Create and edit an invoice

Most invoices are raised for you: the deposit and each later instalment come from a signed booking. Build one by hand for anything else, such as a custom charge or a wedding that never went through a proposal.

Create an invoice by hand

1. Open Finance > Invoices and click New invoice. (From a client's Financials tab, New invoice opens the same form with the client already picked.)
2. Fill in:

Field	Notes
Client	Pick from your roster. With no clients yet the form says "You don't have any clients yet." with Create a lead first.
Amount (USD, before tax)	For example 2750.00.
Sales tax (%)	Pre-filled from your default tax rate in Settings > Defaults. "Set 0 for tax-exempt work."
Due date	Blank means 7 days from today.
Notes / line items (markdown, shown on the invoice)	What this covers. Bullets work.

3. Click Create invoice. Hailo numbers it (INV-2026-0001 and counting) and opens it. The message reads "Created invoice INV-…".

A hand-built invoice starts as a draft with a single Full payment row in its schedule.

Edit on the document

Opening an invoice shows it as the document the couple receives. Anything you can change is a field styled as text; click it and type. The header offers Old form view and Preview client view.

On the document	What it is
Your logo, studio name, email and header note	From your brand kit and Settings > Your studio > Proposals and invoices, not per invoice.
Invoice number and issue date	Set when created.
Billed to	The client and their email.
Pay by	The due date.
For	The notes: "What this covers, the couple reads this."
Your price	The subtotal, in dollars.
Add sales tax / Sales tax	Unfolds a Sales tax, in dollars line. Tax is a dollar figure here, not a rate, so re-saving never drifts the total by cents.
Payment lines	Each recorded payment, with method and date, subtracted; refunds added back.
Still owed or Paid in full	The balance.
Split this into instalments / Instalment plan	Up to three rows: a label (placeholders Deposit, Balance, Final payment), Amount $ and a due date. "Name each part and say when it's due. Your couple sees the plan on their invoice."
Who covers the card fee	Whatever my settings say, The couple pays it or I absorb it. "Only applies when they pay by card." See Card fees.
Footer note and banners	From your studio settings.

After any change a bar appears: "You've changed this invoice." Click Save changes. Rows in the instalment plan with no amount are dropped on save; if the rows do not add up to the invoice total a warning reads "These add up to $X, but the invoice is $Y, your couple would see a $Z gap."

The rail

To the right of the document:

• Got paid? with an amount, a method and Add it: for money that arrived outside Hailo. See Manual payments.
• Their link: the public page where the couple pays. Click it to select and copy.
• Send it to on a draft, or Email it again once sent.
• Give money back, shown once something has been paid. See Manual payments.
• Delete this invoice (confirm "Delete this invoice?").

Send it

Click Send it to (or Email it again). A draft becomes sent. Hailo emails the couple from your connected mailbox with the balance, the due date and the link ("View it and pay online here"). The subject names the invoice number and the balance.

Message	What to do
"Invoice INV-… marked sent. No email on file for this client. Share the link manually: …"	Add an email to the client, or send the link yourself.
"Invoice INV-… marked sent. Connect an email account in Settings → Integrations to email it automatically, for now, share: …"	Connect Gmail or a custom mailbox. The invoice is already marked sent.
"Couldn't email it (…). Share the link manually: …"	The mailbox refused the send. Check Settings > Integrations.

The old form view

Old form view shows the same invoice as a form: stats for Total, Subtotal, Sales tax and Paid; the public link ("Send this to your client, it's where they pay") with Open; Send and Delete in the header; a payments table (Date, Method, Amount, Status) with Add payment and Add another payment; Give money back to a client; and What you're charging with Your price, Pay by ("Leave empty if there's no deadline."), Anything the client should read ("This shows on the invoice they see."), Paying in instalments? and Sales tax and card fees. It saves to the same invoice; use whichever you prefer.

Invoices raised by a booking

When a couple signs and pays the deposit on their booking page, Hailo converts the lead to a client, creates the wedding event, and raises one invoice for every later row of the booking's payment schedule, each marked sent with its own due date and a proportional share of any sales tax. The deposit itself is paid on the booking page, so it does not need an invoice. Those instalment invoices email their own reminders when due. See Retainers and payment plans.

For a proposal accepted through its own accept step (a client proposal), Hailo raises a Deposit invoice for the proposal's deposit amount, due in 7 days, and shows the couple a View deposit invoice button on the confirmation page.