How to Use Invoicing

The goal of the Invoicing page is to tell a clear, complete story, for both you and your client. It’s designed to help you stay organized while making payment plans transparent and easy for your client to understand. This clarity builds trust and reduces confusion around how much is being paid, what changes have been made, when payments are due, how many payments are expected, and more. Clients appear in the projects area automatically once they accept a quote/proposal.

To start using the Invoicing feature in Elevation Advisor, click Start Invoicing. This will make the screen interactive. If you need to change the date you want invoicing to begin, click the calendar icon next to Date and select a new start date. All payment dates will automatically adjust based on this change. Note that sending an invoice changes the action button to Resend Invoice.

The price of the project from the original proposal appears next to Original Landscape Contract. This amount does not include change orders, which are handled further down the page. Under Original Landscape Contract, you’ll see:

• Project Days (how long the project is expected to take)
• Number of Payments
• Down Payment (in dollars)
• Down Payment Percentage

The Down Payment is the amount paid after the contract is signed but before the project begins. It counts toward the first payment, but it does not represent the full first payment on its own. Both the original contract price and the individual change order prices will have their tax rates and tax amount listed separately next to the overall total with tax included. Down payments can be recorded immediately or sent via an emailed invoice link. Keep in mind that after collecting a down payment, progress invoicing remains locked until the invoicing process is officially started with the Start Invoicing button. In addition to a deposit to get onto the schedule, down payments also represent a partial progress payment towards the total value of Payment 1. Collecting a down payment is required by most businesses, and we strongly encourage you to require it for your business security if you aren't already doing so!

To account for updates to landscaping plans, the Additions and Deletions section shows all change orders and whether they increased or decreased the total project cost. You’ll see how much each change order added or subtracted individually, as well as the combined total. The updated project price, including all change orders, is displayed next to Total Project Cost. To learn more about how we track and bill change orders, you can read about our Change Order Payment Calculator.

To better understand how we accommodate change orders in your invoicing schedule, here's a brief and simplified look at our algorithm and how we think:

1. Finding your new total: we find the sum of the original contract value and subtract whatever has already been paid in invoices and down payments
2. Collecting change order down payments: we calculate and invoice any down payment specific to that change order right away
3. Determining your remaining balance: we add the cost of the change order to whatever has already been invoiced, even if the full amount has not been paid yet
4. Updating the new progress payments: we re-divide the change order cost + remaining balance from the original contract between the desired number of payments for this new total

If you need to credit a client, click Manage Credits. Enter the credit amount and give it a name for recordkeeping. To add multiple credits, click Add New as many times as needed. When you’re finished, click Save. All credits will appear under the Credits header.

When invoicing begins, the first payment covers the difference between the down payment and one full payment. For example, if the down payment is $1,000 and each regular payment is $10,000, the first official payment will be $9,000. You will be able to update the first payment to reflect that the down payment has been covered before the full payment is complete. Dates on future invoices are locked by default to prevent accidental edits, but clicking Update Schedule on a specific milestone unlocks that invoice, allowing custom due-date overrides. Date adjustments are applied on an individual invoice level rather than auto-shifting the whole schedule. Each payment in the schedule is calculated by dividing the total project cost by the number of payments entered in Number of Payments, but the final payment may be slightly higher (usually by one or two cents) to account for rounding discrepancy, offering the precision required for accounting purposes.

Our system can also track partial refunds, so if a client pays less than the invoiced balance, entering the lower amount sets the status to Partially Paid. The remaining balance remains tracked and when the client pays the rest, the records update to Fully Paid.

Don't forget, our change order system works just like a normal proposal, so if you choose to include any change order down payments, they'll show up here as well.

To update invoicing records, click on the payment you want to edit, including future payments (ex. changing the date an payment is due). This opens an interactive invoice on the right with detailed information for that specific payment.

To change an individual payments due date, click the blue edit icon next to Due Date and make your adjustment. To record a payment that has been received, click Add Payment. For example, if a down payment has been made but the full first payment has not yet been completed, click the first payment, enter the down payment amount under Payment Amount, and click Save.

Once recorded, the payment line will update automatically. Partial payments appear in red, and complete payments appear in green. The Paid column shows how much money has been received for that payment, whether partial or full. The Status column indicates whether the payment is partially paid or fully paid, and the Amount column shows the total cost of that payment.

After any change is made, the updated totals will appear under Payment Received to Date and Remaining Balance After Current Payment. When everything looks correct, click Send Invoice to email the invoice directly to your client.

In order to tell a complete story of payment and invoicing in a way that won't sticker shock your clients, we break down the entire invoicing process into bite-sized pieces throughout the duration of the invoicing. Once the final invoice is actually reached, a comprehensive view of the entire contract is generated showing you and your client the original contract total, an itemized list of all approved change orders, an adjusted final contract total (if necessary), a complete log of all past payments and their statuses. The final invoice may be slightly higher in cost than the prior invoices, usually only by a couple cents. This is because when dividing the total cost into multiple payments, a small amount of rounding is required. The final invoice will account for that tiny discrepancy.

Updated on: 08/11/2026