Glossary
Invoice snapshot
Also called: immutable invoice · frozen invoice
An invoice snapshot is the frozen copy of everything on an invoice — bill-to details, line descriptions, quantities, rates, taxes, and totals — captured when the invoice is issued, so later changes to the client record, project rate, or time entries cannot alter a document the client already received.
Last updated October 13, 2026
Why it matters
Without a snapshot, raising a project's hourly rate in March would silently change the total on an invoice sent in January, and the PDF the client holds would no longer match your books. Accounting, tax, and audit all assume an issued invoice is a fixed historical record. The snapshot is what makes that true in software that otherwise keeps live, editable data.
What gets frozen
The client's legal name and address as of issue, each line's description, quantity, unit rate and amount, the currency, tax rates and amounts, discounts, the totals, and the payment terms. The underlying time entries are usually locked too, so the hours on the invoice and the hours in the timesheet stay identical.
Correcting a frozen invoice
Corrections happen with new documents: a credit note that reverses part or all of the invoice, or a replacement invoice that references the original. The original stays in the sequence unchanged.
In Hoursmith
Hoursmith freezes bill-to details and line rates at generation. Invoiced time entries are locked, and a fully refunded paid invoice can create one linked replacement draft with a reason while the original is retained.