Invoices & Split Invoice

Overview

An Invoice is a billing document sent to a client requesting payment. Unlike estimates (which are quotes), invoices are issued after work is complete and represent money you're owed.

Invoices can include line items, taxes, deposits, payment schedules, and even direct access to galleries or deliverables. Split Invoice is a feature that divides a single invoice into multiple invoices for different parties.

Invoice Lifecycle

Draft

You're editing the invoice. Not sent to the client yet.

Sent

You've sent the invoice. The client has a link to view it.

Viewed

The client has opened and viewed the invoice. You'll see when they viewed it.

Partial / Paid

You've recorded partial or full payment. Tracks the paid amount and outstanding balance.

Overdue

The invoice due date has passed with no payment. StudioLedger flags it for your attention.

Creating Invoices

Invoices can be created three ways:

1. Manually — Go to Finance → Invoices and click New Invoice. Fill in line items and details.
2. From an Estimate — When an estimate is approved, you can create an invoice with a single click. The estimate's line items auto-populate.
3. From Cost Sharing — When you convert a cost share group to invoices, StudioLedger creates one invoice per accepted party with their calculated share.

Line Items & Structure

Invoices are built from line items. Each line item has:

• Description — What you're charging for (e.g., "Studio Time", "Retouching", "License Fee")
• Category — Optional category for organization (e.g., "Labor", "Licensing", "Expenses")
• Quantity & Rate — How many units and cost per unit
• Total — Auto-calculated (qty × rate)

Below line items, you can add:

• Tax rate — Sales tax, income tax, or other taxes
• Discount — Flat $ or percentage discount off the subtotal
• Convenience fee — Optional credit card processing fee

Payment Schedule (Deposit + Balance)

You can split the invoice total into multiple payment milestones:

Milestone 1: Deposit

Due upon booking. Example: 50% of $20,000 = $10,000 deposit due immediately.

Milestone 2: Balance

Due upon delivery. Example: Remaining $10,000 due upon project completion.

Milestone 3+: Additional

Optional additional milestones (e.g., "Retouching completion", "Final delivery").

💡 Payment Tracking

Each milestone tracks: amount, due date, and payments applied. You record payments as you receive them, and StudioLedger calculates the outstanding balance automatically.

Media Deliverables & Paywall

Invoices can include links to galleries or file transfers so clients can access their images directly from the invoice.

Attaching Deliverables

You can attach:

• Galleries — Link a full gallery or delivery set
• File transfers — Send a download link for files you've uploaded

Deliverables Paywall

Control when clients can access deliverables:

• Off — Clients can view deliverables immediately, regardless of payment status.
• View Only (No Download) — Clients can browse and view images but cannot download until the invoice is marked paid in full (status "paid"). Partial payments do not unlock downloads.

📋 Example: Paywall at Work

You shoot a product campaign and create a Delivery Set with 100 final images. You invoice the client for $5,000. You attach the Delivery Set to the invoice with the View Only paywall enabled.

When the client opens the invoice, they can browse and view the images but cannot download them. Recording a partial payment keeps downloads locked. Downloads unlock only after you mark the invoice paid in full (status "paid"), and then they can download all images from the link.

Payment Options

Control how clients can pay:

Stripe Payment Link

Enable this to give clients a "Pay Online" button. They enter card details via Stripe securely. You see payment automatically recorded in StudioLedger.

W-9 Form

Show a W-9 tax form link if you need the client to provide tax information (required for 1099 reporting if they're a contractor or vendor).

Manual Payment Tracking

If clients pay outside the system (check, wire transfer, etc.), you can manually record payments in StudioLedger to track outstanding balance.

Split Invoice

Split Invoice divides a single invoice into separate invoices for different parties. This is useful when one invoice covers multiple clients or departments, and you want to bill each separately.

Three Split Methods

Equal

Divide the invoice total equally among all parties. Specify the number of parties and StudioLedger calculates each share automatically.

Percentage

Assign a percentage to each party. Percentages must sum to 100%. StudioLedger calculates the dollar amount for each.

Fixed Amount

Assign a specific dollar amount to each party. Amounts must sum to the invoice total.

Per-Party Options

For each party in the split:

• Contact — Who to send the invoice to
• Company — Optional company/organization
• Include Deliverables — Toggle whether this party gets access to the media deliverables attached to the original invoice

Resulting Invoice Numbering

When you split an invoice (e.g., INV-2025-0042), StudioLedger creates:

• INV-2025-0042A — Party 1
• INV-2025-0042B — Party 2
• INV-2025-0042C — Party 3 (if exists)

Each split invoice is independent and can be paid separately.

Split Invoice vs Cost Sharing

These features can seem similar, but they're used at different stages:

Feature	Cost Sharing	Split Invoice
When to use	Before work begins (on estimates)	After work is done (on invoices)
Purpose	Split production cost among funding parties	Divide completed invoice among different customers
Calculation	Equal split, with additional party license fee	Equal, percentage, or fixed amount per party
Parties accept/decline	Yes, via unique cost share link	No, you decide the split
Result	One invoice per accepted party	Multiple invoices with A, B, C suffixes

📋 When to Use Each

Cost Sharing: "The Architect, Contractor, and Engineer are funding the shoot together. Let's split the cost."

Split Invoice: "The invoice is done, but Client A wants their portion and Client B wants theirs. Let's split it."

Next Steps

• Learn about Templates to save invoice layouts
• Attach Delivery Sets to invoices for media delivery
• Create your first invoice and set up payment schedule