1. Purpose & Scope
Invoicing is how your property formally requests payment from a partner for bookings. The system gives you full control over the process — from building a draft, to adding booking line items, to sending the invoice through an approval process before it reaches the partner
This article covers generation of invoices manually.
Table of Contents:
3. Create and configure your invoice drafts
3.1 Understanding the Invoice List
3.2.3 Invoice Timeline and Event Log
3.3.1 Billing and Address Information
3.3.3 Editing recipient and currency
3.4.3 Editing or Deleting a Line Item
3.6 Understanding the Approval Process
3.6.1 Path A — No Approval Required
3.6.2 Path B — All Approvers Can Approve
3.6.3 Path C — Multi-Level Approval
3.7 Additional Invoice Actions (Outstanding / Overdue)
5. Troubleshooting & Edge Cases
2. Pre-Requisites
Before you begin, make sure the following are in place. If any of these are missing or incomplete, certain features in the invoice module will not work correctly.
2.1 Required Access or Tools
- An active login to
https://property.paydocker.com - An operator account with permission to access the Sales section
- At least one active currency balance set up in Balance → Overview — this determines which currencies you can invoice in
2.2 Other configurations
These are areas of the platform that feed information into the invoice. They should be configured before you raise your first invoice. For some items, they are optional.
| Area | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Setting → Account (Business Details) | Provides your company legal name, address, and dynamic fields that appear on the invoice and PDF |
| Setting → Approval → Sales | Defines whether invoices require approval before being sent, and who the approvers are |
|
Setting → Branding → Invoice (Optional) |
Controls the visual appearance of the PDF and email templates |
|
Smart Contracts
|
Determines the payment type, terms and payment details (I.e., Taxes) for your invoice. |
3. Create and configure your invoice drafts
3.1 Understanding the Invoice List
When you navigate to Sales → Invoice, you land on the invoice list. This is your central view of all invoices associated with your property.
Tabs at the top of the list help you filter by status:
- All — shows every invoice regardless of status
- Draft — shows only invoices that are still in draft (not yet sent)
This makes it easy to pick up where you left off or find a specific invoice quickly.
If you need to find a specific invoice or narrow down the list, use the Filter button on the list page.
The filter panel works on an AND basis — meaning if you select more than one filter option, only invoices that match all selected criteria will be shown. Here is what each filter option does:
| Filter Option | What It Filters | Date Range Available |
|---|---|---|
| Created Date | Filters by the date the invoice was created | Up to 10 years in the past, up to today |
| Due Date | Filters by the invoice due date | Up to 10 years in the past, up to 5 years in the future |
| Status | Filters by invoice status | N/A — select from a list |
| Invoice Number | Filters by invoice ID — matches any ID that starts with, ends with, or contains your search text | N/A — free text |
| Customer Details | Filters by customer/property name — matches any name containing your search text | N/A — free text |
Once you have set your filters, click Apply to see the results.
To clear all filters and return to the full list, click Clear.
3.2 Creating a Draft Invoice
A draft invoice is the starting point for every invoice. Think of it as a working document — you can build it up, edit it, and review it before committing to send it to the partner. Nothing is sent or finalised until you explicitly choose to do so.
To create a new draft:
- On the Invoice list page, click the Create button (top right).
- The Create Draft Invoice popup opens.
- Type: This determines the category of invoice you are creating. Currently, the only available option is Booking, which means the invoice will be for booking-related charges.
- Currency: Select the currency you want to invoice in. The dropdown shows all currencies for which your property has an active balance.
- Partner: Search for the partner you want to invoice. You can search by partner name or partner code.
- Click Cancel at any time to close the popup without creating anything.
- Once you have selected a partner, the Create button (Field 5) becomes active. Click it to generate the draft.
3.2.1 What Gets Created
When you click Create, the system does several things automatically:
- A new row appears on the invoice list, the creation date is recorded based on your Master account timezone
- A unique Draft Invoice ID is assigned in this format:
INV-[PropertyID]-DRAFT-[ProgressiveNumber]-
Example:
INV-HTL112.1-DRAFT-112
-
Example:
- The DUE column shows
---until a due date is configured
3.2.2 Reference Fields
These fields provide important contextual and legal information that links the invoice to specific agreements and configurations:
3.2.3 Invoice Timeline and Event Log
Every invoice has a running timeline that records a history of every significant action taken — from creation through to payment. This gives you full visibility and an audit trail at all times.
The timeline lives on the Manage Invoice page. Each entry shows:
- A descriptive sentence explaining what happened (e.g., "The invoice has been submitted for approval")
- The date, month, year, and time of the event, based on the Master account GMT
- The IP address of the user or system that triggered the event
- A map icon that, when clicked, opens the Location Details side panel
3.3 Edit your draft invoices
This is where you do all the detailed work on the invoice — setting billing information, choosing a due date, adding line items, and ultimately sending it.
