How to Create Recurring Invoices

Overview

Recurring invoices let you automatically generate and send invoices to your clients on a regular schedule — monthly, quarterly, or yearly. You can choose to simply send the invoice for manual payment, or enable AutoBill to charge their payment method automatically.

Creating a Recurring Profile

1. Go to Finance → Recurring from the left sidebar.
2. Click New Recurring Profile.
3. Fill in the profile details:
4. • Name — A description for this recurring charge (e.g., "Monthly SEO Retainer").
   • Type — Choose Invoice, Subscription, or Retainer depending on the nature of the service.
   • Contact / Company — Select the client this profile belongs to.
4. Set the billing schedule:
5. • Frequency — Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.
   • Day of Month — Which day each invoice should be generated (1–31).
   • Start Date — When the first invoice should be created.
   • End Date (optional) — Leave blank for ongoing billing, or set a date to stop generating invoices.
5. Add line items — Click Add Item for each service or product. Enter the description, quantity, and price.
6. Set the tax rate if applicable.
7. Choose your billing type:
8. • Send Invoice — The system creates and sends the invoice. Your client pays manually using the payment link.
   • AutoBill — The system automatically charges the client's saved payment method (credit card or ACH bank account). See How to Set Up Automatic Payments for setup instructions.
8. If you selected AutoBill, choose the Payment Gateway and the client's saved payment method.
9. Click Save.

What Happens Next

Once saved, SWELL will automatically:

• Generate an invoice on the scheduled day each period.
• If set to Send Invoice: email the invoice to your client with a secure payment link.
• If set to AutoBill: charge the client's payment method and mark the invoice as paid. If the charge fails, you'll receive a notification with the failure reason.

Managing Recurring Profiles

From the Finance → Recurring page, you can:

• Pause a profile — Temporarily stop invoice generation. You can add an optional reason.
• Resume a paused profile — Pick up where you left off.
• Edit — Change the amount, schedule, or billing type at any time.
• Deactivate — Toggle the profile off to permanently stop it.

Tips

• You'll receive in-app and email notifications when a recurring charge fails, so you can follow up with the client right away.
• All generated invoices appear in Finance → Invoices and are linked back to the recurring profile.
• To switch a client from manual payments to AutoBill, edit the recurring profile, change the billing type, and select their saved payment method.

Updated on: 02/10/2026