Cademy can generate invoices for your orders, collect payment against them, and produce receipts automatically once they're paid. This article covers setting up your invoice details, letting customers pay by invoice at checkout, managing invoices day to day, and how customers receive and download their invoices and receipts.
Invoices and manual payments are available on Pro plans and higher.
Setting up your invoice details
Go to Settings → Payments and open the Invoices & Receipts section. Your default invoice profile holds the business details shown on every invoice:
Registered company/entity name, address, Email, and Telephone.
Invoice prefix - shown in the invoice number. For example, if you enter "INV", the invoice number will be "INV-0001".
Footer text - shown in the footer of the invoice.
Your profile logo appears on invoices and receipts automatically - add or update it on your Cademy profile first, then it is used on all financial documents.
If you invoice from more than one entity, use Create New Invoice Profile to add further profiles, each with its own name, details, and numbering.
Payment terms
The Payment Terms setting controls when each invoice must be paid, and applies to every invoice however it was created. You set a number of days and choose how they count:
after issue, or at course start if sooner
after the invoice is issued
before the course starts
after the course ends
On-demand courses have no scheduled dates, so their invoices are issued immediately and due the set number of days after issue.
One invoice, or one per course
The Invoice Creation setting controls how invoices are created for pay-later orders. Card and other instant payments always get a single invoice per order. For multi-course orders you can choose:
One Invoice for the Whole Order, or
A Separate Invoice for Each Course.
With separate invoices, the first course's invoice is issued straight away when the order is placed. Each later invoice stays as a draft you can still edit, and is issued automatically a set number of days before its course starts - you choose how many.
Letting customers pay by invoice at checkout
In the same settings section, turn on Allow 'Invoice' as a payment method on checkouts. Customers can then complete a purchase by requesting an invoice - Cademy generates and sends it automatically, and they are not required to pay at checkout. In their Billing Details, business customers enter a Business Name, Billing Email, Billing Address, and optionally a VAT / Tax number and PO number. The Invoice payment method is available only when the customer selects Pay in Full. It is not available for deposit checkout. See Deposits at Checkout.
Two related settings:
Require Admin Approval for Invoice Orders - every invoice order is held until an admin approves it; the invoice is sent on approval.
Allow Course Access Before Invoice Is Paid - customers who pay by invoice get the standard confirmation email and access to course content as soon as the order is approved, without waiting for the invoice to be marked as paid.
To control which payment methods are offered on a specific course, go to the course → Edit Course → Settings tab → Advanced Settings → Payment Methods.
Invoice statuses
Status | Meaning |
Draft | Created but not yet issued - still editable, no number assigned, not visible to the customer. |
Awaiting Payment | Issued and sent, with an outstanding balance. |
Partially Paid | Some, but not all, of the balance has been received. Deposit orders use this status after the deposit is paid, and the remaining balance is later recorded as a second payment against the same invoice. |
Overdue | The due date has passed with a balance still outstanding. |
Paid | Fully settled. |
Void | Cancelled and kept for the record - for example when an invoice is reissued after an order change. |
The Invoices tab
Your billing area has four tabs: Orders, Invoices, Payments, and Credit Notes. The Invoices tab lists every invoice with its Number, Customer, Order, Issued and Due dates, Status, Total, and Amount Due. You can sort by most columns, search by invoice number, customer, or order ID, choose which columns to show, and export the list.
Working with an invoice
Click any invoice to open it. The invoice panel shows the billed details, the lines it covers, its totals (Subtotal, tax, Total, Paid, Credited, Refunded, Amount Due), payments received against it, and a PDF preview. The actions available depend on its status:
Issue Now - for drafts. The invoice is given its number, dated today, and emailed to the customer with its payment link. This cannot be undone.
Download PDF - for issued invoices.
Request Payment… - copy a payment link for the full balance, or create a link for a custom amount (part of the balance).
Record Payment - record a payment received outside Cademy, such as a bank transfer.
Refund… - refund money received against this invoice. See the cancellations and refunds guide.
Void & Reissue… - void this invoice and issue a new one with the order's current details under a new invoice number. You choose whether to email the updated invoice to the customer.
From the invoice's card on the order itself you can also Mark as Paid (settles the balance in one click, without emailing the customer), Add Credit Note (reduce the balance due), Apply Credit (use the customer's account credit), and Edit Billing Details.
Creating orders and requesting payment manually
You can raise invoices without a customer going through checkout: create an order from a course, a contact, or the Orders tab, choose the participants and prices, and set the payment status to paid or to be paid. When you request payment, the customer receives an email with the invoice and a payment link, and every payment request email includes the invoice due date as a reminder. See the guide to creating orders manually for the full flow.
Overdue invoices
Cademy automatically checks each night for invoices that have become overdue. If an invoice is in Awaiting Payment and its due date has passed, its status changes to Overdue, and both the customer and the admin receive an email alert.
Customer reminder emails are controlled by the Overdue Payments Reminder Emails setting in Settings → Payments → Invoices & Receipts. It is on by default.
Invoice numbers
Cademy numbers invoices using your invoice prefix. If you use the Xero integration, the Xero invoice number becomes the reference shown across Cademy once the invoice has synced - the internal number remains visible in the invoice panel as the Cademy Reference.
An invoice that has been voided and reissued keeps its old number on record, and the replacement notes which invoice it corrects.
Invoices and receipts
There is no separate receipt document: once an invoice is fully paid, its PDF becomes a receipt - the title changes from "Invoice" to "Receipt" and the payment-due details are replaced by the amount paid. Customers who paid by card see a Download Receipt option; customers who paid by invoice see Download Invoice.
How customers receive and download invoices
When an invoice is issued, the customer receives an email with the amount, the due date, and links to pay online and download the invoice. The payment page shows the invoice's lines and balance and offers a Download Invoice (PDF) link. If an invoice isn't ready yet - for example a later invoice on a split order - the page explains when it will be issued; if it has been replaced, the old link takes the customer to the new invoice automatically.
Customers can download their invoice or receipt in four ways:
After checkout - a download option appears on the confirmation screen.
From their emails - the booking confirmation and payment request emails include a download link. You can also add this link to any email you send through Cademy using the mail merge tag - see the Email templates article.
From the payment link - anyone with the invoice's payment link can download the PDF from the payment page.
From Orders & Billing - start from My Account at the top-right of the page. Select My Courses & Bookings, select Orders & Billing, open the order, then use Download PDF in the Invoices section.
Orders & Billing shows only orders that belong to the customer's account. The order may have been placed by that customer or created for them by a course provider. A participant booked by somebody else cannot open that person's order, prices, payments or invoices.
Pay Invoice appears only when the invoice has an outstanding balance and neither the order nor invoice is cancelled, void or already paid. A paid or void invoice can still have Download PDF.
The Invoices section does not appear when the order has no invoice, such as some free orders. An older booking may not have a full Orders & Billing page. Use the checkout confirmation, invoice email or payment link above, or contact the course provider if the document is missing.
For the complete customer order journey, see Find and Open Orders You Placed or That Were Created for You.
Admins can download any issued invoice's PDF from the invoice panel at any time.