Recurring invoices

Overview

With Monite, you can set up monthly recurring invoices to bill an entity’s customers the same amount every month. This is useful, for example, when implementing subscriptions or monthly service bills.

Recurring invoices can be issued on the first or last day of the month. They can be configured to be automatically sent to the predefined recipients.

Create a recurring invoice

1. Create a draft invoice

Start by creating the base invoice that will be used as the template for recurring invoices. You will need the invoice id for use in subsequent API calls. Keep this invoice in the draft status.

Verify the invoice data to make sure the invoice can be issued successfully.

2. Set up the recurrence

Next, configure the recurrence schedule for the base invoice. Call POST /recurrences and specify the base invoice ID, start month and year, end month and year, and the day of month (first or last) on which the recurring invoices will be issued.

To enable automatic invoice sending, also provide the recipients list and the subject_text and body_text for the email message.

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curl -X POST 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
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     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
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     -d '{
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       "invoice_id": "8beb7faa-6851-44c8-9fb9-24a94ca30343",
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       "start_month": 8,
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       "start_year": 2024,
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       "end_month": 10,
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       "end_year": 2024,
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       "day_of_month": "first_day",
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       // Include these to enable automatic sending
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       "subject_text": "New invoice #{invoice_number}",
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       "body_text": "Dear {contact_name},\n\nThank you for your business!\nPlease pay the balance of {amount_due} (invoice #{invoice_number}) by {due_date}.\n\nFor any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at {entity_email}. We look forward to serving you again and wish you all the best!",
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       "recipients": {
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         "to": ["customer@example.org"],
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         "cc": ["support@entity.example.com", "sales@entity.example.com"],
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         "bcc": ["exec@entity.example.com"]
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       }
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     }'

Notes:

• Months - start_month and end_month - are represented numerically, with 1 for January and 12 for December.

• end_month and end_year are required for the recurrence schedule. Currently, invoices cannot be infinitely recurring. However, you can extend a recurrence when it is reaching its end date.

• The first recurring invoice will be issued on the next matching date that follows the start date or the current date depending on whichever one comes later.

  For example, if the current date is September 8 and you create a recurrence with September as the start_month and day_of_month = “first_day”, the first recurring invoice will be issued on October 1. No invoice will be issued in September because September 1 has already passed.

When a recurrence schedule is created, the status of the base invoice is changed from "draft" to "recurring". Monite also calculates the scheduled issue dates for all instances of the recurring invoice, and returns these dates in the iterations list in the response from POST /recurrences:

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{
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  "id": "b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4",
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  "created_at": "2024-07-11T09:25:56.792883+00:00",
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  "updated_at": "2024-07-11T09:25:56.792892+00:00",
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  "invoice_id": "8beb7faa-6851-44c8-9fb9-24a94ca30343",
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  "start_month": 8,
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  "start_year": 2024,
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  "end_month": 10,
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  "end_year": 2024,
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  "day_of_month": "first_day",
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  "iterations": [
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    {
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      "issue_at": "2024-08-01",
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      "issued_invoice_id": null,
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      "status": "pending",
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      "iteration": 1
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    },
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    {
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      "issue_at": "2024-09-01",
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      "issued_invoice_id": null,
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      "status": "pending",
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      "iteration": 2
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    },
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    {
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      "issue_at": "2024-10-01",
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      "issued_invoice_id": null,
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      "status": "pending",
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      "iteration": 3
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    }
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  ],
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  ...
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  "status": "active",
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  "current_iteration": 1
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}

The issued_invoice_id fields in the iterations list have the null value because the instances of the recurring invoice will be created on their scheduled issue dates. The issued_invoice_id values will be automatically generated and populated on each issue date.

Auto-sending of recurring invoices

Monite automatically sends recurring invoices to recipients if the recurrence configuration includes the following values:

• subject_text - email subject text.
• body_text - the text inserted in the email body. If you use custom email templates, this text substitutes the {{body_template}} variable in the receivables_invoice email template.
• recipients - the list of invoice recipients (To, CC, BCC).

Disable auto-sending

To disable automatic sending of a recurring invoice, call PATCH /recurrences/{recurrence_id} and set either subject_text or body_text or both to null. Store the old values somewhere in case you need to undo the change.

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curl -X PATCH 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences/b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
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     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
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     -d '{
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       "subject_text": null,
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       "body_text": null
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     }'

How recurring invoices are generated

When a recurring invoice is due to be issued, Monite creates a copy of the base invoice with the following additional values:

• based_on - set to the ID of the base invoice.
• document_id - an auto-generated invoice document number based on the entity’s document customization settings.
• issue_date - set to the current date.
• status - starts as “draft” but then immediately changed to “issued”.

