Make an invoice from recorded work
Turn recorded work into an invoice you can approve, send and track.
Start with the work
You need a record of completed work, the client details, an invoice template and the next invoice number. The record supplies the facts; a person sets the price.
The method
List completed work that has not already been billed, grouped by client. Set the prices, fill the template and review the whole draft. After approval, save the numbered PDF and record it as unpaid. Send it yourself. When payment arrives, record the date against the same invoice.
Check the result
The PDF, invoice number and payment record agree. If an assistant prepares the draft, give it access to the work record and template, but keep pricing, approval and sending with a person.
How we use it at Pitch
At Pitch, the board is our shared work log. An assistant is software that follows our instructions with access to agreed tools. A watcher checks for changes and reports them; a worker runs a configured routine. Those roles need explicit instructions, access and permissions. Context and boundaries Invoicing is the workflow most people automate last, because it feels like the one that needs a human. It does, for two decisions: what to charge and when to send. Everything else is gathering, numbering and filing, and that can be handed to an assistant without losing control. The setup One table that every piece of work is already written to, so "what did this client have" is a query, not a memory. One invoice template. One assistant with two skills: prepare, which reads the table and drafts, and issue, which numbers, saves and records. And one design choice that makes it safe to hand over: it drafts, we approve, it never sends. Our sequence At month end the assistant reads the board and lists, per client, what was done and not yet billed. We set the prices. It takes the next number, fills the one template and shows us the whole draft. We say yes. It saves the PDF, records the invoice as a row marked unpaid, and updates the client's page. We send it. When it's paid we tell it the date and the row closes. What's owed is the sum of the open rows, always. The principle The invoice is a row before it is a PDF. Once that's true, month end is a check, not a job. What stays with a person We still set the price and we still press send. Everything either side of that stopped being ours. What it took us Nothing new on the data side: the work was already being written to one table, so the invoice reads from it. The template was an afternoon. The two skills were written in plain English, the same way this page is, and have issued every invoice since. How the process began At the end of the month we'd go back through emails, the calendar and what had shipped, and work out what each client had actually had. Decide what to bill and at what price. Find last month's invoice, copy it, change the client, the dates and the lines, and give it the next number. Save the PDF and send it. Keep a list of who owed what, and check it when money landed.