This guide is for System Admins who set up how Cademy invoices course bookings. It covers letting customers pay by invoice at checkout, the company details printed on each invoice, when invoices are due, overdue reminders and receipts. To correct an invoice you have already sent, see Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent. Customers looking for their own invoice or receipt can use Find Your Orders, Invoices and Payment Details.
An invoice records what is billed. A receipt is the same document once the invoice is settled. An order can have more than one invoice, and each invoice has its own balance. Issuing an invoice, receiving money, sending an email and giving a participant course access are separate events.
The settings in this guide require a System Admin. Invoice checkout and its payment-link controls require the Pro plan or a higher plan. Additional Invoice Profiles are a separate account feature. A disabled control is not proof that an existing order has no invoice.
Let Customers Pay by Invoice at Checkout
Invoice payment lets a customer place a booking without paying at checkout and pay the invoice later.
In the Admin Dashboard, open Settings > Payments > Invoices & Receipts.
Turn on Allow 'Invoice' as a payment method on checkouts, where your account has access.
Choose whether to turn on Require Admin Approval for Invoice Orders and Allow Course Access Before Invoice Is Paid. Both are explained below.
Select Save beneath Invoices & Receipts, then reopen it to check the saved settings.
To check an individual course, open it from Courses, select Edit Course > Settings > Payments and review Payment Methods. Save any course change with Save in the course editor.
Invoice payment is offered with Pay in Full, not with the deposit or monthly-instalment choice. Course restrictions and compatible payment methods still apply. See Take a Deposit and Collect the Balance Later for the deposit journey.
Require Admin Approval for Invoice Orders holds each invoice order until you approve it. Course-level approval requirements also apply. A placed order is not an approved order. While an order awaits approval, the customer cannot pay its invoice online. The pay buttons are hidden, and the invoice’s payment page, or a payment link you send, shows Your Booking Is Awaiting Approval. They can pay once you approve the order. To approve or reject a held order, see Approve or Reject an Order.
Multi-course checkout also needs Allow multiple courses per checkout under Settings > Payments > Checkout Settings. Different invoice profiles or primary registration forms, or no payment method in common, can prevent courses being combined in one basket.
Check the Setting That Lets Learners Access Course Materials Before Payment
The switch Allow Course Access Before Invoice Is Paid, under Settings > Payments > Invoices & Receipts, controls whether learners on an approved invoice order can open the course content before it is paid. When it is off, they can open it once the order is paid. The order must be approved either way, and the switch does not mark the invoice paid. To check whether it is active, open that section and look at the saved switch.
Orders paid by bank transfer or another manual method use a separate setting, Allow course access before manual payment is marked paid. See Take Bookings Paid by Bank Transfer (Manual Payment).
Check the particular order, registration and learner access separately. Do not promise access from an invoice status alone, especially after a part payment, credit or a change to the order. If they disagree, give Support the order and invoice references before changing any financial record.
Make a Specific Course Not Payable by Invoice
If a course must be paid in full when it is booked, turn off invoice payment for that course only:
Select Courses, open the course and select Edit Course.
Open the Settings tab, then Payments.
Under Payment Methods, untick Invoice. The list shows the payment methods your account offers. At least one must stay ticked.
Select Save in the course editor, then reopen the course’s Payments settings to check the choice.
Payment methods are set per course, so this applies to every date of that course. Cademy has no payment-method setting for a single course date.
Hide the Pay by Card or PayPal Link on Invoices, Emails and Order Pages
Invoices, invoice emails and the customer’s order page can include a link for paying the balance online by card or PayPal. If you only want customers to pay by bank transfer or another arrangement, hide these automatic links. This does not turn off online payments, stop invoice emails or cancel a direct link already shared.
As a System Admin, open Settings > Payments in the Admin Dashboard.
Expand Invoices & Receipts. Find Include Payment Links on Invoices, Emails and Order Pages. If access is restricted, review your account’s feature access instead of changing another setting.
Turn it off to hide automatic payment links, or on to allow them. Select Save beneath this section.
Reopen the settings to confirm the saved choice. Check the relevant customer page or document before assuming it has changed.
The setting is read when pages and invoice PDFs are generated and when new invoice and payment emails are prepared. It affects automatic links on those, including balance and instalment reminders. It cannot remove a link from an email already sent or a PDF already downloaded.
Document downloads are separate from payment buttons. Staff can still share a direct payment link on purpose; see Send a Customer a Payment Link. Turning links back on allows them on current pages and future documents and emails, subject to the invoice’s status and your payment methods.
Change the Invoice Option Wording at Checkout
In the Admin Dashboard, select Settings, then Payments.
Expand Invoices & Receipts and the invoice profile you want to change.
Enter a Checkout Label for the invoice option. Add a Checkout Description if customers need instructions after selecting it.
Select Save beneath Invoices & Receipts, then check the saved fields.