- Clicking on any invoice row in the list opens the Manage Draft Invoice page.
3.3.1 Billing and Address Information
The Customer field on the invoice are pulled automatically from the partner's account data. They can display different information depending on what you need. This is useful because different partners or billing scenarios may call for showing the partner ID, the trading name, or the legal company name.
- Click the toggle icon next to the field to cycle between three display options:
- Customer ID — Shows the Partner's unique ID in the system.
- Customer Name — Shows the Partner's trading name.
- Billing Name — Shows the Company Legal Name as stored in Setting → Account → Business Details
This setting only affects how the customer is displayed on the manage page and the invoice PDF — it does not change who the invoice is addressed to
3.3.2 Setting the Due Date
The due date tells the partner when payment is expected.
| Option | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Same Day | Payment is due on the same day the invoice is issued |
| Day After | Payment is due the day after the invoice date |
| 7 Days | Payment is due 7 days after the invoice date |
| 14 Days, 30 Days, etc. | Payment is due the specified number of days after the invoice date |
| Custom |
You manually choose a specific due date When Custom is selected, a calendar appears directly on the page. The default selection is today's date, based on the Master account GMT. Adjust it as needed. |
3.3.3 Editing recipient and currency
If you need to change the partner or currency after creating the draft, you can do so at any point while the invoice is still in Draft status.
- Click the Edit button (Point 23) on the Manage Invoice page.
- The Edit Draft Invoice popup opens, showing the current selections pre-filled.
- Update Currency and/or Partner as needed.
- Click Update to apply your changes — this button only becomes active if you have actually changed something.
After saving, the Last Updated timestamp (Point 5) will refresh to reflect the time of the edit.
3.3.4 Delete drafts
If you no longer need a draft, you can delete it. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
- On the Manage Draft Invoice page, click the Delete button.
- A confirmation popup appears asking you to confirm the deletion.
-
Click Confirm to permanently delete the draft. You will be returned to the Invoice list.
Important: Deleting a draft does not reset the progressive ID counter. The next draft you create will carry on from the next number in the sequence.
-
3.4 Line Items
3.4.1 Adding line items
Line items are the individual booking charges that make up the invoice. Until at least one line item is added, the invoice amount stays at 0.00 and you cannot preview or send the invoice.
- On the Manage Draft Invoice page, click the Add Item button.
- The Add Invoice Items popup opens.
- Booking ID Enter the booking reference this charge relates to, maximum of 150 characters.
-
Number of Guests Use the selector to enter the number of guests for this booking, maximum of 999.
- If the number of guests is not relevant for this charge, leave the default selection of NA.
-
Check-in Date: You can choose any date from 5 years in the past up to 2 years in the future.
- If there is no check-in date to specify (for example, for a flat-rate or non-stay charge), tick the checkbox to disable the calendar and leave the date blank.
-
Number of Nights: Select the number of nights for this booking, maximum 999.
- If this field is not applicable, leave as NA.
- Amount Before Tax: Enter the gross booking amount before any taxes are applied.
-
Rate Select the rate category for this booking from:
1/1(No split rates),1/2, or2/2.
- Click Add (H) to save the line item and add it to the invoice table.
Once at least one line item exists in the table, two important buttons on the main page become active:
-
↓ Invoice PDF — Lets you generate and view the invoice as it will look when sent
The issue date on the PDF is dynamic while the invoice is in Draft — it reflects the date you opened the preview. It only becomes fixed to a permanent date once the invoice is finalised and sent.
- Send Invoice — Lets you finalise and send the invoice to the partner
These buttons remain disabled if the table is empty, so always ensure you have added your line items before trying to proceed.
3.4.2 Taxes calculations
When you add a line item, the system automatically calculates several values for you based on the amount you entered and the tax configuration set up in Setup → Property → Taxes (Payable rows only).
Below the line items, you will see running totals that aggregate across all rows. These update automatically every time you add, edit, or remove a line item:
| Point | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Subtotal | The sum of all rows' Amount After Tax values |
| Tax breakdown rows |
One row per tax type, showing:
|
| Total | Full Invoice amount, after tax |
| Amount paid | Starts at 0.00 — updated when payments are recorded against the invoice |
| Balance Due | Total minus amount paid |
How taxes are calculated:
The system looks at all tax rows in Setup → Property → Taxes that are designated as Payable and applies each one as a percentage of the Amount Before Tax.
For example, if Before Taxes amount = 120.00 and there are three different tax rows configured:
City Tax 15% → 120.00 × 15% = 18.00 Resort Fee 10% → 120.00 × 10% = 12.00 Cleaning Fee 12% → 120.00 × 12% = 14.40 Total Tax = 44.40 Amount After Tax = 164.40
3.4.3 Editing or Deleting a Line Item
You can modify or remove any line item at any time while the invoice is still in Draft status. Once an invoice is Finalised, the items table is locked and cannot be edited.
