Recurring Invoices - Bill Retainers and Memberships on Schedule

Learn how to bill retainer clients, monthly memberships and ongoing services in ClientFlow. Set the schedule once, and the next invoice is drafted for you every period, ready for you to send.

Read this first: ClientFlow is not a payment processor and never moves your client's money. It does not hold your clients' cards and it cannot charge them. What it automates is the paperwork and the chasing: drafting each invoice on schedule for you to send, marking sent invoices overdue, and sending the reminder ladder until you record the payment.

Introduction

Retainers and memberships are the backbone of predictable revenue, and almost all of the work in them is repetition. Ongoing coaching, a monthly retainer, a weekly class block: same client, same amount, same day of the month, every month. A recurring invoice takes that repetition off your desk.

You create the invoice once and describe the pattern. From then on ClientFlow drafts the next one on time; you check it and send it, and ClientFlow follows up when it goes unpaid. You stay in control of the money itself.

Pro Tip: Recurring invoices are available on every plan, the same as ordinary one-off invoices.

How Often You Can Bill

A recurring invoice repeats on one of three frequencies, and you can space it out by repeating every N periods:

Frequency	With an interval of…	Best for
Weekly	1 = every week, 2 = every other week	Weekly sessions, class blocks
Monthly	1 = every month, 3 = quarterly	Memberships, coaching, retainers
Yearly	1 = every year	Annual plans, yearly service contracts

Step 1: Create the Invoice

A recurring invoice starts life as an ordinary one, so build the first one exactly as you want every copy to look:

Go to Invoices and click Create Invoice
Choose the client
Add your line items, quantities and prices
Set the tax rate and any discount
Set the due date of this first invoice — its reminder ladder counts from it

Step 2: Set the Schedule

On the same form, turn on Make this a recurring invoice, then describe the pattern:

Pick the frequency: weekly, monthly or yearly
Set the interval — every 1 month, every 3 months, and so on
Choose when it stops:
- Never — a new draft every period with no end date; cancel any draft you do not need
- After N occurrences — for a fixed engagement, such as a 12-session block; the count is of the invoices generated after the original
- Until a date — for a contract with an end date
Save the invoice

The schedule is fixed when you create the invoice: frequency, interval and the end condition cannot be edited afterwards, so set them with care.

Pro Tip: The series counts from the day you create the original invoice, so create it on the day of the month you want each invoice to fall due. You are not charging your client, you are asking, so the timing of the ask does real work.

Step 3: What Happens on Schedule

Once the series is running, ClientFlow does two things without you:

Drafts the next invoice. A scheduled job runs every night and creates any invoice that has come due, as a draft that is due on its scheduled day, linked back to the original so the series stays together.
Marks it overdue. A second nightly job flags any sent invoice that has passed its due date without being fully paid.

Sending is yours: open the draft, check it, and send it by email and/or WhatsApp. It goes out in your client's own language, from the email account you connected. A draft is never sent on its own, and never enters the reminder ladder.

Everything after that is a reminder, never a charge.

Step 4: When an Invoice Goes Unpaid

Unpaid invoices enter a four-step reminder ladder. Each step is measured in days past the due date, and each one sends the client a message by email, and by WhatsApp too when the client has a phone number and you have connected your own WhatsApp Business number:

Step	Days past due	Tone
1	3 days	Gentle reminder
2	7 days	Firm reminder
3	14 days	Urgent notice
4	30 days	Final notice

The ladder never sends two messages within two days of each other, and it stops at step four. It also stops the moment you record the payment, and you can pause it on any individual invoice when a client has told you the money is coming.

Important: Nothing is withdrawn and nothing is switched off. ClientFlow has no ability to take money from your client or to restrict what they can access. When an invoice stays unpaid past the final notice, the next step is yours to take.

Step 5: Adjust or End the Series

Every generated invoice is a draft you control. Open it before you send it to change the amount, line items, due date or notes. A change to one draft applies to that invoice only; the next draft is built from the original again. Invoices already sent stay exactly as your client received them, which is what keeps your records defensible.

There is no switch to stop a series early. An invoice you do not want can be cancelled: a cancelled draft is never sent and never enters the reminder ladder. Anything already sent and unpaid stays open and keeps its reminder ladder, because the client still owes it.

Recording the Payment

When the money arrives — bank transfer, cash, card machine, however you take it — record it against the invoice. A partial payment is fine; the invoice tracks the amount paid and the amount still due, and the reminder ladder works from the remainder.

Recording the payment is the step that closes the loop. Until you do it, ClientFlow has no way of knowing the invoice was settled and will keep chasing.

What ClientFlow Does Not Do

Stated plainly, so you never plan around a feature that is not here:

It does not charge your clients' cards. There is no card on file for your clients and no way to collect from them inside ClientFlow.
It does not retry a failed payment, because it never attempted one.
It does not prorate a mid-series change. Edit the next draft before you send it if you need to adjust an amount.
It does not give your clients a self-service subscription portal where they can pause or cancel their own billing. They ask you, and you adjust or cancel the next draft.
It does not restrict a client's access when they fall behind. That is your call to make and your action to take.

Common Questions

Q: Can I change the amount partway through a series?
A: Edit each draft before you send it. A change applies to that invoice only, because every draft is built from the original invoice, which cannot be edited once it has been sent. Invoices already sent are unchanged.

Q: Can I stop a series early?
A: There is no stop switch yet. Cancel each draft as it appears. Invoices you have already sent stay open and keep their reminders either way.

Q: Can my client pause their own subscription?
A: No. There is no client-facing billing portal. Your client asks you, and you adjust or cancel the next draft.

Q: Can I take card payments from clients through ClientFlow?
A: No. ClientFlow records what your clients have paid you; it does not collect it. Card payments in ClientFlow are for your own ClientFlow plan, not for your clients.

Q: Do recurring invoices work for retainers where the amount changes every month?
A: A recurring invoice repeats a fixed amount. For genuinely variable work, create each invoice from a template instead so you can set the amount each time.

Next Steps

Turn your largest retainer client into a recurring invoice first — it is the one that costs you most when you forget
Send each draft as soon as it appears: it is due on its scheduled day, so its reminder ladder starts counting from then
Record payments as they land, so the chasing stops for clients who have already paid
Review your overdue list weekly and decide which final notices need a human follow-up

Read time: ~8 minutes | Difficulty: Intermediate