Feature
Put repeat billing on a schedule—not on autopay.
Hoursmith turns a recurring series into an ordinary invoice only when each date arrives. Schedule a repeat service charge, collect eligible unbilled hourly time and expenses, or combine both; then review every Draft or use guarded auto-send. When unbilled usage is involved, delivery is limited by the grand-total ceiling you approved.
Plans: Studio · Agency
14-day Studio or Agency trial · No credit card required
At a glance
| Plans and access | Studio and Agency; Managers, Admins, and Owners |
|---|---|
| Content | Recurring manual charges, unbilled hourly time, billable expenses, or a hybrid |
| Delivery | Create a Draft or use guarded auto-send; variable and hybrid sends require a grand-total ceiling |
| Cadence | Every N days, weeks, months, or years, with weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly presets |
| Exceptions | Edit one or future occurrences, pause, resume, skip, undo, generate next, end, or clone |
| Invoice lifecycle | No number until generation; every generated child follows the normal Draft, Sent, payment, PDF, and reminder rules |
What's in it
The invoice builder you already know
Recurring invoices live inside the Invoices area and use the same client, line, tax, discount, payment-method, notes, totals, and responsive editing patterns. The schedule panel and Recurring badge make the automation clear without turning it into a separate product.
Make an existing invoice recurring—with a review step
Start from an ordinary invoice to prefill safe manual lines and reusable settings. Hoursmith turns compatible time and expense history into reviewed project-source selections, visibly omits fixed-project allocations, incompatible or projectless sources, and uploaded attachments, and never changes the source invoice.
Repeatable manual fees, usage, or both
Repeat Decimal quantity-and-price lines, collect still-unbilled work from eligible hourly projects and billable expenses through the service-period cutoff, or add a manual base fee to that variable usage. A variable-only empty period creates no invoice-number noise; a hybrid still creates its base charge.
Calendar-safe scheduling
Choose a stable timezone, local generation time, cadence, start date, and inclusive date or generated-invoice count ending. A January 31 monthly anchor returns to March 31 after February, leap-day annual schedules recover in leap years, and Resume fast-forwards without sending a surprise backlog.
Change one invoice or everything ahead
Create a one-occurrence exception for a special month or append a future revision for a lasting price, recipient, due-date, or content change. Generated Drafts remain ordinary editable invoices, Sent invoices remain immutable, and no future edit rewrites history.
Pause and skip without losing the cadence
Pause indefinitely or until a date, skip the next occurrence with an optional reason, undo a still-future skip, or generate the next slot early as a Draft. Resume keeps the original cadence and never automatically backfills missed invoices.
Guarded auto-send, not automatic charging
Auto-send snapshots To and Cc recipients and emails the generated invoice with its normal payment link. Variable and hybrid series require a maximum grand total; an invoice above it stays a reviewable Draft. The worker never creates Checkout, a mandate, a payment, or a card charge.
Invoice email templates with an exact preview
Keep the ordinary saved invoice subject and body or override either field for a recurring revision, add an optional message, and preview the merged email with the selected service-period dates. The billing contact is suggested only while the recipient field is untouched, so a later contact edit cannot silently reroute financial mail.
Ordinary invoices all the way down
Each due occurrence receives a number only when it materializes, then keeps the existing currency and bill-to snapshots, source claims, PDF, supporting documents, reminders, public link, payment methods, payment history, and Sent-state integrity. Projections never count as revenue or receivables.
How it works
- 01
1. Choose the client and repeatable content
Add manual lines, choose eligible hourly projects and expenses, or combine a base charge with usage. Currency follows the client's settings and stays read-only.
- 02
2. Set the cadence and service window
Pick the interval, start and end rules, timezone, and local run time, then review the next three issue dates, due dates, and service periods.
- 03
3. Choose Draft or guarded auto-send
Review the versioned recipients and email preview. For variable or hybrid delivery, set the maximum grand total that may be sent without review.
- 04
4. Let the due occurrence become an invoice
At the scheduled time Hoursmith claims the eligible sources once, assigns the next invoice number, and creates an ordinary Draft. Network delivery happens only after that financial transaction commits.
- 05
5. Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Edit one or future occurrences, pause, resume, skip, undo, end, or clone from the series page. Past generated invoices keep exactly the snapshots and status they already earned.
What Hoursmith is not
Recurring invoices schedule charges and usage collection; they are not autopay and never charge a saved card automatically. Hoursmith does not provide an included-hours, rollover, prepaid-balance, or retainer ledger, and recurring templates do not consume fixed-project contract allocations. Recurring-series mutation through REST API or MCP is not included in this release.
Common questions
Does recurring auto-send charge my client's card?
No. It creates an ordinary invoice and emails that invoice plus its normal payment link. The client may choose to pay afterward, but recurring delivery never creates Checkout, a mandate, a payment, or an automatic charge.
What happens when there is no unbilled time or expense?
A variable-only occurrence becomes Skipped empty: it gets no invoice number, consumes no generated-invoice count, and sends nothing. A hybrid still creates the recurring manual base lines even when its variable portion is empty.
Can I change only next month's invoice?
Yes. Use This invoice only for a one-occurrence content, date, recipient, or delivery override. Use This and future invoices for a lasting change. Neither option edits an invoice that was already generated.
Who can manage recurring invoices, and on which plans?
Managers, Admins, and Owners can manage recurring series in Studio and Agency workspaces. Members cannot access invoice amounts or recurring billing. A downgrade retains the series and history but pauses automation until a Manager or above reviews and resumes it after access returns.
Can a recurring template allocate a fixed-fee project's balance?
No. Repeatable service fees are manual invoice lines. A fixed-project contract allocation is bounded live value and still requires review in the ordinary invoice builder, so recurring automation cannot consume that ledger.
Related
Try it free, in two minutes.
Create an account, set up your first client, and log an hour. The invoice will already be on the way to building itself.
14-day Studio or Agency trial · No credit card · Cancel any time