries a payment state of its own — on hold, charged, declined, hold expired, refunded, disputed.

Invoice — the money clock

Draft
Editable and deletable. Nothing has been sent.
Open
Finalized and sent. Its attached jobs go read-only.
Partially paid
Some money in. Enough to block a void.
Paid
Settled. Terminal.
Void · Written off
Also terminal. Void needs zero payment received; write-off is bad debt.

paid, void and written_off are terminal — nothing moves after them. An invoice is editable and deletable only while it's draft.

Use cases

Seven workflows pulled from real contractor accounts. Skim the verdicts to find the closest match.

Case 01 — Weekly mowing, card on file

Charge a card after each visit — no paperwork.

A residential customer wants to be charged after each weekly mow — no statements, no follow-up. Just a clean transaction each week.

  1. Save the card on the customer record
  2. Create a weekly recurring job, payment method Credit/Debit Card
  3. The card is pre-authorized the night before service
  4. Complete the visit, then charge the held card (or charge it manually if you forgot)
  5. A receipt auto-emails — no invoice ever

A decline or a 7-day hold expiry flips the job state and emails the customer; re-run the charge once it's fixed.

Jobs OnlyUses: Jobs

Case 02 — Recurring service, billed by an auto-invoice schedule

One bundled bill, generated and emailed for you.

A long-time customer wants one monthly bill covering every visit, paid by check or pay-link, hands-off. The same shape works for a commercial snow contract billed monthly, or weekly billing for a busy account.

  1. Set up weekly recurring jobs, payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  2. Add a Monthly Invoice Schedule for the customer (any day 1–31, net 30), then switch it on
  3. On that day, the completed not-yet-invoiced jobs bundle into one invoice — held at draft for you, or marked open and emailed if you set the rule to send automatically
  4. Review it, send it, resend it if you like
  5. Record the payment → the invoice and its jobs show paid

The schedule fires on the day you pick, where 31 means the last day of the month; a missed run catches itself up on the next one; card jobs are never swept — don't mix payment methods on jobs you want bundled.

Jobs + InvoicesUses: Jobs & Invoices

Case 03 — Recurring service, one manual end-of-month bill

Same monthly bill — but you build it by hand.

Same "one bill a month" goal as Case 02, but you'd rather build it yourself — tweak the wording, add a memo, hold it for review — than run an automatic schedule.

  1. Set up recurring jobs, payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  2. At month-end, create a draft invoice for the customer
  3. Attach the completed jobs
  4. Set due date / net terms, add a memo, send (or print and mail)
  5. Record the payment → the invoice flips to paid

Attach completed jobs — a draft can't be finalized while it holds a cancelled or written-off job; once the invoice is open / paid, the attached jobs are read-only.

Jobs + InvoicesUses: Jobs & Invoices

Case 04 — Landscaping project with materials

Labor as jobs, materials as manual lines, one bill.

A one-off install — sod, irrigation, cleanup over a few days — plus billed plants, mulch, and a city permit. The customer wants everything on one bill.

  1. Create a job per labor day / service using catalog services, payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  2. When the work's done, create a draft invoice and attach the completed jobs
  3. Add manual lines for plants / mulch / permit (description, qty, unit price, taxable flag)
  4. Send → customer pays via pay-link
  5. The invoice flips to paid

The material/permit lines count toward Collected but not Revenue / Jobs / Services — only the catalog-service job lines reach those. If "materials" needs to land in those reports, make it a catalog service + job line.

Jobs + InvoicesUses: Jobs & Invoices

Case 05 — Late fee / deposit / damage charge

A charge with no scheduled work behind it.

You need to bill something with no scheduled work behind it — a late fee on an overdue invoice, a project deposit, equipment damage, a returned-check fee.

  1. Create a draft invoice with no jobs attached
  2. Add a manual line item (description, qty, unit price, taxable flag; tag a property if relevant)
  3. Set a due date or net terms
  4. Send → customer pays via pay-link, cash, or check
  5. Record the payment

Once paid it counts toward Collected, but not Revenue / Jobs / Services — correct, it isn't service work. It does show in A/R aging and on the invoice.

Invoices OnlyUses: Invoices

Case 06 — Quote → accepted → invoiced

What to do after a quote is accepted.

You sent a quote, the customer accepted it; now you need the work scheduled and the bill set up.

