Create, issue, and collect invoices
Cord brings invoice capture, fiscal issuance, delivery, and collection into one workflow.
Where to find invoices
Open Revenue › Invoices. The inbox shows the invoice number, client, creation date, due date, total, balance, and operational status.
Drafts do not have an official number yet. Cord labels them No number and adds a temporary BOR-... reference so you can recognize them. The sequential number is reserved only when you issue the invoice. Opening a draft from the inbox takes you straight to the editor.
Create an invoice
New invoice opens the same editor as quotes (see Quote creation overview), with invoice wording and its own step 3.
- Build with AI (optional). The Build the invoice with AI block takes the order as text, a photo, or a PDF and fills the line items from your catalog (see Cord AI).
- Who are you invoicing? Search the client by name, contact, email, or tax ID, or choose + Create new client…. Cord reads their email, payment terms, and tax details from their record. Terms are chosen with chips (Due on receipt, Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, or Other term: Net 7, Net 45, or Net 90) and recalculate the due date.
- What are you charging for? Add catalog products, kits, or a free line. Each item carries its quantity, its price, and its own tax rate. You can duplicate, reorder, and remove lines with Undo, just like in a quote (see Products and discounts).
- Terms. Set the Due date (a date; changing the payment terms recalculates it, and you can pick another by hand), the Document type, and the Invoice currency. The document type offers Pro forma in Mexico and Spain or Commercial invoice in the other markets, plus CFDI 4.0 (Mexico) or VERI*FACTU (Spain) when your plan and tax setup allow it. In Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, once issuing with the country’s authority is active on your account, the fiscal option is its authorized e-invoice and the commercial option becomes a pro forma (see Fiscal invoicing by country). If the currency differs from your business’s, the exchange-rate panel appears: “The rate is stated on the invoice.” When it applies, the invoice also carries:
- CFDI details (Mexico): that invoice’s CFDI use and Payment method. See PUE or PPD.
- Date of supply and End of period: only if the sale or service happened on a date other than the issue date. It’s required in Germany; if empty, the invoice says it matches the issue date.
- Buyer reference and Purchase order (optional): printed on the invoice and carried by its e-invoice. If you leave the reference empty, the client’s is used.
- Delivery address (France): only if the goods are delivered somewhere other than the client’s address.
- Note for your client (optional). It’s shown on the PDF and on the invoice page.
- Review and issue. The summary shows subtotal, taxes per rate, withholdings, the Total and, below it, the terms and due date (for example “Net 30 · due Nov 7”). If it applies, add a discount or coupon with + Add discount or coupon (see Discounts and coupons). The Delivery block shows the email it will go to: “The email includes the PDF and the payment link.” Click Preview to see the approximate sheet your client will receive.
- Issue. Issue and send assigns the number and emails the invoice in the same flow; Issue without sending issues it and leaves delivery for later; Save and exit saves the draft without issuing. Before issuing, Cord opens a Final review (“Issue this invoice?”) with the client, total, due date, and delivery; confirm with Issue and send or Issue invoice, or go back with Go back.
Each line item is rounded on its own and the total is the sum of the already-rounded lines, so the invoice total matches the sum of its rows.
Draft saving and shortcuts
- A draft that’s already saved saves itself a few seconds after your last change (the summary says “Saved at …”). A new invoice is created as a draft the first time you click Save and exit or issue; until then, your browser keeps a local copy that Cord offers to Restore if you close without saving (it expires after 7 days).
- On desktop, ⌘ Enter (Ctrl Enter) opens the final review to issue and send, ⌘ S (Ctrl S) saves the draft and exits, and / jumps to the catalog search. On a phone, a bar pinned to the bottom shows the Total and Issue and send.
- Issue and send needs the client to have an email. If they don’t, Cord tells you (“This client has no email. Add one to their record or choose “Issue without sending”.“).
- If an issuance failed with certainty, Fix and retry on the detail opens the same editor as Fix with the reserved number: you correct it and issue again keeping that number.
Issuing is irreversible: it assigns the official number and locks the fiscal document. To correct an issued invoice, use a void or credit note according to its payment state.
What your client receives
The email goes out in the invoice’s language, which the invoice takes when issued: the one your client has in their record or, if they have none, your account’s (see Document language). It includes the PDF and the public invoice link. From that page, the client can review the balance and payment history; if your payments account is enabled, they can also pay by card, and with Mercado Pago if you connected it. In Mexico, on MXN invoices with SPEI turned on, they can also pay by SPEI transfer to that invoice’s CLABE, which reconciles on its own; it’s a new feature (see SPEI on the invoice link). In Spain, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, on invoices in EUR, GBP, or USD with a linked client, they can pay by bank transfer with a reference, which also reconciles on its own; it’s a new feature. They can pay the full balance or choose Pay another amount to pay part of it. If you turned on bank debit, on invoices in EUR (SEPA), USD (ACH), GBP (Bacs), or CAD (pre-authorized debit) they can also pay with a debit from their account.
