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

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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 created as a flat amount or itemized and can be partially or fully paid.

To get started, select a job and navigate to Invoices from the Financial dropdown.

Click + Invoice to create a new invoice.

Enter key details such as Title, Due Date, Payment terms, Client Pricing, and more. When finished, click Save.

 

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• Title – Add a clear, descriptive title to easily identify the Invoice.
• ID # – Buildertrend automatically generates a numerical ID. If Continuous ID / number across all jobs is enabled, invoice IDs follow the company-wide numbering sequence. You can also enter a custom invoice number to match your internal tracking system.
• Due Date – Set when payment is due by choosing a specific date or linking the Invoice to a Schedule Item.
• Choose Date – Select a specific date the Invoice payment is due.
• Payment Terms – Set payment terms, such as Net 30, to automatically calculate the Due Date based on when the Invoice is sent.
• Link to Schedule Item – Link the Invoice Due Date to a Schedule Item so payment is due based on the timing of that item.

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Client Price Fields

• Taxes – Apply a Tax Rate to the Invoice when applicable. For Line Item Invoices, tax is applied only to items marked as Taxable. For Flat Fee Invoices, the selected Tax Rate applies to the entire amount.

• Flat Fee vs Line Items – Choose whether to enter a single, unitemized Invoice amount using Flat Fee or itemize individual charges using Line Items.
• Payment History – View payments applied to the Invoice, including payment dates, amounts, and payment methods.

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Additional Information Fields

• Invoice Description – Add a description or additional details about the Invoice that will be visible to the client.
• Internal Notes – Add information for your internal team that is not visible to the client.
• Attachments – Add supporting files or create a new Word or Excel document directly within the Invoice.

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If using Line Items, click + Item to manually enter 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.

 

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If using Line Items, you can pull existing cost data directly into the invoice from other job features.

Use Add From to pull costs in from:

• Estimate
• Change Orders
• Bills
• Selections
• Time Clock entries
• 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 – If there are Bills, Time Clock Shifts, and QuickBooks Costs that have yet to be invoiced, they will appear in a menu option called Costs.

 

• • Filtering your Bills and Time Clock entries by date ranges will allow you to invoice these items by project completion phases.

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.

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.

  
  

 

 

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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 an invoice, navigate to the 'Add From' dropdown and select Costs.

This view shows a consolidated list of costs that have yet to be invoiced. This includes Bills, Time Clock shifts (must be approved), and Accounting Costs. If a cost type doesn’t appear, that means there are no outstanding costs of that type.

Functionality highlights:

• The date range picker filters cost records in the following way:

  • The invoice date of the bill

  • The shift date of approved time clock shifts

  • The QuickBooks cost entry date

• The Record Type filter allows you to only display costs of a specific type

• If not auto-populating markup (see Auto-Populating Markup on Open Book Jobs section above), the % markup field is editable at the line item level from this view.

Once costs are selected, % Markup can be applied in bulk directly on the invoice.

Bills pulled in this way will be linked to the Invoice, allowing you to see the related Invoice directly from the bill.

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Payment 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 Payment Schedule on a job-by-job basis from either the Job Details or directly within the Invoice dashboard.

To get started, navigate to Company Settings → Invoices → Payment schedule or the Invoices feature for the specific job, then click + Payment schedule to create your Payment 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. You also have the ability to link each draw to a schedule item, automatically creating Invoice dates for every draw. When finished, click Save.

Once your estimate is finalized and sent to the budget, Buildertrend will automatically create draft invoices based on your Payment Schedule. These drafts can be accessed from the Invoice dashboard.

You have the ability to share the Payment Schedule with your Client if you would like to let them know when you are expecting payment throughout the build. Once the Payment Schedule is created, click Payment Schedule again.

Then, click Share on the Payment Schedule window that appears. Your Client can then review the schedule within their Client Portal.

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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 showing Line Items on the invoice, you can Combine line items by cost code to give your client a summarized view without fully itemizing the invoice. 

Click Save to save your preferences once you've made your formatting selections.

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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. 

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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!

  • When a client pays an invoice online through Client Payments, funds settle to your bank account in 3-5 business days. 
  • Processing fees:
    • Card payments (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Apple Pay and Google Pay) – 2.99% per transaction. American Express is not accepted.)
    • ACH bank transfers – $15 flat per transaction 
    • You can choose to pass processing fees on to your client. Inbound payment limits are $120,000 per transaction and $120,000 per month. 

• 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.

 

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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, and so on), Client Payments, or payments completed in Quickbooks.

Click View Details for Date Paid, Payment Method and the user who received payment.

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