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The Invoices tool makes creating, customizing and managing and invoices simple for both your team and your clients. Quickly notify your clients of upcoming or outstanding invoices via email, or if they're active, the Client Portal. Create simple payment methods using Buildertrend Payments for the most integrated experience.
Invoice Overview Help Video
Generating an Invoice
Invoices can be created from scratch, or from other features in Buildertrend. Features such as General Items from your Estimate, Change Orders, approved Selection Choices, Bills and Purchase Orders; thus eliminating double entry.
Invoices can be a flat amount, or itemized, offering as much, or as little information as desired. Invoices can also be partially or fully paid.
Begin by selecting a Job, then navigate to Invoices from the Financial dropdown.
Click + Invoice to create a new Invoice for the job selected.
Create your Invoice by including key details such as Title, Due Date, Payment terms, Client Pricing, and more. When finished, click Save.
Invoice Fields
Invoice Information Fields
Title – Explanation of the invoice to quickly identify the proper invoice
ID # – Buildertrend automatically generates a numerical ID, but you can enter a custom Invoice number to match your internal tracking system.
Due Date – Set a specific date or link the Invoice to a schedule item for dynamic timing.
Choose Date – Pick a specific date for the invoice to be paid
Payment Terms – When manually choosing a date, you can specify when payment is expected by setting conditions such as "Net 30." When a term is selected, the Due Date will automatically populate based on the invoice send date and the chosen payment terms.
Link to Schedule Item – Allows you to link the deadline to a schedule item, indicating that the invoice should be paid by the end of said schedule item.
Client Price Fields
Taxes – Decide if you'd like to include integrated Taxes. If you are including taxes, you must select a Tax Rate.
If you are itemizing your invoice using Line Items, the tax rate will only apply to the invoice line items that have been marked as Taxable.
If you are invoicing a Flat Fee, the tax rate will apply to the entire amount.
For more information on Taxes:
If you are not integrated to an accounting software, review this article.
If you are integrated with QuickBooks Online, review this article.
If you are integrated with Xero, review the Invoice options dropdown in this article.
Flat Fee vs Line Items – When creating your invoice, determine if you would like to itemize your costs using Line Items or create an unitemized Flat Fee.
Payment History – A record of all payments applied to the invoice, showing dates, amounts, and payment methods.
Additional Information Fields
Invoice Description – A visible field where you can include a summary or details of the invoice contents, which the client will see.
Internal Notes – A private field for your team to record additional context or information about the invoice. Not visible to clients.
Attachments – Add supporting files or create a new Word/Excel document directly within the Invoice.
Adding Invoice Costs from Scratch
If Line Items is selected as your pricing method, you can manually add custom line items by clicking + Item and entering the details for each cost.
This is ideal for adding one-off charges or unique services that aren't already recorded elsewhere in the project.
Adding Invoice Costs from Existing Features
If Line Items is selected as your pricing method, you can pull existing cost data directly into the invoice from other job features, including your Estimate, Change Orders, Bills, Selections, Time Shifts, and QuickBooks Costs.
The recommended workflow for adding invoice costs depends on your job's contract type.
Fixed Price Jobs – Adding from Estimate and Selections allows you to track items you've invoiced to ensure you stay within the set contract price established. Adding from Change Orders will allow you to account for all deviations from the contract price.
Open Book Jobs – Adding from Bills, Time Clock, and QuickBooks Costs allows you to invoice all costs incurred during the build as well as the time spent by your team.
Filtering your Bills and Time Clock entries by date ranges will allow you to invoice these items by project completion phases.
The following screenshots show how to add invoice costs from the Estimate, but the same steps apply when using any Add From option.
When building out your invoice, you can add in Line Item(s) directly from the Estimate by clicking the Add From dropdown and selecting Estimates.
Use the multi-select checkboxes to select the estimate Line Item(s) you want to include on the invoice.
Once you have selected the Line Item(s), indicate what percentage of the line item(s) cost you want to apply to the invoice and click Apply.
Click Add Line Items to Invoice to include the (percentage of) selected estimate line items to the invoice.
‼️ Notes ‼️
Add From: Selections – Selection choice costs will be added, not the full Allowance amount.
Add From: Time Clock – Only APPROVED time entries can be invoiced.
In order to invoice time clock entries, you will need to to assign employee labor rates.
Add From: Bills – Only PAID Bills can be invoiced.
Add From: QuickBooks Costs – To invoice QuickBooks costs, the setting Include costs entered in QuickBooks in the budget must be enabled for the job.
For more information on how to pull in expenses from QuickBooks Online, review the Budget: QuickBooks Costs section of this article.
For more information on how to add QuickBooks expenses to your invoice, review the Invoices section of this article.
Functionality Specific to Open Book Jobs
Auto-Populating Markup on Open Book Jobs
When creating an invoice from scratch, any manual cost lines you add will automatically populate with markup, as long as your budget has already been populated using the Send to Budget option from the Estimate.
The markup applied depends on two scenarios:
Matching Estimate Data
If you manually add a cost line using a cost code and cost type combination that exists in the estimate (for example, Demolition and Labor), the markup will match the markup from that exact estimate combination.
