What is invoice status?
Published
Invoice status is the invoice's current position in its lifecycle inside the system. Some statuses create accounting effect; others are purely operational tracking - and telling them apart is half of reading your reports correctly.
The lifecycle and each status's effect
| Status | Meaning | Accounting effect |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | In preparation, not issued | None - no revenue, no tax, no number consumed |
| Issued / cleared | Issued (Phase 2: cleared, for standard invoices) | Revenue, receivable, and output VAT arise here |
| Sent | Delivered to the customer | Tracking only |
| Partially paid | A receipt covered part | The receivable falls by the amount collected |
| Paid | Receivable at zero | Closed for collection |
| Overdue | Past due, not fully paid | Ageing classification and escalation - no new entry |
| Credited | Reduced or neutralised by a credit note | The note's effect is its own entry |
The two common failures: a real sale left in "draft" for days - a supply with no timely statutory invoice; and its inverse: issuing invoices for unconfirmed deals "to reserve" - revenue and tax with no supply.
Frequently asked questions
Is "overdue" a status or a computation?
A derived computation: issued + unpaid + past due. It changes no books, but it moves collections.
A paid invoice, then the goods came back?
It stays paid, and a credit note issues creating a customer credit balance - status describes the invoice; the note is its own document with its own effect.
Why doesn't draft-invoice revenue show in my reports?
Because it doesn't exist yet - which is correct, not a bug. A draft is an intention; issuance is the event.