Ignition can now generate a professional invoice PDF for you and attach it to your client invoice emails automatically. If you don't have an accounting ledger connected, this means you can finally send clients a complete invoice straight from Ignition. No workaround needed. If you do have a ledger connected, you can choose to send Ignition's invoice PDF instead of the one from your accounting software.
What's on the invoice PDF
Each invoice PDF includes:
Your practice name, logo, and email address
Your client's name, contact email, address, and phone number
The invoice number and issue date
The due date
A line-item breakdown: service name, description, quantity, unit price, and subtotal
A tax breakdown per line item, where tax applies
The subtotal, tax total, and invoice total
Your practice address and phone number, and your ABN (Australia) or tax registration number (everywhere else)
Your client's address is read from the Client address field, and their phone number from the Phone field, both found in the client details drawer under the Company tab.
Setting it up
If you don't have a ledger connected
There's nothing to switch on. Ignition automatically generates the invoice PDF when you bill a client through Ignition and attaches it to the invoice email.
To get the most out of it, we'd recommend you:
Fill in your Company info so your practice details appear on the PDF (see below)
Set your default Payment terms so the right due date shows (see below)
If you have a ledger connected
If you have an accounting ledger connected (such as Xero or QuickBooks), you'll see an Invoice PDF setting in your General settings. By default this is set to Accounting software. To send Ignition's invoice PDF instead, switch it to Ignition.
Switching this setting only changes which PDF gets attached to the invoice email. Ignition will still create an invoice in your accounting software if you have the Create invoices setting turned on, and your due date will still read from your ledger's invoice settings.
Add your company details
To show your practice details on the invoice PDF, head to General settings and complete the new fields in the Company info section:
Business address
Phone number
Your Australian Business Number (ABN). Outside Australia, this field is labelled Tax registration number.
Anything you fill in here will appear on your invoice PDF.
Set your default payment terms
If you don't have a ledger connected, you can set a default invoice due date from the new Payment terms setting under General settings → Invoices. This controls the due date that appears on your invoices.
If you're collecting payment automatically, your payment terms are overridden and the payment collection date becomes the due date.
Change the invoice heading
You can change the heading on your invoice PDF from Invoice to something else. This mainly matters in Australia: if you're legally required to issue a tax invoice, use this field to change the heading to Tax invoice.
Preview and download an invoice PDF
You can preview the invoice PDF before you send it, and download it afterwards.
Before sending: use the Preview option when you're issuing or sending the invoice to check how the PDF looks.
After sending: open the invoice, click More actions → Preview PDF, then save it from the preview.
What your client sees
Your client receives their invoice email with the Ignition-generated PDF attached, and can also download it from the payment portal when they go to pay.
Once the invoice is paid, the PDF and the payment receipt update to reflect the payment, showing a balance outstanding of $0.00.
FAQs
Will Ignition still create an invoice in my accounting software?
Yes. If you have the Create invoices setting turned on, Ignition still creates the invoice in your ledger. Switching the Invoice PDF setting only changes which PDF is attached to the invoice email.
Which due date appears on the PDF?
If you have a ledger connected, the due date reads from your ledger's invoice settings. If you don't, it's based on your Payment terms setting. If you're collecting payment automatically, the payment collection date is used as the due date.
I'm in Australia and need my invoice to say "Tax invoice". How do I do that?
Use the invoice heading field to change the heading from Invoice to Tax invoice.
Why aren't my service descriptions showing on the PDF?
Service descriptions appear when the Show service descriptions setting is turned on. If you have a ledger connected with its service descriptions turned off, but service descriptions turned on for your Ignition invoice PDF, the descriptions won't show. Make sure both are enabled if you want them to appear.
Can I customise the colours, layout, or fonts?
Not at this stage. Your logo and company details will appear on the PDF, but custom templates, colours, and layouts aren't currently available.
If you have any questions, reach out to our Support team at help@ignitionapp.com and we can help.