- Click the action icon on the right side of any line item row.
- A small menu appears with two options:
- Delete: Removes the line item immediately from the table.
- Edit: Opens the Edit Invoice Items popup, similar to when you're adding items
3.5 Sending the Invoice
When you are satisfied with the draft and ready to send it to the partner, use the Send Invoice button. This is a significant action — it moves the invoice out of draft and into the active invoicing process.
- Click Finalise
- A confirmation popup appears asking you to confirm. Click Finalise to proceed.
What happens immediately:
- The invoice is assigned a permanent Invoice ID, replacing the Draft ID. This new ID uses the format:
INV-[PropertyID]-[ProgressiveNumber]-
Example:
INV-HTL123.1-112
-
Example:
- The invoice status and next steps depend on the Approval settings configured for your property
An example of the invoice after finalising:
3.6 Understanding the Approval Process
Before an invoice reaches the partner, it may need to go through an internal approval process. This is controlled by the rules that you have set in Setting → Approval → Sales.
When you send an invoice, the system automatically checks which approval path applies. There are three possible paths:
3.6.1 Path A — No Approval Required
If no approval is required, the invoice skips the approval stage entirely and is sent to the partner immediately.
The invoice status changes based on the due date:
| Scenario | Status Assigned |
|---|---|
| Due date has already passed (based on Master account GMT) | Overdue — shown with a red tag |
| Due date is in the future | Outstanding — shown with an azure/teal tag |
3.6.2 Path B — All Approvers Can Approve
If this option All Approvers Can Approve is selected, the invoice must be approved by at least one approver before it is sent. All listed approvers have equal authority — any single approver can approve the invoice.
Approval process for invoices:
- The invoice status changes to Under Approval
- The invoice timeline is updated with: "Invoice currently under approval" and the date/time of submission
- Notifications will be sent to each approver
- If the email notification option is enabled, an approval request email is sent to all approvers from
noreply@paydocker.com, subject: Transaction Approval Request - Each approver receives an in-app notification: "Your approval is required for the transaction ID [ID]"
- All approvers are listed in the Approvers table on the Manage Invoice page, each with a status of Pending and a level of NA (since all approvers are equal in this mode)
The Remind button: While an approver's status is Pending, a Remind button appears on their row. Clicking it resends the approval notification and email (if enabled) to that approver and updates the Last Reminder date in the table.
- If the email notification option is enabled, an approval request email is sent to all approvers from
3.6.3 Path C — Multi-Level Approval
This path works identically to Path B, with one key difference: instead of sending approval requests to all approvers at once, requests are sent one level at a time, starting from the highest level number.
Example with three levels configured:
Level 3 approver receives the request first → Once Level 3 approves → Level 2 approver receives the request → Once Level 2 approves → Level 1 approver receives the request → Once Level 1 approves → Invoice is released to the partner
This creates a structured sign-off chain, ensuring senior approvers review first before the request cascades down.
3.7 Additional Invoice Actions (Outstanding / Overdue)
Once an invoice reaches Outstanding or Overdue status, two additional action buttons become available:
-
Regenerate PDF: Generates a fresh copy of the invoice PDF at any time. Useful if you need to resend the PDF manually or keep an updated copy for your records.
-
Send Invoice by Email: Opens a popup that lets you manually send the invoice PDF to specific email addresses. This is useful for chasing payment or sharing the invoice with additional contacts.
- Click Send Invoice
- Fill in the send invoice instructional pop-up
- Enter up to 10 email addresses in the To field (Points 1–2) and up to 10 more in the CC field (Point 3).
- Click Send invoice to send the email — this button only becomes active when there is at least one valid address in the To field and all entered addresses (in both To and CC) are in a valid format
3.8 Comments
You can add internal comments to any invoice at any stage. Comments are a great way to leave notes for colleagues, document decisions, or track communications related to the invoice — all in one place.
- On the Manage Invoice page, click the Add Comment button.
- The Add Comment popup opens.
| Field | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Message | Type your comment — up to 1,000 characters. Any text is accepted. |
|
File attachment (Optional) |
Click the upload icon to attach a file. Accepted formats: PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG. Maximum size: 5 MB. |
| Preview attachment (Optional) | Appears only when a file is attached. |
| Submit button | Only becomes active when at least 2 characters have been entered in the message field. |
Editing a comment: The edit icon is only visible when you are logged in as the operator who wrote the comment. Clicking it opens an edit popup with the existing message and attachment pre-loaded.
Deleting a comment: The delete icon is also only visible to the comment's original author. Clicking it removes the comment immediately — there is no additional confirmation step, so take care before deleting.
