# Invoices: sending one, and getting it paid

> When a payment link is not enough, what an invoice has to contain to be paid without a follow-up, and how to chase the ones that are not.

Category: Billing and subscriptions · Last updated: 2026-09-16 · Source: https://ultraner.com/resources/billing/invoices

An invoice is a request for money with a document attached. A payment link is the request without the document. Which you need depends entirely on who is paying: a person buying a thing needs a link, and a company paying a supplier needs an invoice, because their finance department cannot pay anything that has no reference to file.

## What an invoice has to carry

- A number, unique and sequential, because that is what their accounts payable system is keyed on.
- Line items with quantities, not a single lump. A lump invites a question, and a question delays payment by a week.
- The date it was issued and the date it is due, as dates rather than "net 30".
- Your business details and tax identifiers, whatever your market requires.
- A way to pay that is one tap away from the document itself.

## The last one is the one people get wrong

An invoice that states a bank account and stops is asking the customer to do work: open their banking app, type an account number, copy a reference, and hope they typed it correctly. Every one of those steps is a place to give up until later.

An invoice with a pay button on it is paid at the moment it is read, on whatever the payer already uses. Most of the difference between a business that gets paid in three days and one that gets paid in three weeks is that button.

## Part payments and deposits

A deposit before work starts filters out the customers who were never going to pay, and it does so before you have spent the month. Fifty percent is normal and rarely argued with when it is on the quote rather than raised afterwards.

Where an invoice is paid in parts, keep every part against the same invoice, so the balance outstanding is a running figure rather than something reconstructed at the end.

## Chasing

Automate the reminder and keep the conversation human. A polite automatic note a few days before the due date collects most of what would otherwise go late. Once something is genuinely overdue, what resolves it is a phone call, not a fourth email.

**Invoice, then receipt**

The invoice asks. The receipt confirms. Issue both, automatically, and the two documents between them answer almost every question a customer will ever ask you about a payment.

## Read next

- Receipts: what they are, and why they matter: https://ultraner.com/resources/billing/receipts
- Payment links: getting paid without writing code: https://ultraner.com/resources/payments/payment-links
- Recurring payments on rails that store no card: https://ultraner.com/resources/billing/recurring-payments

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Ultraner is the payment layer for Africa. https://ultraner.com