# Invoices

How an invoice moves from the PM Queue to Paid, what is on the invoice form and its tabs, and how Invoice Export puts invoice lines into Excel.

Source: https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoices
Last updated: 2026-09-18

## Key Concepts

The **Invoices** list is where jobs are billed. The figures on an invoice also feed the Active Job Dashboard. Every invoice sits at one stage of its life, and the saved views along the top of the list are those stages.

- **The life of an invoice**: **PM Queue → Ticket Queue → Admin Queue → Processed → Paid**. A new invoice starts in the **PM Queue**. Once it is signed off it moves either to the **Ticket Queue**, if the job was set to **Ticket / Invoice**, or straight to the **Admin Queue**. The Admin Queue is where invoices are processed. Once processed they move to **Processed**, and the final step is setting the invoice to **Paid**, which moves it to the **Paid** view.
- **The stage views add up to All**: the stage views hold every invoice between them, and the **All** view is the whole set. **My Forms** is a personal filter that shows the invoices you created, not a stage; an invoice appears there as well as in whichever stage it has reached.
- **The Admin Queue and the Invoice Process Backlog are the same invoices**: the **Admin Queue** view shows them one card at a time, and the backlog shows the same set as a grid for exporting and processing in batches. See [Invoice Process Backlog](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoice_Process_Backlog).
- **The invoice type comes from the job**: whether an invoice passes through the Ticket Queue is decided by the job's **Invoice Type**, which is either **Invoice** or **Ticket / Invoice**. See [Job Setup](https://getjobbook.com/help/Job_Setup#invoice-type).
- **Who does what**: a Manager sees the same layout as an Administrator and follows the same steps, creating invoices included.

## Performing Common Tasks

### Opening the Invoices list

On the dashboard, in the **Invoices** card, click **Explore**.

![The Invoices card on the dashboard, with Explore marked](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoices-card-explore.DZTcAnCB.png)

*Explore holds every invoice, whatever stage it has reached. The Invoice Process Backlog on the Workflow card is only the ones waiting to be processed.*

The **Invoices** list opens with a strip of saved views along the top.

![The Invoices list on the Admin Queue view, showing the seven saved views, the toolbar and the first three cards](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoices-list-admin-queue.Dr8dODbg.png)

*The saved views are the stages of an invoice's life, in order, from PM Queue to Paid.*

- **PM Queue**: new invoices, waiting for a Representative Signature from the job's project manager.
- **Ticket Queue**: signed invoices for jobs set to **Ticket / Invoice**, on their way to the Admin Queue.
- **Admin Queue**: invoices waiting to be processed.
- **Processed**: invoices that have been processed and are waiting on payment.
- **Paid**: the final stage.
- **My Forms**: the invoices you created, whatever stage they have reached.
- **All**: every invoice you can see.

The rest of the screen is the same on every view:

- **Filter Settings** expands into a panel of filters for narrowing the view.
- The search box reads "Type and press Enter to search". Type into it and press Enter, or click **Search**, to narrow the view.
- **Create** opens a blank invoice and **Export to Excel** downloads the view. Both buttons appear above and below the cards.
- A view is paged fifty records at a time, with a link to the next page beside the record counter.
- Each card reads **Client:**, **Job Number:**, **Project Name:**, **Date:** and **Invoice #:**, or **Ticket #:** in the Ticket Queue. Click the card to open that invoice.

### Reviewing an invoice

Clicking a card opens the invoice's display view, which is read-only. The buttons above the record are **Edit**, **Export to PDF**, **Export to Word**, **Delete** and **Back**, which returns you to the list.

![The top of an invoice's display view, showing the five buttons and the header fields](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-display.DRtZDjNA.png)

*The invoice as it stands: nothing here changes until Edit.*

**Export to PDF** produces Job Book's standard invoice, which you can print or email to the client. **Export to Word** produces the same invoice as a Word document, so you can edit it by hand. A company that wants its invoice laid out its own way can ask Cyanic Automation for a template, and **Export to Word** then uses that instead.

Below the buttons is a blue info bar. It names the stage the invoice is in and what it needs before it can move on; the messages are quoted under [Moving an invoice to the next stage](#moving-an-invoice-to-the-next-stage).

The rest of the display view is the invoice itself: **Date:**, **Invoice Number:**, the **Job**, which is a link to the job, and **Invoice Contents:**, which lists the Daily Work Records (DWRs) billed on this invoice by number. Below those come the **Expenses:** table, **Other Info:**, the **Invoice Details:** tabs, **Terms & Conditions:**, **Totals:**, the signature, and the **Processed:**, **ACCT. PROGRAM REF:**, **Paid:** and **Notes:** fields that record where the invoice has got to.

