The business app has invoices for your own customers: you make an invoice, send it by email or text, and the customer pays on a page in your business's name, logo and colors. The money goes straight into the business's own payment account — the same one its bookings use. ContentForge takes no fee; only the payment processor's own fees apply on your account.
It's in Payments in the business app (and More → Payments in the phone app), and on each contact's page.
Products and services
A price list you pick from, so nobody types the same line twice: a name, a description, a price, a unit ("hour", "visit"), an optional SKU and a tax rate. Add from booking services copies your booking services in once (booking prices stay with Bookings). There's a CSV export and import. Archiving a product never changes an invoice already made — every line keeps its own copy.
Making an invoice
Payments → New invoice, or New invoice on a contact. Pick the customer, then add lines: a product, or a typed line with a price. Quantities can be decimals (1.5 hours). Each line can have a discount (percent) and a tax rate; the whole invoice can have a discount too. The totals add up exactly the way they're shown: discounts first, then tax on each line, rounded per line.
Options on each invoice:
- Due: on receipt, Net 7, Net 15, Net 30, or a date.
- Allow part payments (off by default), with the smallest amount you'll take.
- Ask for a deposit — a percent that's due first; the rest stays on the invoice.
- Payment reminders on or off for this invoice.
- Mark the opportunity won when paid in full — on by default when the invoice is linked to an opportunity (a $0 opportunity takes the invoice total).
- Notes, terms and a footer (your defaults from Settings → Payments are filled in).
A draft has no number yet. The number (for example INV-1042) is given the first time it's sent, so deleted drafts never leave gaps.
Sending it
Send offers Email, Text (text-to-pay), Email and text, or I'll share the link myself. You can also Copy link, show a QR code for the customer to scan, or download the PDF.
- The email comes from the business's sender with a View and pay button (and a PDF copy if you keep that on).
- The text reads like "Smith Lawn: Invoice INV-1042 for $240.00 is ready. View and pay: …". Texts follow the normal texting rules: the customer needs to have agreed to texts or texted you first, or you tick This person asked us to text them when you send it by hand. STOP and "do not text" always win.
- Make a new link stops the old link working at once.
Invoice emails and texts (and receipts and reminders) count as usage like any other email or text. If paid usage is paused, they wait and go out once it's back — but the pay link still works and you can copy and share it, and customers can still pay.
What the customer sees
A fast page that works on any phone: your logo and name, the invoice, the balance, and a Pay button. They pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay (on phones that have them), or bank debit if you've switched it on. They can pay the deposit, the balance, or an amount of their own when part payments are allowed — the amount is always checked by us, never taken from the page. They can save the card, and on a recurring invoice tick Charge this card automatically for future invoices.
When it's paid the page says Paid — thank you and stays as the receipt. A receipt email goes out for every online payment. See all your invoices opens one page with all of that customer's invoices and estimates (you can turn that link off or make a new one on the contact's page).
If the business has no payment account connected, the page shows your own payment instructions instead of a Pay button (Settings → Payments). If the account needs attention, the page says online payment isn't available right now.
Statuses
Draft, Scheduled, Sent, Viewed (they opened it), Processing (a bank debit is clearing — about 4 business days), Partly paid, Paid, Overdue (shown next to the status once it's past due with a balance), Void and Refunded.
Editing, voiding and deleting
- Drafts: change anything, or delete them.
- Sent with nothing paid: you can still change it; the customer's link shows the new version and the history says who changed what.
- Once anything is paid, the lines and amounts are locked. You can refund, a late fee can be added, or you can void after refunding everything and send a new one.
- Void cancels a sent invoice (only when nothing is paid); its link then says it was canceled.
Mark paid, refunds and receipts
- Mark paid records cash, a check, a bank transfer or "other", with an amount (the balance by default), a check or reference number and a note. Tick Send a receipt to email one. A draft paid on the spot gets its number at that moment.
- Refund a payment in full or part, with a reason. Online payments go back to the original card or bank account; for cash and checks it's recorded and you return the money yourself. You can never refund more than was paid, and two people can't refund the same payment at once. Refunds made in your payment account's own dashboard show here too.
- A disputed card payment is flagged and owners and managers are told.
Reminders and late fees
Reminders go by email (and by text where the customer already has text permission): by default 3 days before the due date, on the day, 3 and 7 days after, then every 7 days up to 4 more times. Each one is sent once, and they stop the moment the invoice is paid or voided. You can change the list in Settings → Payments, or switch reminders off on one invoice.
A late fee (off by default) is added once, a number of days after the due date: a fixed amount or a percent of the balance. It shows as a "Late fee" line, the customer is emailed, and it's on the contact's Activity history. It never compounds.
Recurring invoices
On a contact's page, New recurring invoice: what to bill, how often (every week, 2 weeks, month, 3 months or year), the first date, and when it ends (never, or after a number of invoices). Each run makes a normal invoice with its own number and link and sends it — or charges the customer's saved card once they've ticked "Charge this card automatically" on a pay page (until then it's sent). If an automatic charge is declined, the customer is sent the invoice with "Your card was declined — pay here" and you get a notification. Months keep the start day (the 31st becomes the 28th or 29th in February, then the 31st again). Pause, resume or cancel from Payments → Recurring.
On the contact and in Conversations
The contact's page shows a Payments section: their invoices, estimates, recurring invoices, payments, saved cards, how much they've paid in total and what they owe. Invoice events (sent, viewed, paid, refunded…) go on the Activity history and show as small cards in the contact's conversation.
Reports and export
Payments shows what's outstanding (and how many), overdue, paid this month and last month, and the average days to pay. Aging splits what's owed into current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days overdue, by customer. Export CSV downloads the invoices (owners and managers; it can be taken away per person).
Automations and notifications
Automations can start when an invoice is sent, viewed, paid, gets any payment, a payment fails, it becomes overdue, it's voided or refunded, or an automatic charge fails — and they can create an invoice, send an invoice or void an invoice. Automation texts only go where text permission already exists; otherwise the email goes instead. See Automations.
In My notifications: Invoice paid or payment received (bell and phone, for whoever sent it), Invoice payment failed, Invoice overdue, Estimate accepted or declined and Payment disputed. The daily summary lists overdue invoices and what was paid.
Who can do what
- Owners and managers: everything.
- Staff: see, write and send invoices and estimates, and mark them paid. No voids, refunds, payment settings or export.
- Owners can take away, per person: Can't send invoices, Can't mark invoices paid, Can't refund payments, Can't void invoices and Can't export payments. "Only contacts assigned to them" also limits which invoices someone sees.
- Connecting the payment account stays with whoever has that permission (see Settings → Payments).
- API keys and apps connected over MCP can read invoices and make drafts; sending, refunds and voids need a person signed in to the app.