These fields change the wording at checkout. They do not turn on invoice checkout or change the company name on the invoice. An empty field on an additional profile uses the default profile’s field. If the default label is empty, checkout shows Invoice; an empty default description shows no description.
Add Your Company Name and Address to Invoices (Invoice Profile)
An invoice profile holds the course provider details and rules printed on invoices. Start with the default profile.
Open the Admin Dashboard. Select Settings, then Payments.
Expand Invoices & Receipts, then open Default Invoice Profile Options if its fields are collapsed.
Enter the Registered company/entity name, address, Email and Telephone that belong on the document. These are your details as the course provider, not the customer’s billing details.
Set Invoice prefix if needed. Use Footer text for information you want printed below the invoice, such as payment instructions.
Select Save beneath Invoices & Receipts. Wait for Payments settings saved, then reopen the profile to check the saved values.
Cademy uses your profile logo on invoices and receipts. Invoice profiles define your details and rules; they are not a separate customer or a separate order.
If your account includes additional Invoice Profiles, select Create New Invoice Profile in this section, enter a Profile name and its invoice details, then select Save. Adding a profile does not assign it to any course.
To assign a profile, select Courses in the Admin Dashboard and open the course.
Select Edit Course, then Settings and Payments.
Under Payment Methods, choose the Invoice Profile. This selector appears when additional profiles exist.
Select Save in the course editor, then reopen the course’s Payments settings to confirm the selection.
Customer checkout needs compatible invoice profiles across the courses in a basket. A manually created order containing courses with different profiles uses the default profile. Check the profile and the resulting invoice before sending it.
An order containing only custom items, such as room hire or catering, uses the account’s default invoice profile. Removing the last course from an existing mixed order keeps that order’s saved invoice profile and currency. Custom charges appear under Other Items on the invoice. Add them through Create an Order to Book a Customer Onto a Course, and change a saved charge through Change an Existing Order.
Provide a VAT Receipt Showing Your VAT Number
Your VAT number is not part of the invoice profile. Enter it as Your registered Tax/VAT Number in your tax profile under Settings > Payments > Tax / VAT. Invoices and receipts show the number under your company details when the tax profile the order uses has tax turned on, or when the order includes tax. See Set Up VAT for Course Sales.
Set When Invoices Are Due (Payment Terms)
In Settings > Payments > Invoices & Receipts, open the profile and find Payment Terms. Enter the number of days, then choose one of these rules in the order shown:
after issue, or at course start if sooner: the due date is that number of days after the invoice is issued, or the course start if that comes first.
after the invoice is issued: the due date is that number of days after the issue date.
before the course starts: the due date is that number of days before the course start. If that day would be earlier than the issue date, the issue date is used.
after the course ends: the due date is that number of days after the course end.
Select Save beneath Invoices & Receipts. These rules calculate invoice deadlines; they do not collect payment. For a course without the relevant start or end date, the calculation uses the chosen number of days after issue.
New terms apply to invoices issued from then on. A draft invoice’s deadline is calculated again when it is issued, using the current terms and course dates. Saving new terms does not change an invoice already issued. To change one issued invoice’s deadline, see Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Send Reminders When an Invoice Is Overdue
In the invoice profile under Settings > Payments > Invoices & Receipts, Overdue Payments Reminder Emails controls invoice overdue reminders. Save changes with Save beneath the section. Turning it off stops the customer reminder and its team alert for these invoice reminders; it does not stop the invoice being marked overdue.
A daily check at 1am UK time looks for issued and partly paid invoices with a balance still due and a due date before today. An invoice due today is not overdue until the next day.
For an ordinary order with only one invoice record, the overdue email requires the order’s payment method to be Invoice. A manual-payment order with only one invoice record does not get that reminder just because this switch is on.
If the order has more than one invoice record, an invoice becoming overdue uses its invoice profile’s reminder setting. This reminder is not limited to the Invoice payment method. Earlier voided or replaced invoices count as records, even when only one invoice remains payable.
Deposit-balance and monthly-instalment reminders have separate rules. For an order with only one invoice record, its deposit or instalment overdue alert does not follow this invoice-profile switch. Turning off invoice reminders does not turn off all payment reminders.
An overdue email is sent when an invoice becomes overdue. It is not repeated every day. Turning the switch on after that point does not resend a missed reminder.
The Order Contact, the person the order belongs to, receives the customer reminder, with a copy to the billing email where one was supplied. Team notifications follow your configured recipients. A status or an enabled reminder setting does not prove an email was delivered. To check recorded messages, open the order from Orders and expand Emails below Invoices & Payments. See Find Sent Emails and Check Delivery Status to investigate a missing message.
Send One Invoice or a Separate Invoice for Each Course
In the same profile, Invoice Creation > Multi-Course Orders offers One Invoice for the Whole Order and A Separate Invoice for Each Course. The separate option groups an eligible pay-later order by course and course date. Deposits, monthly instalments and immediate card, PayPal or Klarna payments keep one invoice.