### Creating an invoice

There are three ways in:

- On the dashboard, in the **Invoices** card, click **Create New**, then select the job.
- In the **Invoices** list, click **Create**.
- On the Active Job Dashboard, find the job in the grid and click its **Create Invoice** dollar icon.

![The Invoices card on the dashboard, with Create New marked](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoices-card.CIwZhQAC.png)

*Create New starts an invoice on any job; the job's billing type decides what the form offers next.*

The DWR Invoice Backlog is the other way to start a Time & Materials invoice: an Administrator turns approved DWRs into draft invoices in a batch, and each one lands in the **PM Queue** for the job's project manager to review. [Invoicing a Time & Materials Job](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoicing_a_Time_and_Materials_Job) walks through the backlog, and [Invoicing a Fixed Price Job](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoicing_a_Fixed_Price_Job) covers a lump-sum charge.

![The blank invoice create form with the Date and Job fields](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-create-blank.CPqvsnJG.png)

*Date and Job are all a new invoice needs to start; the job brings its line items, taxes and fees with it.*

- **Date:** required. It defaults to today's date.
- **Job (Selecting a job will allow entry of Invoice):** required. The field reads "Find a job..." until you choose one. Until a job is chosen there is nothing else on the form but **Save** and **Cancel**.

What the rest of the form offers depends on the job's **DWR Billing Type**. On a Time & Materials job, **Invoice Contents:** appears, with the job's DWRs waiting to be billed in **Available DWRs:**, the same ones the DWR Invoice Backlog holds for that job; adding them fills the **Labour Costs** and **Equipment and Materials** tabs exactly as the backlog would, or you can add rows on those tabs yourself. On a fixed price job there is no **Invoice Contents:** block, and the charge goes on the **Fixed Price** tab. The **Expenses:** table appears on either whenever the job has expenses.

### The invoice form

Once a job is picked, the rest of the form appears. The same form is what **Edit** opens on an invoice that already exists, so a draft generated from DWRs and an invoice you started by hand are reviewed in the same place.

![The top of the invoice edit form, showing Save and Cancel and the Date, Invoice Number, Job and Invoice Contents fields](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-header.D4rqo_0b.png)

*The head of the form ties the invoice to the job and to the DWRs it bills.*

**Date:** and the **Job** are as on the create form. Beside them:

- **Invoice Number:** assigned by Job Book when the invoice is first saved, which is why it is not on the blank create form. On the edit view it is a required field, and you can change it.
- **Invoice Contents:** on a Time & Materials job, this is where DWRs are attached to the invoice, on the create form and the edit view alike. **Available DWRs:** is a picker reading "Click here...", **Add Selected DWRs** moves your choices onto the invoice, and **Added DWRs:** lists the DWR numbers already on it. The display view shows the same block as a plain list of numbers.
- **Other Info:** free text that goes on the invoice.

Below those, **Invoice Details:** holds the tabs **Labour Costs**, **Equipment and Materials**, **Fixed Price**, **Unpriced**, **Job Details** and **Attachments**, in that order. **Save** and **Cancel** sit above and below the whole form and apply to all of it.

#### The Labour Costs tab

The **Labour Costs** tab lists the labour imported from DWRs on a Time & Materials invoice, one row per DWR line. The job's **Invoice Line Item Type** does not change that: a job set to **Summarized** combines the rows only on the exported invoice.

![The Labour Costs tab of the invoice form with one Labour Cost Line Item row open](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-labour-costs.DC-mSnQy.png)

*Adjust the quantity or rate to what you are billing. A change here touches only the invoice, never the DWR or payroll.*

Under **Labour Cost Line Items:**, each **Labour Cost Line Item:** row holds:

- **Cost Item:** the labour line item being billed.
- **Date:** required. The day the work was done.
- **Name:** required.
- **Unit:** required, such as HR.
- **Unit Cost ($):** required. The billing rate.
- **Quantity:** required. The hours or units being billed.
- **Amount:** calculated for you from the unit cost and the quantity; you cannot type in it.
- **Tax Exempt**: a checkbox on each row.
- **Employee Names:** who did the work.
- **Description:** required.

**Add** at the bottom of the tab opens another row, and the circled X beside a row removes it.

#### The Equipment and Materials tab

The **Equipment and Materials** tab works the same way, under the heading **Other Cost Line Items (Incidentals, Equipment, Materials):**.

![The Equipment and Materials tab of the invoice form with one Other Cost Line Item row open](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-equipment-and-materials.BKMmg_s9.png)

*Include Description on Invoice decides whether the client sees the note.*

An **Other Cost Line Item:** row has the labour row's fields without **Employee Names:**, and it adds one control the other tabs do not have:

- **Include Description on Invoice**: tick it to carry that row's description onto the invoice.