No Estimate Match
If the cost code and cost type combination was not used on the estimate, the system will apply the default markup percentage assigned to that cost type in the Advanced Settings of the Job Details.
💡 Pro Tip
Hover over the Markup header to view a tooltip explaining how the markup was applied.
It will indicate whether the markup came from:
Matching Estimate Data
(same cost code and cost type)
No Estimate Match
Adding Outstanding Bills on Open Book Jobs
On Open Book jobs, you can quickly add Buildertrend Bills that have not yet been invoiced. This allows for fast, accurate billing by pulling in real project costs without manual entry. It's especially useful when passing through expenses to the client on a regular basis, helping to streamline the invoicing process and ensure no billable items are missed.
From a new invoice, click Give it a try within in the Save time on invoicing banner. If there are any bills that have not been invoiced, all line items from those bills will automatically be pulled into the invoice.
Adjust the markup on all line items by clicking Apply all after inputing a markup percentage in the Adjust % Markup field.
Bills pulled in this way will be linked to the Invoice, allowing you to see the related Invoice directly from the bill.
Note
Any Time Clock entries or QuickBooks expenses that have not been invoiced will not be added automatically. You can add those using the Add from dropdown.
The Add from: Bills workflow still exists, allowing you to select specific cost lines from bills not yet invoiced. This 'quick add' function is simply to expedite that process.
Functionality Specific to Fixed Price Jobs
Creating a Draw Schedule on Fixed Price Jobs
Draw Schedules are available for Fixed Price jobs and offer a structured way to manage payment timelines by dividing the total contract amount into scheduled draws. This helps align billing with project progress and supports consistent cash flow.
You can create or adjust a Draw Schedule on a job-by-job basis from either the Job Details or directly within the Invoice dashboard.
Alternatively, you can establish a default Draw Schedule for all new Fixed Price jobs at the account level by configuring it in Company Settings.
Click here for more information on creating an account default Draw Schedule.
To get started, navigate to either the Advanced Settings tab within the Job Details or the Invoice dashboard for the specific job, then click +Create Draw to create your draw schedule.
Next, enter the number of draws you want to create. For each draw, specify the percentage of the total contract amount and assign a title for the corresponding invoice. When finished, click Save.
Once your estimate is finalized and sent to the budget, Buildertrend will automatically create draft invoices based on your draw schedule. These drafts can be accessed from the Invoice dashboard.
Note
Buildertrend only creates the initial draft invoice. You will still need to:
Add a due date/payment terms or link the invoice to a schedule item.
Add any Change Orders or Selections that need to be invoiced from the Add from dropdown.
Send the invoice to your client.
Formatting the Invoice
Once you've created and saved your invoice, you can preview exactly what your client will see by clicking the ... icon and selecting Format & Preview.
To adjust your client's viewing options, expand the Show Edit Options at the top of the Client Preview page.
You can Hide Line Items from your client, which will prevent your client from seeing any form of itemization on the invoice.
If you choose to showcase Line Items on the invoice, use the dropdown box to add or remove fields to display.
When showcasing Line Items on the invoice, you can Combine line items by cost code to provide a high level of transparency while also not fully itemizing the invoice.
Click Save to save your preferences once you've made your formatting selections.
Sending the Invoice to Your Client
When you have created an invoice, ensuring that it is formatted to your preferred preferences, click Send to send the invoice to your client.
All clients on the job will be available to select to receive the invoice. Select the Email checkbox next to the client(s) you would like to receive an email notification that a new invoice has been sent, then click Send.
If there is no client associated with the Buildertrend job, you will be prompted to add one at this time.
You can search for an existing client using the search field then click Send Email.
You can create a new client by clicking the + icon. Once you fill out the client's information, click Send Email.
You can invite the newly created client to Buildertrend to use the Client Portal by checking the Invite to Buildertrend checkbox.
Note
Non-active Buildertrend customers will receive this invoice and be notified via email only.
Active customers will receive and be notified of this invoice through Buildertrend and via email.
Recording a Payment
Buildertrend provides three simple ways to record customer invoice payments:
Buildertrend Payments - this process is part of our Additional Services suite, allowing your clients convenient invoice payment through their Buildertrend Customer Portal. Click here to learn more!
Invoices marked as paid through QuickBooks or Xero.
Record offline payments via credit card, check, Buildertrend Credit Memo and other.
To manually update the invoice with payment information collected from a credit card, check, Buildertrend Credit Memo, or other, select Record payment.
Record the Date Paid, Payment Amount, Payment Method and indicate who received the payment on behalf of the company. Select Record Payment to save.
Next, choose to notify the client or not. Select Confirm.
To view all payments on an invoice, navigate back to the Invoice and expand the Payment History section.
Payment Method will reflect options chosen through Record Payment Offline (check, credit card, credit memo, etc.), Buildertrend Payment Processing, or payments completed on Quickbooks.
Click View Details for Date Paid, Payment Method and the user who received payment.
Interested in Learning More? 📚
The Buildertrend Learning Academy is your one-stop-shop for your online education, whether you're new to Buildertrend or an experienced user looking to learn more.
If you have any questions or require additional support, feel free to chat with us, send an email: support@buildertrend.com, or give us a call at 1-888-415-7149. We’re always happy to help.
Last Updated: 8.6.25