An order created with custom items has its charges on one invoice for the whole order, even if Multi-Course Orders is set to A Separate Invoice for Each Course. This applies whether the order contains only custom items or courses too.
Later invoices start as drafts and are issued by a daily process, even when their planned date has already arrived. Read Split or Schedule Invoices for an Order before changing this setting or promising an issue date.
Why a Booking Has Two Invoices
A booking can have more than one invoice for these reasons:
The invoice profile is set to A Separate Invoice for Each Course, and the order is paid later (by invoice or manual payment) and has more than one course or course date with a charge. Each one gets its own invoice. Deposits, monthly instalments and immediate card, PayPal or Klarna payments keep one invoice.
The order was changed after its invoice was issued. A correction can void the old invoice and issue a replacement, or add another invoice or a credit note. The void invoice stays on record next to its replacement.
To see which invoice covers what, open the order from Orders and expand Invoices & Payments. For corrections, see Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
How Invoice Numbers Are Set (Prefix and Xero Numbers)
The invoice prefix forms part of Cademy’s invoice reference. Where a synced Xero number is available, Cademy shows it as the invoice reference. If it differs from Cademy’s own number, the invoice panel also shows Cademy Reference.
A voided invoice stays on record. Its replacement has its own number. Use the current invoice rather than creating another order to get a different number.
Give a Customer a Receipt for a Paid Invoice
Cademy uses the invoice PDF as the receipt: once the invoice is settled, its title changes to Receipt and it shows the settled amounts. You or the customer download it the same way as the invoice, described in the next section. On an order with several invoices, check the particular invoice; one paid invoice does not mean the others are paid.
A Receipt or Paid label is not proof of a cash payment. Credit can settle a balance. Read the payment and credit entries to see how the invoice was settled before telling a customer that money was received or refunded.
Help Customers Find and Download Their Invoices
Customers find their own orders using Find Your Orders, Invoices and Payment Details. Under INVOICES on their order page, Download PDF opens an available document. A participant booked by someone else does not see that person’s order finances.
The customer’s Orders & Billing view leaves out draft invoices and replaced invoices. The INVOICES section, with its Download PDF and Pay Invoice buttons, is also hidden for manual-payment orders and orders with no invoices. An order created with Create Order, Create Paid Order or Create Free Order is a manual-payment order from the start. Using Record Payment on an order also makes it a manual-payment order, even when only part of the amount is recorded, so the customer can no longer download the invoice or pay the rest from their account. In that case, send them the invoice PDF yourself and arrange payment of any amount still due.
Other ways to get a document:
After checkout, Download Invoice or Download Receipt appears where that checkout supports the document. Free and manual-payment checkouts do not show it, and an account-specific invoice-hiding setting can also hide it.
Invoice and payment emails include document links according to their template. An issued status is not proof that the email was sent or received.
A direct invoice payment page can provide the issued PDF. Anyone with that link can open the document, so share it only with the intended recipient.
A System Admin can open the issued invoice in Orders > Invoices and use Download PDF. Check the billed customer and covered items before sharing it.
A replaced invoice’s direct payment link leads to its replacement where one exists. A draft cannot be downloaded as an issued invoice. If a customer cannot find a document, check the order reference, payment method and invoice status rather than asking them to book again.
For reusable emails with document links, see Create and Reuse Email Templates. Check which invoice the template links to, especially for an order with more than one invoice.
What Each Invoice Status Means
Invoice statuses such as Draft, Awaiting Payment, Overdue, Paid and Void are explained in Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Find an Invoice in the Admin Dashboard
To search for an invoice, see Find a Customer’s Order, Invoice or Payment.
Choose the Right Action for an Issued Invoice
Which action to use for an issued invoice is explained in Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Void and Reissue an Invoice
The steps to void an invoice and issue a new one are in Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Change an Invoice’s Due Date
The steps to change an issued invoice’s due date are in Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Create an Order Without Customer Checkout
To book a customer yourself and invoice them, see Create an Order to Book a Customer Onto a Course.
Frequently asked questions
Does hiding payment links stop online payments?
No. It hides automatic links on invoices, emails and order pages. A direct link you share with the customer can still be used while its invoice is payable.
Does hiding payment links stop invoice emails?
No. The invoice email and the automatic payment link are separate. Customers still receive invoice emails.
Does saving new payment terms change every old invoice?
No. Issued invoices keep their due date. A draft’s due date is calculated again when it is issued. To change an issued invoice’s date, use Change Due Date, described in Change an Invoice You Have Already Sent.
Why does a customer’s order have no INVOICES section?
Check the payment method and the order’s invoices. Manual-payment orders hide this section, including an order created with Create Order, Create Paid Order or Create Free Order and an order where staff used Record Payment. Drafts are not listed in Orders & Billing either. A missing section does not mean the order has no invoice.
Does a receipt prove the full amount was paid in cash?
No. Credit can settle the balance. Check the payment and credit records separately.