#### The Fixed Price tab

The **Fixed Price** tab is where a lump-sum charge goes.

![The Fixed Price tab of the invoice form with one Fixed Price Line Item row open](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-fixed-price.BFxtKWgU.png)

*Nothing arrives here from a DWR: a lump-sum charge is added by hand, on a fixed price job or as an extra on a Time & Materials invoice.*

A fixed price row has no **Date:** or **Employee Names:** field, and **Description:** is optional; the rest works as on the Labour Costs tab. Adding the charge is walked through on [Invoicing a Fixed Price Job](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoicing_a_Fixed_Price_Job#adding-the-fixed-price-charge).

#### The Unpriced tab

The **Unpriced** tab is for items you want the client to see without a charge against them: notes or explanations. Under **Line Items:**, click **Add** to insert an unpriced line item, click the new description field, and type the note, such as "survey control monuments left on site for your reference."

#### The Job Details tab

The **Job Details** tab is read-only. It shows the original job data, so you can check you are billing the right job before you send anything out.

![The Job Details tab of an invoice, showing the ten read-only fields copied from the job](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-job-details.DRQ-KfDQ.png)

*The invoice totals use the Taxes and Fees shown here; to change them, change the job.*

The fields are **Job Number:**, **Client:**, **Client Address:**, **Project Name:**, **Client Project #:**, **PO #:**, **Subcontract #:**, **Taxes:**, **Fees:** and **Additional Fields:**.

#### The Attachments tab

Attachments are for internal use. Click **Add** under **Attachments:** to upload a file.

#### Terms, totals and the signature

Below the tabs come the fields that apply to the whole invoice.

![The Terms & Conditions box, the Totals block and the Representative Signature buttons below the invoice form's tabs](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-form-totals-signature.CEiOariY.png)

*The signature is the project manager's sign-off that the charges are right, and it moves the invoice out of the PM Queue.*

- **Terms & Conditions:** the terms that print on this invoice's PDF. The box starts empty, and an empty box means no terms on the PDF. Contact Cyanic Automation to set default terms for your company; after that they print whenever the box is left empty, and anything you type here replaces them on this invoice.
- **Totals:** **Labour:**, **Other:** and **Fixed:** are a subtotal per section and each one updates automatically. **Total:** is the sum. On a fixed price job you can type over it to set a bottom-line figure of your own; on a Time & Materials invoice it is calculated and you cannot type in it.
- **Representative Signature:** this is where the job's project manager, or an Administrator, signs off on the invoice to confirm it has been reviewed and all charges are accurate. **Add My Signature** inserts your saved signature and fills in your name; **Collect Signature** takes a signature on the spot. Once a signature is on the invoice the buttons become **View** and **Delete**.
- **Representative:** names who signed.

Click **Save**.

### The Expenses table

When the job has expenses of its own, an **Expenses:** table appears on the invoice, between the **Job** field and **Other Info:**. It is a section of the form, not one of the Invoice Details tabs.

![The Expenses table on an invoice form, with a checkbox on the row and Date, Employee, Item, Amount, Status and Description columns](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-expenses-table.8JKhTvWk.png)

*Where an Administrator ticks the job's expenses Processed while the invoice is in hand.*

- The table has one row per expense, with columns **Date**, **Employee**, **Item**, **Amount**, **Status** and **Description**. The date on each row is a link to the expense itself.
- Each row carries a checkbox, and the header carries one that selects them all.
- The note above the table reads "Selected expenses will be considered 'processed' when saved."
- **Open in Window** sits above the table on the right.

Ticking a row and saving the invoice is how an expense is marked Processed. Ticking it does not bill it: the charge itself comes from the invoice's line items, so a staff expense the client is to pay for needs a Fixed Price or Equipment and Materials line item as well. It is not done from the Expense Approval Backlog, which only approves expenses. See [Expense Approval](https://getjobbook.com/help/Expense_Approval). On the display view the same table appears without checkboxes, under a note that reads, as the app has it, "The follow expenses are associated with this invoice."

### Moving an invoice to the next stage

The blue info bar at the top of the invoice tells you where it is and what it needs. Each stage is a checkbox or a signature on the form, so moving an invoice on means opening it, making that one change and saving.

![The Representative Signature, Representative, Processed, ACCT. PROGRAM REF, Paid and Notes fields at the foot of an invoice](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-status-fields.SNb91Bf_.png)

*Processed after the invoice has gone out, Paid when the money is in. ACCT. PROGRAM REF ties it to the accounting system.*

In the PM Queue, the bar says: "this invoice is in the PM Queue and needs a Representative Signature to proceed." Click **Edit**, review and adjust the line items, click **Add My Signature**, and click **Save**. The invoice leaves the PM Queue.

