Recurring invoices
A retainer is one invoice you have already written, sent twelve times with the dates changed. Perly does the changing. It does not send on its own — you do, when you are ready — and that is a decision rather than a gap.
How it works
- Write the invoice once, with the lines and terms you want every month.
- Set Repeats — every so many weeks, or every so many months.
- On the day, a scheduled job copies it: numbered for that day, the issue date moved to today, the due date moved with it.
- The copy waits as a draft, and Telegram tells you it is there.
- You look at it, change what changed, and send it.
Why it stops at a draft
Because a retainer is almost never identical twice. The month you went over, the month a project paused, the month their PO number changed — an invoice that sent itself would have sent the wrong one, and the wrong invoice is worse than a late one. A draft takes you ten seconds and cannot embarrass you.
A draft also leaves the number to you. Each copy is numbered the way a new invoice is: your prefix, the day it is made and which one of that day it is — `INV-20261001-001`, or `-004` if the day already has a `-003`, typed by you or made by an earlier copy. Bills are counted apart, under their own prefix. Deleting a copy instead of sending it can leave a gap, because the count goes on from the day's highest and never back to fill one. And the number is a suggestion: type your own over it before you send it. See invoice numbering.
The chasing half
Alongside the repeat there is the reminder: switch Telegram alerts on for an invoice, and three days before its due date, on it, and a week after, Perly nudges you if it is still unpaid. Once more, it nudges you rather than your client — nothing here writes to your client without you reading it first.
What it costs
Nothing. There is no plan where recurring is the reason to upgrade, because there are no plans. See pricing, which is a short page.
Common questions
- Can I set it to every two weeks? Every quarter?
- Yes — the interval is a number of weeks or a number of months, so fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and annually are all just a figure.
- Will it email the invoice to my client on its own?
- No. It writes a draft and tells you. Nothing goes to your client until you send it yourself — the link or the PDF, from your own mail.
- What happens to the numbering?
- Each copy is numbered for the day it is made, exactly as a new invoice is: your prefix, the day and which one of the day it is — `INV-20261001-001`, then `-002` if two land on the same day. It counts on from the highest number that day already has, so it never repeats one you typed by hand. A repeating bill does the same under the bill prefix: `BILL-20261001-001`. The copy waits as a draft, so type the number your books expect over it if that suits them better.
- Can I stop or change the schedule?
- Yes, on the document, at any time. Turning it off stops future copies and touches nothing already issued.
- Does it work for bills I owe as well?
- Yes. A repeating bill is how you stop forgetting the subscription that renews on the 4th.
Make one now
The generator is the front page. No account, no sign-up, no watermark — fill the document in and the PDF is yours.
Open the invoice generator