  1. The quote sits in customer-accepted — accepting a quote creates nothing automatically; it logs the acceptance and emails you
  2. Manually create the jobs (Invoice/Cash/Check if it'll be billed, Credit/Debit Card if card-on-file)
  3. When the work's done, build the invoice (or let an Invoice Schedule do it) and attach the completed jobs; add manual lines for any quoted materials
  4. Reference the quote number in the invoice memo for a paper trail

There is zero auto-conversion from quote to jobs or invoices — quotes get their own guide; this card just covers "what next" after acceptance.

Jobs + Invoices (and Quotes)Uses: Jobs, Invoices & Quotes

Case 07 — Property management, multi-property monthly

One customer, many properties, one monthly invoice.

One customer record — a property management company — with several rental properties. They want one invoice per month covering all the work, grouped by property for internal charge-back.

  1. One customer, multiple service properties
  2. Recurring jobs across the properties (each on the right property), payment method Invoice/Cash/Check
  3. Add a Monthly Invoice Schedule for the customer (or build the invoice by hand)
  4. The generated invoice auto-groups job lines by property
  5. Customer pays via pay-link or check → record the payment

One invoice can group jobs across many properties of one customer (and manual lines can be property-tagged), but each job is still one property on one date.

Jobs + InvoicesUses: Jobs & Invoices

The fine print, side by side

The Side by side table covers what each one is. This one covers what each one lets you do.

Jobs Invoices
Required for Scheduling, crew assignment, routing, time tracking, per-visit card charges. Bundled bills, multi-property bills, pay-links, manual line items, accounts receivable.
Payment methods Payment method Credit/Debit Card (the job's card on file is pre-authorized the night before; you charge it on completion) or Invoice/Cash/Check (the job waits to go on an invoice). Recorded on the invoice — Stripe pay-link (card), cash, or check. Recording it changes nothing stored on attached jobs; their "paid" state is derived from the invoice.
Recurring support Yes — built-in service frequencies (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). No — an invoice doesn't recur. (An Invoice Schedule can generate invoices on a cadence from completed jobs, but that's a per-customer rule about jobs — the invoice itself isn't a recurring object.)
Multi-property One job → one property. One invoice can group jobs across many properties on a single customer (grouped automatically); manual lines can be property-tagged too.
Auto-invoicing eligible Yes if payment method is Invoice/Cash/Check. Credit/Debit Card jobs are excluded. Invoices are the output of auto-invoicing, not the input.
Edit window Editable until it's attached to an invoice — any invoice, draft included — or its card goes on hold, is charged, or is partially refunded. Written-off jobs are locked too. Editable & deletable only while draft.
Cancel / void Can cancel a job unless it's on a finalized invoice, its card payment is captured / partially refunded / disputed, or its invoice is paid. (A fully refunded card job can still be cancelled.) Can void only if zero payment has been received — not even a partial. Otherwise refund first, or write it off.

Rules & constraints

The hard rules the system enforces.

Jobs

  • A card job cannot be attached to an invoice (every "attach a job" action filters for invoice jobs; enforced in the views, not the model, but it's the real behavior).
  • An invoice job is attachable when it's not cancelled and not already on another (non-void) invoice — in practice, attach completed jobs.
  • A draft invoice will let you attach a not-yet-completed job, but it can't be finalized (draft → open) while it holds a cancelled or written-off job — fix or detach first.
  • A job becomes read-only the moment it's attached to an invoice — including a draft one — and also once its card is on hold, charged, or partially refunded. Edit the invoice line instead, or void the invoice to release the job.
  • A job's Payment Method: is changeable on Edit Booking right up until the same two things: any invoice attachment (draft included), or a card hold or charge on the job. Voiding the invoice releases the job and unlocks it again.
  • Deleting a job that sits on a draft invoice removes its line from that invoice silently, and the total changes. Cancelling the same job leaves the line in place and blocks the invoice from being finalized until it's detached.
  • A card job can't be cancelled if its payment is captured, partially refunded, or disputed — refund first (a fully refunded card job can be cancelled); an invoiced job can't be cancelled if its invoice is paid.
  • A job's "states" aren't a status column — they're derived: completed (time_completed stamps when every service line is marked done), cancelled (soft delete), written off (bad debt); an invoice job's paid / overdue / etc. state is read off its invoice.