In the Ticket Queue, the bar says: "this invoice is in the Ticket Queue and needs the Client Approved Ticket checkbox to be checked to proceed." Only an invoice on a job whose **Invoice Type** is **Ticket / Invoice** stops here, and while it does, Job Book calls it a ticket: the list card reads **Ticket #:**, and the title over the record and the name of the exported file carry TICKET where an invoice has INV. **Export to PDF** produces the ticket itself: the hours and quantities without the money, and an **Approved by** line for the client to sign. Such an invoice carries one field the others do not: a **Client Approved Ticket** checkbox, between **Representative:** and **Processed:** at the foot of the form. It is where the client's approval of the ticket is recorded: click **Edit**, check **Client Approved Ticket**, and click **Save**. The invoice then moves on to the **Admin Queue**.

In the Admin Queue, the bar says: "this invoice is in the Admin Queue and needs the Processed checkbox to be checked for the invoice to be Processed." What happens first depends on your company's workflow: Job Book does not send invoices itself, so you might export the PDF and email it to the client, or export it to your accounting system. When that is done, click **Edit**, check the **Processed** checkbox, and, if your process includes importing invoices into accounting, record the accounting reference number in **ACCT. PROGRAM REF:** below it. That number links the accounting invoice back to Job Book. Click **Save**, and the invoice moves to the **Processed** view.

When an invoice reaches the Admin Queue it also appears in the [Invoice Process Backlog](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoice_Process_Backlog), where an Administrator exports invoices to the accounting system and processes them a batch at a time.

In Processed, the bar says: "this invoice is in Processed and needs the Paid checkbox to be checked for the invoice to be Paid." What happens after processing again depends on whether you track payments in Job Book: some of our customers do, others leave it to their accounting software. To record payment, click **Edit**, find the **Paid** checkbox at the bottom of the page, check it and click **Save**. The invoice moves to the **Paid** view.

To reverse the processing, edit the invoice, uncheck **Processed**, and save. The invoice returns to the Admin Queue.

**Notes:** sits below **Paid** and takes free text about the invoice at any stage.

### Exporting invoice lines by date range

The third link on the **Invoices** card puts invoice lines into Excel. On the dashboard, in the **Invoices** card, click **Invoice Export**.

![The Invoice Export screen with data loaded, showing the From and To dates, Load Data, Export to Excel and the twelve columns](https://getjobbook.com/_astro/invoice-export.CzU46A6I.png)

*One row per invoice line between the two dates, with its GL Code, for totalling in Excel.*

- **From:** and **To:** open on the last fourteen days. Set the range you want and click **Load Data**.
- The grid gives one row per invoice line item, with the columns **Job #**, **Client**, **Office**, **Invoice Number**, **Invoice Date**, **Line Item**, **GL Code**, **Tax %**, **Unit**, **Unit Cost**, **Quantity** and **Amount**.
- Each column header has a funnel icon for filtering, and the strip above the headers reads "Drag a column header and drop it here to group by that column". The funnel opens the Filter panel that [Report Grids](https://getjobbook.com/help/Report_Grids#filtering) describes, with the same operators, and sorting and grouping work as they do there. There is no column menu and no template toolbar here.
- **Export to Excel** downloads what the grid is showing.

**GL Code** is the line item's **Accounting Code**, set on the cost item itself under Administration to match the code your accounting system uses; see [Administration Settings](https://getjobbook.com/help/Administration_Settings#labour-cost-items).

Running Invoice Export changes nothing about the invoices. The file your accounting system imports comes from **Export Selected Invoices** on the [Invoice Process Backlog](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoice_Process_Backlog) instead.

### Best practices

- Administrators: check the DWR Invoice Backlog regularly, so that all approved DWRs become draft invoices.
- The job's project manager: review the **PM Queue** frequently so invoices do not wait there for a signature.
- Review invoices weekly so a wrong rate or a missing DWR is caught before the invoice reaches the client.

## Video

Watch the video: [Job Book How to Use Guide #11: Creating and Processing Invoices](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2S9femLKCg)

## Related Guides

- Invoices
- [Invoicing a Time & Materials Job](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoicing_a_Time_and_Materials_Job)
- [Invoicing a Fixed Price Job](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoicing_a_Fixed_Price_Job)
- [Invoice Process Backlog](https://getjobbook.com/help/Invoice_Process_Backlog)
- [Expense Approval](https://getjobbook.com/help/Expense_Approval)
- [DWR Entry](https://getjobbook.com/help/DWR_Entry)
- [Job Setup](https://getjobbook.com/help/Job_Setup)
- [Report Grids](https://getjobbook.com/help/Report_Grids)