HostBill can invoice from a service's billing schedule or from a manually created recurring invoice template. Identify which mechanism owns the charge before changing a date, otherwise the same customer may receive overlapping invoices.
IN THIS ARTICLE
01 Change a service billing schedule
- Open the account under Orders & Accounts and review its billing cycle, payment type, next due date, expiry and existing invoices.
- Identify the last paid service period and the intended next period. Check whether the adjustment is a genuine billing change, a courtesy extension or correction of a migration error.
- Review the product's invoice-generation lead time and any client automation override. A service due date is not necessarily the date its invoice will be generated.
- Apply the approved date or cycle change and inspect the account's automation queue. Reconcile an already issued renewal invoice separately; changing a service date does not establish that every related document has changed.
02 Create a recurring invoice template
For a repeated manual charge, open Payments > Recurring Invoices > New Invoice. Choose the client, recurring invoice type, first invoice date, frequency, occurrence limit, due-day settings and line items. Review the initial-generation prompt if the first date is today.
Check that generated invoices appear in Payments > Invoices and that the template's next date is correct. Use the template's on/off control to stop future generation when the agreement ends, while handling existing unpaid invoices according to the agreement.
03 Example: separate the due date from invoice generation
Suppose a test service is next due on 30 October and its approved configuration generates the renewal invoice 7 days before that date. The expected generation date is 23 October; the due date remains 30 October. Check the service record, automation queue and resulting invoice against those two distinct dates.
If the customer receives an agreed extension after the invoice has already been created, inspect that invoice separately when updating the service schedule. Also search for a manual recurring template covering the same period. The expected result is one intended charge for the agreed service period, with a clear due date and no second invoice from an overlapping mechanism.
Common questions
Why did two invoices appear for the same service?
Check for both an active service billing schedule and a separate recurring invoice template covering the same period. Identify the intended owner of the charge before cancelling or adjusting either document.
Does a recurring invoice automatically charge a stored payment method?
Invoice scheduling and payment collection are separate configurations. Verify the chosen gateway, customer authorisation and collection automation rather than assuming a repeating invoice implies a repeating charge.