Record an Invoice as Sent

Flowtly Editorial Team4 min

Not every invoice leaves through Flowtly. You might email one from your own mailbox, post it, or hand it over at a meeting. "Mark as sent" writes that delivery down, so the invoice is treated like any other sent invoice instead of waiting for a dispatch that already happened.

Recording a delivery sends nothing. No PDF is generated, no email leaves Flowtly, and nothing is submitted to KSeF or any other e-invoicing channel. It records a delivery that happened somewhere else.

Before you start

  • You need the invoices manager role. The same role can undo the record.
  • The invoice must be issued and awaiting payment. A draft cannot be recorded as sent — issue it first.
  • An invoice Flowtly has already sent, or that has already been recorded as sent once, cannot be recorded again.

Record the delivery

  1. In the invoice list, click the "More Options" button on the invoice's row — or open the invoice's preview.
  2. Choose "Mark as sent".
  3. Optionally set "Delivered on". It defaults to today and cannot be in the future.
  4. Optionally add a "Note (optional)" saying how it went out, for example sent by email from the office mailbox. Up to 500 characters.
  5. Click "Record delivery".

The invoice's status becomes Sent, exactly as if Flowtly had emailed it.

Both dates are kept: the day you say it was delivered, and the day you recorded it. "It was posted on the 29th" and "it was written down on the 2nd" are different facts, and the invoice's history shows both, along with who recorded it.

What changes once it is recorded

  • The invoice is chased for payment. It joins the overdue lists and the payment reminders — which is the reason to record the delivery at all.
  • It shows as Sent in the invoice list.
  • It now counts as issued for the accountancy exports, and appears in them.
  • Its history shows the delivery was recorded by hand rather than emailed by Flowtly.

Undo a recorded delivery

If you recorded it by mistake:

  1. Open the invoice's preview — the undo is offered there, not on the list row.
  2. Choose "Undo mark as sent".
  3. Optionally give a "Reason (optional)".
  4. Click "Undo the record".

The invoice goes back to awaiting delivery and stops being chased for payment: it leaves the overdue lists and no further reminders go out.

The invoice stays in the accountancy exports

This is deliberate, and it is the part worth understanding before you record anything.

Recording the delivery is what makes the invoice count as issued, and undoing the record does not take that back. The invoice remains in the accountancy exports, with the original record still visible in its history.

The reason is that an export the accountant has already seen should not quietly lose a document. Flowtly keeps the correction visible instead of erasing the fact. This is also why a draft cannot be recorded as sent: that is the one case where staying in the exports would be wrong, because the invoice was never issued at all — so the action is refused up front rather than leaving you with a record you could not undo.

What the undo cannot do

  • It works once. After an undo, the invoice cannot be recorded as sent by hand again. Flowtly can still send it normally.
  • It only takes back a hand-made record. An invoice Flowtly really emailed cannot be put back to awaiting delivery — the client already has the PDF, and stopping its reminders would be wrong.
  • It disappears once the invoice is edited. If you change the invoice after recording the delivery, the undo is no longer offered: the invoice then carries the "changed after the client saw it" signal, and the undo would erase it.

Example use cases

  • An invoice emailed from your own mailbox: record it so it is chased for payment, without sending the client a second copy.
  • An invoice handed over at a meeting: record it with the date it changed hands.
  • An invoice posted on paper: record the posting date and note the method.
  • A wrong row: undo the record the same day, before the reminders start, and the invoice goes back to awaiting delivery.

Connection map

Refers toUses upDerived fromPart ofPlanned vs actual
Documented hereDocumented elsewhere
invoice billed to counterparty. invoice taxed by tax-group. cost spends against budget. cost owed to counterparty. bank-transaction reconciled to invoice. bank-connection imports bank-transaction. contract schedules payment-schedule-line. payment-schedule-line invoiced as invoice. contract agreed with counterparty. contract attached to budget. contract orders purchase-order-line. purchase-order-line prices position. purchase-order-line estimated against time-entry. budget raises budget-alert. budget covers project. counterparty defaults to budget. counterparty defaults to project. invoice billed from project. set-off-declaration settles invoice. set-off-declaration declared with counterparty. project linked to budget. tenant-turnover reported by counterparty. tenant-turnover compared per area from contract. utilities-statement calculated for contract. lead becomes counterparty. deal sold to counterparty.billed totaxed byspends againstowed toreconciled toimportsschedulesinvoiced asagreed withattached toorderspricesestimated againstraisescoversdefaults todefaults tobilled fromsettlesdeclared withlinked toreported bycompared per area fromcalculated forbecomessold toIInvoice — A sales document issued to a client: line items, dates, tax. It is created, reviewed, previewed and then sent — or, when it went out some other way, recorded as delivered.InvoiceCCounterparty — The other side of a financial document — a client billed, or a supplier owed.CounterpartyTTax group — The tax treatment applied to a line, so rates are set once rather than per document.Tax groupCCost — Money the organisation owes or has spent, tracked against a budget.CostBBudget — The financial envelope an engagement is measured against — what was planned, versus what has actually been spent.BudgetBBank transaction — A movement on a connected bank account. Matching it to an invoice or a cost is what makes the books agree with the bank.Bank transactionBBank connection — The consented link to one bank that transactions arrive through. It can stop working on its own — a consent expires or is withdrawn — so it reports whether it is still working.Bank connectionCContract — The financial terms of an engagement: a structured set of payment schedule lines, in one direction or the other.ContractPPayment schedule line — One dated amount on a contract, in a direction — money owed to a supplier, or due from a client.Payment schedule lineOOrder line — One line of a purchase order: a role priced by the hour with the hours estimated for it, or a deliverable priced as an outcome. A deliverable carries no hours at all.Order linePPosition — The catalogue of job titles a project role is drawn from.PositionTTime entry — What actually happened — work time logged against a project.Time entryBBudget alert — A notice that a budget has gone off plan - spending over the planned amount, or a margin below the one that was planned. It is raised by a daily check rather than by anyone asking for it.Budget alertPProject — The core organizational unit for a business initiative, client engagement or internal work. Everything tracked — time, cost, invoicing, profitability — hangs off one.ProjectSSet-off declaration — A record that your invoices to one counterparty and its cost documents were settled against each other, in amounts that balance exactly. It lowers what remains due on the invoices; it is not a payment.Set-off declarationTTenant turnover — A tenant's reported sales for one month, entered by staff and used for reporting only. An absent figure means not reported, which is a different statement from a reported zero.Tenant turnoverUUtilities statement — One lease's electricity for one month, the kWh its meters recorded times the tariff in force. A draft until finalised, then it never changes; a correction is a new draft.Utilities statementPProspect — A company you are working but that is not a customer yet. It sits at New, Contacted or Qualified, and everything done to it is logged against it.ProspectDDeal — A sale in progress: a customer, an amount, and the stage it has reached. It cannot exist without a customer, and its stage is never blank.Deal

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