The invoice due date is calculated automatically based on the payment terms of the base invoice, and is returned in the due_date field on the invoice response object. For example, if the issue date is 2024-08-01 and the payment terms are Net 10, the due_date is set to 2024-08-11.

The ID of the new invoice is saved to the iterations[].issued_invoice_id field in the Recurrence object. Monite then issues this invoice and, if automatic sending is enabled, sends it to the specified recipients.

The status of the corresponding recurrence iteration is set to one of the following:

• "completed" - the invoice was successfully issued and, optionally, sent to the recipients.
• "send_failed" - the invoice was issued but could not be sent to the recipients. You can call GET /receivables/{invoice_id}/mails to check for email sending errors and then resend this invoice.
• "issue_failed" - the invoice cound not be issued and remains in the draft status. Normally this should never happen. You can verify the invoice data to see if there are any errors and then re-issue the invoice. If the base invoice’s data is no longer valid or sufficient, you will need to recreate both the base invoice and the recurrence configuration.

The current_iteration in the recurrence configuration is then incremented to reflect the next pending invoice.

The response from GET /recurrence/{recurrence_id} will then look like this:

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{
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  "invoice_id": "<ID of the base invoice>",
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  "start_month": 8,
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  "start_year": 2024,
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  "end_month": 10,
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  "end_year": 2024,
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  "day_of_month": "first_day",
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  "id": "b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4",
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  ...
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  "iterations": [
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    {
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      "issue_at": "2024-08-01",
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      "issued_invoice_id": "<ID of the issued recurring invoice>",
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      "status": "completed",
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      "iteration": 1
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    },
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    {
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      "issue_at": "2024-09-01",
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      "issued_invoice_id": null,
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      "status": "pending",
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      "iteration": 2
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    },
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    ...
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  ],
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  "status": "active",
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  "current_iteration": 2
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}

If the created invoice is the last one according to the schedule, the recurrence status is changed from "active" to "completed" to indicate that no future invoices will be created:

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{
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  ...
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  "id": "b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4",
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  ...
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  "iterations": [ ... ],
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  "status": "completed",
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  ...
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}

Manage recurring invoices

View all recurring invoices

Use GET /recurrences to get a list of base invoice IDs and their recurrence schedule.

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curl -X GET 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN'

The invoice_id fields in the response specify the base invoice IDs, and the iterations[i].issued_invoice_id fields contain the IDs of the existing recurring invoices that have been generated from the base invoices:

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{
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  "data": [
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    {
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      "invoice_id": "<base invoice ID>",
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      "start_month": 8,
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      "start_year": 2024,
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      "end_month": 10,
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      "end_year": 2024,
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      "day_of_month": "first_day",
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      ...
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      "iterations": [
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        {
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          "issue_at": "2024-08-01",
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          "issued_invoice_id": "<ID of an already issued recurring invoice>",
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          "status": "completed",
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          "iteration": 1
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        },
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        ...
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      ],
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      "status": "active",
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      "current_iteration": 2
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    },
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    ...
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  ]
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}

You can then use GET /receivable/{receivable_id} to fetch the details for a specific invoice ID, such as the total amount, line items, and so on.

Update the invoice details

Once a recurring invoice has been configured, the invoice details (such as line items) cannot be changed. If you need to update the invoice details, you must cancel the current recurring invoice and create a new one.

Change the end date

You can change the end date of a recurrence schedule to a later or earlier date. To do this, send the new end_month and/or end_year in a PATCH /recurrences/{recurrence_id} request:

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curl -X PATCH 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences/b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
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     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
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     -d '{
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       "end_month": 12,
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       "end_year": 2025
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     }'

The response will reflect the updated pending iterations. If the end date has been extended, additional iterations are added. If the end date has been moved ealier, excess pending iterations are removed.

Change the invoice issue day

You can change the day of the month on which the recurring invoices will be issued. Currently, it can be either the first or last day of the month. Changing the day affects the issue date of future invoices only, it does not affect already issued invoices.

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curl -X PATCH 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences/b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
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     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
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     -d '{
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       "day_of_month": "last_day"
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     }'

The response will reflect the new scheduled issue_at dates for the future iterations of the recurring invoice.

Cancel a recurring invoice

You may want to cancel a recurring invoice, for example, if an entity’s customer cancels their order or subscription. To do this, call POST /recurrences/{recurrence_id}/cancel:

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curl -X POST 'https://api.sandbox.monite.com/v1/recurrences/b17d34e3-63c0-4c44-a39c-e09a162ef3b4/cancel' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Version: 2024-05-25' \
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     -H 'X-Monite-Entity-Id: ENTITY_ID' \
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     -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN'

This prevents future invoices from being generated, but existing issued invoices are not affected. The status of the recurrence schedule and its future invoices in the iterations array becomes "canceled".