Besides each invoice’s link, you can give your client their portal, with all their invoices and paying several in a single charge. If they turned on automatic payments, each invoice’s email tells them on which day and to which method it will be charged.
The public page presents your business brand, invoice number, balance, parties, line items, and downloads in one view. If the document was created in test mode or without fiscal issuance, Cord displays a clear warning and disables online payment.
If issuance succeeds but email delivery fails, Cord keeps the issued invoice and marks only delivery as pending. Open the invoice detail and use Send invoice again without generating another number.
Inbox statuses
- Draft: editable and without an official number.
- Open: issued with a remaining balance.
- Overdue: open and past its due date.
- Paid: fully settled.
- Issue error: the fiscal provider did not confirm issuance; open the detail and use Retry issuing.
- Void or Uncollectible: no longer in the normal collection flow.
The primary badge always represents financial status. Cord shows delivery and environment context separately underneath it, for example Sent · Test. This keeps Test from replacing or contradicting states such as Open or Paid.
Actions from the invoice detail
You can resend the email, record manual or partial payments, copy the public link, download PDF and XML when available, void, create a credit note, use Duplicate invoice to open a new copy in the editor, or start a monthly recurrence with Repeat monthly. In Mexico, Replace CFDI also corrects an issued CFDI under SAT reason 01, and the history records the payment complement for each payment on a PPD invoice (see Invoicing by country).
The progress bar separates five moments: Draft, Issued, Sent, Viewed, and Paid. The action column provides direct access to open or copy the client link, download the PDF, and share through WhatsApp. Exceptional actions, such as voiding or marking an invoice uncollectible, stay under More actions.
After the first delivery, the inbox shows Sent and removes that invoice from bulk selection. Resending remains available in the invoice detail next to the recipient’s email, which helps prevent accidental duplicate delivery.
Test document means there was no valid fiscal issuance. In Mexico, it is not a CFDI before the SAT. Configure fiscal issuance and create a new invoice; Cord preserves the previous document without rewriting its history.
The Activity section records issuance, delivery, views, reminders, payments, and status changes, so you can understand what happened without relying on the seller’s inbox.
Bulk delivery and export
Select issued invoices that have not been sent yet to deliver them in a batch. Drafts, previously sent invoices, and non-deliverable documents keep a visible but disabled checkbox; hovering it explains why the invoice is excluded from that delivery. Export CSV downloads the current view and respects the active status filter and search.
To repeat issuance, open View recurring and see Recurring invoices. To review the available document —CFDI 4.0 in Mexico, a commercial invoice in other markets, and Verifactu’s operating conditions in Spain—, see Fiscal invoicing by country.
Payments, credits and refunds are different
Cord keeps payments, issued credit notes and confirmed refunds separate. This helps prevent counting the same movement twice and explains balance changes.
Amount due = total − issued credits − recorded payments + confirmed refunds, with a minimum of zero. A draft credit note does not reduce the balance. A pending or failed refund does not count as money returned.
| Example in MXN | Result |
|---|---|
| 1,000 invoice; 400 payment | 600 remains due |
| 1,000 invoice; 200 issued credit; 800 payment | Zero balance |
| Paid 1,000 invoice; 200 issued credit | Zero balance and 200 to return |
| Same case, with a confirmed 200 refund | Zero balance and nothing to return |
| Paid 1,000 invoice; 200 refund without a credit | 200 becomes due again |
The last case requires reviewing the agreement with the customer. Returning money does not itself reduce the document amount. Issuing a credit does not send money.
Refunding a payment
An online payment that came in through the invoice link, the client portal or automatic payments —by card, bank debit (SEPA, ACH, Bacs or pre-authorized debit), bank transfer (SPEI or with a reference) or Mercado Pago— is refunded from the Payments section of the detail page, with the Refund button, fully or partially depending on the method. You need the Refunds permission and to confirm your identity again. Before you confirm, the dialog says how much can be returned and, when it can’t, why (an ACH debit can only be returned in full, for example). A manually recorded payment has no such button: Cord did not move that money. In Mexico, the refund doesn’t cancel the CFDI; document the return with a credit note. All the details, including the allocation of a charge that paid several invoices, are in Refunds.
Partial payments and confirmation
After a partial payment is applied, a new payment is prepared for the current balance. An attempt still in progress must be resolved before opening another. A repeated notification for the same payment must not add the amount again.
After returning from payment, use Refresh balance. Returning to the link is not confirmation: status depends on the payment record. If the bank shows a charge but the balance has not changed, contact the business before paying again.
When the balance does not match
Open the invoice detail and compare payments, issued credits, confirmed refunds and activity. Check currency and the relevant document. If a movement is pending, wait for confirmation or request a review; do not add another manual payment to force the balance to zero.
Cord does not silently recalculate older documents. If an older invoice does not match, review it individually.
Commercial documents are included in Free (10 per month); integrated fiscal issuance starts at Starter where enabled. The commercial option in Mexico and Spain is a pro forma, not a test invoice. It has no fiscal XML and does not replace a tax invoice.