Automating recurring invoices: from manual work to 3 min/month

If you deliver subscriptions, service contracts, or SaaS, manually creating invoices every month is pure wasted time. Here's the setup that works — without paying €80/month for MRR software.

Manually creating 30 invoices every month takes 4–6 hours. Automated: 3 minutes to review. That's 40+ hours saved per year.

What should the tool be able to do?

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• Templates per customer subscription (price, frequency, description).
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• Scheduled creation: generate invoices on a fixed day of the month.
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• Automatic delivery by email.
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• Integration with payment methods (iDEAL link, SEPA direct debit).
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• Reporting on which invoices have been sent and which have been paid.
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Setting it up

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1. Per customer: activate the subscription with a start date, frequency (monthly/quarterly/annually), amount, and VAT.
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2. The scheduler runs daily and checks which subscriptions are due for a new invoice today.
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3. The invoice is generated and emailed.
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4. When a payment comes in (or an iDEAL click is registered): mark the invoice as paid.
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Review before sending: yes or no?

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• With < 10 subscriptions: no review, send immediately.
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• With 10–50: spot-check review of new or changed invoices.
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• With 50+: accountant sign-off each month.
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Important edge cases

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• Price change as of 1 January: test the pro-rata calculation.
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• Customer requests a pause (e.g. holiday): support for pause + auto-resume.
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• Customer cancels: end the subscription without generating one extra invoice.
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See also: payment reminders, direct debit vs manual invoicing.