4. Suspended Invoices
An invoice can change status from Draft to Suspended if one or more of the eligibility conditions that were met at creation time are no longer satisfied. This is an automatic system check — you do not trigger it manually.
The three conditions checked are:
- Partnership status (Partners → Connect → Booking) must remain Completed
- Setup status (Partners → Setup → Booking) must remain Completed
- Account setting status must remain Completed
What you will see when an invoice is Suspended:
- The Send Invoice and Preview PDF buttons are both disabled
- The status badge changes to Suspended
- An information icon appears next to the status badge — hover over it to see the specific reason(s) for suspension:
| Root Cause | Message Displayed |
|---|---|
| Partnership status issue | Status Partnership issue |
| Setup status issue | Status Setup issue |
| Account setting issue | Account Setup issue |
If more than one condition has failed, all relevant messages are shown on separate lines.
To resolve a suspension: Go to the relevant section(s) shown in the tooltip and restore the status to Completed. Once all three conditions are met again, the invoice will automatically return to Draft status and the action buttons will be re-enabled. You do not need to recreate the invoice.
5. Troubleshooting & Edge Cases
| Issue | Likely Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Partner not appearing in the search field when creating a draft | One or more of the three eligibility conditions is not met: Partnership status, Setup status, or Account setting status is not Completed | Go to Partners → Connect → Booking, Partners → Setup → Booking, and Setting → Account to verify all statuses are Completed. All three must be Completed simultaneously for the partner to appear |
| Send Invoice and Preview PDF buttons are greyed out | Either no line items have been added to the invoice, or the invoice is in Suspended status | Add at least one valid line item to enable the buttons, or resolve the suspension issue. |
| Invoice status changed to Suspended unexpectedly after it was created | A partner's connection, setup, or account status changed after the draft was created — the system detected the condition is no longer met | Hover over the information icon next to the Suspended status to see which condition(s) failed. Navigate to the indicated section(s) and restore the status to Completed |
| Create button in the Create Draft Invoice popup remains greyed out | No partner has been selected in the button requires a partner selection to activate | Use the search field to find and select a partner before attempting to click Create |
| Currency symbol or name is not displaying correctly on the invoice | The currency may have been changed via the Edit popup but the display has not updated | Confirm the edit was saved successfully (the Last Updated timestamp should have changed). If the issue persists, try refreshing the page |
| An approver is not receiving email notifications | The email notification checkbox (Point 5 in Setting → Approval → Sales) is not enabled for this property | Go to Setting → Approval → Sales and enable the email notification option. Note that in-app notifications are always sent regardless of this setting |
| Invoice is stuck in Under Approval and nothing is happening | An approver has not yet acted on their request, or an approver has set the status to Update Request and is waiting for changes | Check the Approvers table on the Manage Invoice page. If an approver's status is Pending, use the Remind button to resend their notification. If the status is Update Request, make the requested changes and click Notify Update to resubmit |
| Progressive ID counter appears to have skipped a number | A draft was created and then deleted — deleted drafts consume their assigned ID number permanently | This is expected and correct behaviour. The counter only moves forward and is never reset by deletions. There is no way to recover a skipped number |
| The issue date on the PDF preview keeps changing | While the invoice is still in Draft, the issue date on the PDF reflects the date of each new preview — it is not fixed yet | This is by design. The issue date becomes permanently fixed only when the invoice is finalised and sent. Preview the PDF as many times as needed; the date will lock when you confirm sending |
6. FAQs
Q1: Can I change the partner or currency after a draft invoice has already been created?
Yes — you can update both fields at any point while the invoice is still in Draft status. Open the Manage Draft Invoice page and click the Edit button. In the popup that appears, you can change the currency and/or the partner. Keep in mind that changing the partner will refresh all billing details, address information, Terms ID, and Model ID.
Q2: What is the difference between the Draft ID and the final Invoice ID, and why do they look different?
When you first create a draft, the system assigns a temporary Draft ID in the format INV-[PropertyID]-DRAFT-[ProgressiveNumber] (e.g., INV-HTL112.1-DRAFT-112). This ID has its own counter that tracks only draft documents for a specific partner. When you confirm sending the invoice, a permanent Invoice ID is generated in the format INV-[PropertyID]-[ProgressiveNumber] (e.g., INV-HTL123.1-112) — this uses a separate counter specific to the Property ID. The two counters are independent, which is why the numbers may not match. This separation allows the system to track how many drafts were created versus how many invoices were actually finalised.
Q3: If I delete a draft and create a new one for the same partner, will the ID numbers reset?
No — ID counters never reset. Deleting a draft permanently consumes its assigned number. The next draft you create for that partner will carry the next available number in the sequence. This is intentional, as it ensures every ID is unique and there are no gaps or overlaps that could cause confusion in your records.