Invoices

  • Can hold any mix of job-backed lines, manual lines, or both — including zero of either.
  • Lifecycle draft → open → partially_paid → paid, plus void and written_off; paid / void / written_off are terminal.
  • Editable and deletable only while draft.
  • Voidable only if zero payment received — a single partial blocks the void; then refund-then-void, or write off as bad debt.
  • Recording a payment on an invoice changes nothing stored on the attached jobs — their paid state is derived.
  • Voiding an invoice with job lines snapshots each into a frozen voided_job record and detaches the live jobs back to the pool (payment status resets, re-attachable — a job can appear on more than one invoice over its life, sequentially, after a void); writing off an invoice does not detach its jobs.
  • written_off = bad debt; it's touched on lightly here, with a full walkthrough in its own guide.

Stripe Connect

  • Stripe Connect with charges enabled is required for any card payment — at the job level (card on file) or the invoice level (pay-link). Without it, you're on cash / check workflows.

Automatic invoicing

  • A rule does nothing until you switch it on, and it only ever bills work completed from that day forward.
  • Each rule chooses its own outcome. Draft for review (the default) leaves the generated invoice at draft — the customer can't see it and no email is sent. Send automatically finalizes it to open and emails it.
  • A run bills every eligible job still unbilled back to the day the rule was switched on — not just the last period. Nothing is stranded by a missed run or a job completed out of order.
  • A job is only swept if it's completed, is an invoice job, isn't cancelled or written off, and isn't already on an invoice. Scheduled-but-not-yet-completed jobs are never picked up, no matter how old.
  • A job completed in the last half hour is deliberately held back and swept on the next run — so a bill can't go out while you're still editing the visit.
  • If a customer's eligible jobs total less than the rule's Minimum amount ($), that customer is skipped for the run and the jobs stay in line for a later one.
  • A rule set to All customers skips any customer who has a rule of their own. The specific rule always wins.
  • On a Send automatically rule, if the customer's email address isn't confirmed the invoice is still created and still goes open — only the email is skipped, silently.

Reports & automation

  • Revenue = work performed: the billed amount of completed, non-cancelled jobs, dated by scheduled date. Collected = cash actually received on paid invoices, dated by paid date. They're different on purpose — don't expect them to match.
  • Services sums only catalog-linked job line items (completed, non-cancelled, by scheduled date) — a job with no catalog-service line contributes zero.
  • Jobs report counts completed jobs and uses the same billed-amount basis as Revenue.
  • Manual invoice lines count toward Collected, not Revenue / Jobs / Services. When an invoice is paid, its manual lines are part of the cash received — but those three reports are the job-based view of work performed, so a manual line never lands in them (it does show in A/R aging and on the invoice). Heavy manual-line use widens the Revenue ↔ Collected gap.
  • Auto-invoicing only pulls completed invoice jobs; manual lines are never auto-generated.

Quotes

  • Accepting a quote creates nothing — no jobs, no invoice; it flips the quote to customer-accepted, logs the event, and emails you. Build the jobs and/or invoice by hand. (Quotes get their own guide.)

Common mixups

The eleven that catch contractors off-guard, in the words they usually arrive in.

