Every invoice in Books goes through different statuses throughout its lifecycle. Understanding what each one means helps you know which invoices are awaiting payment and which are already closed.
The five statuses
- 📝 Draft: the invoice is being edited and has not been sent. You can modify it freely or delete it. It doesn’t count in your reports until it’s sent.
- 📤 Sent: the invoice has been sent to the customer and is awaiting payment. It appears in your accounts as money to be collected.
- ✅ Paid: payment has been recorded. If it was by card via Stripe, it’s marked automatically; if it was by bank transfer, you mark it yourself. It counts as income in your P&L.
- ⚠️ Overdue: the due date has passed and the invoice remains unpaid. It’s a signal to follow up with the customer.
- ❌ Cancelled: the invoice has been voided. It doesn’t count in your P&L or your reports.
How to manually mark an invoice as paid
When a customer pays you by bank transfer, the payment isn’t detected automatically. To record it:
- Open the invoice
- Click Mark as paid
- Enter the date you received the payment
- Confirm
The invoice moves to Paid status and is recorded as income.
How to cancel an invoice
If an invoice is no longer valid, open it and select the cancel option. A cancelled invoice stops counting in your accounts but remains in your history for traceability.
💡 Tip: regularly review invoices with Overdue status. A polite reminder to the customer is usually enough to speed up payment.