Invoicing Setup
Before creating your first estimate or invoice, you need to configure three things: your invoice settings, tax rates, and product catalog.
Invoice Settings
Invoice settings control the branding and defaults used on all your documents.
You must configure at least your business name and email address before creating any estimates or invoices. The system will block document creation until these are set.
Required Fields
- Name — your business name, displayed on all PDFs and emails
- Email — contact email shown on documents and used as the reply-to address
Optional Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Logo | Your business logo for PDFs and emails |
| Address | Business address shown on documents |
| Reply-to Email | Where customer replies are sent (defaults to your main email) |
| Default Terms | Standard payment terms, e.g., “Net 30” |
| Default Payment Instructions | Instructions shown on invoices, e.g., “Make checks payable to…” |
| Footer Templates | Reusable footer text you can attach to documents |
| Disclaimer Templates | Reusable legal disclaimers you can attach to documents |
Estimate and invoice numbers are auto-incremented. You can set the starting number in settings if you need to continue from an existing sequence.
Tax Rates
Tax rates define the taxes applied to your products and services. You can create multiple rates for different locations and product categories.
Creating a Tax Rate
Each tax rate has a name, percentage rate, and optional scoping:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Display name, e.g., “NM Sales Tax” |
| Rate | Percentage, e.g., 7.65 |
| Country | Optional — limit to a specific country (e.g., “US”) |
| State | Optional — limit to a specific state (e.g., “NM”) |
| Tax Category | Optional — limit to a specific product category |
If you omit country, state, and tax category, the rate acts as a universal fallback.
Tax Categories
Products are assigned a tax category that determines which rates apply:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Tangible Goods | Physical products, equipment, merchandise |
| Services | Consulting, professional services, labor |
| Digital Products | Downloads, ebooks, software licenses |
| Digital Services | SaaS, subscriptions, hosting |
| Food (Unprepared) | Groceries, raw ingredients |
| Food (Prepared) | Ready-to-eat meals, catering |
| Clothing | Apparel |
| Non-taxable | Exempt items |
How Tax Rates Are Applied
When calculating taxes on an item, the system follows this priority:
- If the product is marked not taxable — no tax is applied
- If the product has specific tax rates assigned — those rates are used
- Otherwise, the system matches by country + state, filtered by the product’s tax category
- Falls back to country-only rates, then default rates from your settings
This means you can set different rates for goods vs. services in the same state. For example, 7.65% on tangible goods and 5% on services in New Mexico.
Default Tax Rates
You can set default tax rates in your invoice settings. These are automatically applied to all new taxable products unless overridden.
Product Catalog
Products are the line items you add to estimates and invoices. Organizing them into a catalog saves time when building documents.
Product Hierarchy
Products are organized in three levels:
- Group — top-level category (e.g., “Catering”)
- Sub Group — subdivision (e.g., “Wedding Packages”)
- Product — individual item (e.g., “Standard Package - 20 Guests”)
Groups and sub groups are optional — you can create standalone products without categorizing them.
Product Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Product name shown on documents |
| Description | Optional details shown below the product name |
| Price | Unit price charged to the customer |
| Cost | Your cost (used for margin calculation, not shown to customers) |
| Taxable | Whether tax applies to this product |
| Tax Category | Determines which tax rates apply (default: Tangible Goods) |
| Tax Rates | Override — assign specific tax rates instead of auto-matching |
When you add a product to an estimate or invoice, the name, description, and price are auto-filled. You can still adjust the price and quantity per document.