My job doesn't show up when I try to attach it to an invoice
Its payment method is Credit/Debit Card, and card jobs are filtered out of every "attach a job" list — they collect their own money and can never go on a bill. If you'll ever want to bundle it or add materials to it, set the payment method to Invoice/Cash/Check from the start.
I billed for mowing but it never showed up in my Services report
You typed it as a manual invoice line. Manual lines count toward Collected and nothing else — Revenue, Jobs and Services are all job-based. Anything that's in your catalog should be a job with that catalog service on it; manual lines are for the things that aren't services, like materials, permits and fees.
I can't edit a job any more — the fields are locked
It's been attached to an invoice — and a draft invoice does it just as much as a sent one, which is the part that surprises people. A card job locks the same way once its card is on hold or charged. Edit the invoice line instead, or void the invoice — voiding releases the job back to the pool, editable and re-attachable.
I need to cancel an invoice but it won't let me void it
Void requires zero payment received — a single partial payment blocks it. Refund first and then void, or write it off as bad debt.
Some of my recurring jobs didn't make it onto the monthly bill
Either they weren't completed when the schedule ran, or they're set to Credit/Debit Card — card jobs are never swept into an invoice. Pick one payment method per customer and stick with it.
I deleted the job — is the invoice gone too?
No. Once an invoice is finalized you can't touch its jobs at all. Where a job can be removed, the invoice stands on its own with its own amounts and history — but which action you took matters, and the two are not the same. See the next card.
A line vanished off my draft invoice and the total changed
Someone deleted the job behind it. On a draft invoice that's allowed, and the line goes with the job — no warning, the total just drops. Cancelling that same job does the opposite: the line stays, and the invoice is now stuck — a draft can't be finalized while it holds a cancelled or written-off job. Detach it, or un-cancel it, to get the invoice moving again.
I picked the wrong payment method — can I still change it?
On the Edit Booking screen, yes — until one of two things happens. Adding the job to an invoice locks it (a draft invoice counts), and so does any card hold or charge on the job. If an invoice is what locked it, void that invoice: the job is released and the setting opens back up.
My customer got an invoice before I'd even looked at it
That's an Invoice Schedule set to Send automatically — it finalizes and emails each invoice the moment it's generated. Switch that rule to Draft for review (the default for new rules) and its invoices will wait at Draft until you send them yourself. If you'd rather not run a schedule at all, build the bill by hand: Jobs + one invoice you build.
I need to charge a deposit before any work happens
Send a standalone invoice — an invoice doesn't need a job behind it. One hand-typed line, no jobs attached. Schedule the job separately once it's paid. That's Invoice only — no job.
Revenue, Collected and Services don't match
They aren't meant to. Revenue is the billed amount of completed work by scheduled date; Collected is cash received by paid date; Services is the catalog-service breakdown of that work. Manual invoice lines land in Collected only, so the heavier your manual-line use, the wider the gap — expected, not a bug.
Rule of thumb

If you're asking when is someone showing up, it's a job. If you're asking who owes me what, it's an invoice.

Glossary

Quick definitions for the terms used in this guide.

Term What it means
Attached A job is attached to an invoice when the invoice carries a line item pointing back to that job. Only invoice jobs can be attached; a job can appear on more than one invoice over its life, but only one at a time.
Auto-invoicing / Invoice Schedule A rule — for one customer or for all of them — that bundles completed invoice jobs into one invoice on a daily, weekly or monthly cadence, or as each job is completed. Each rule either leaves its invoices at draft for you (the default) or sends them automatically. Billing runs from the day the rule is switched on, and every run catches up anything a previous one missed.
Card on file A customer's saved card. With payment method Credit/Debit Card, it's pre-authorized the night before service and charged when you complete the visit (or manually anytime).
Completed (job) A job whose service line items are all marked done; time_completed is stamped. Completed jobs are what you attach to invoices and what the reports count.
Draft The initial, editable state of an invoice — lines can be added, removed, and edited freely, and the invoice can be deleted. It can't go open while it holds a cancelled or written-off job.
Invoice A formal bill with a status workflow: draft → open → partially_paid → paid, plus void and written_off. Holds job-backed lines, hand-typed manual lines, both, or neither.
Job (a.k.a. booking, visit) One visit of scheduled service work at a customer property — one date, one or more catalog services, a crew, a price. Recurring services are repeating jobs.
Line item — manual A free-text line on an invoice — description, quantity, unit price, taxable flag, optional property tag — not linked to any job or catalog service. It counts toward Collected when the invoice is paid, but not toward the Revenue / Jobs / Services reports (those are job-based).
Open An invoice that's been finalized and sent. Its attached jobs become read-only; you record payments against it, or void it (only if nothing's been paid).
Pay-link A Stripe-hosted page linked from the invoice where the customer pays by card. Requires Stripe Connect with charges enabled.
Payment method (on a job) Either Credit/Debit Card (the job charges its own card on file and never goes on an invoice) or Invoice/Cash/Check (the job waits to be attached to an invoice, which carries the money).
Property A customer's service location. One customer can have many properties; each job is one property on one date; invoices can group jobs by property.
Service (catalog) An entry in your services catalog. Jobs reference catalog services as line items — that's what makes the work count in the Services report.
Stripe Connect Your connected Stripe account on the LawnBeast platform. Required for any card payment — a card on file at the job level or a pay-link on an invoice.
Void Cancelling an invoice before any payment — not even a partial — was received. Voiding an invoice with job lines snapshots each into a frozen record and detaches the live jobs back to the editable pool.
Voided job (snapshot) When you void an invoice that has job lines, each job line is frozen into an immutable record on that invoice and the live job is detached back to the pool, re-attachable to a future invoice.
Write-off / written off Marking a job or invoice as bad debt. Writing off an invoice does not detach its jobs. Gets a full walkthrough in its own guide.