# Billing schedules

> Set up recurring invoices for retainers and subscriptions, track payment plans, and pause, resume or edit any schedule.

- URL: https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices/billing-schedules
- Section: [Invoices and payments](https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices)

A billing schedule creates invoices for you on a set rhythm. Use a recurring invoice for retainers, care plans and subscriptions. Payment plans, which split a project into installments, appear in the same list. This page covers creating, editing, pausing and resuming both.

Go to **Invoices → Billing Schedules** to see every schedule, along with your **MRR** and **ARR** and a trend chart. See [Dashboard and analytics](https://tillage.ai/docs/reports/dashboard-and-analytics#recurring-revenue) for how those are calculated.

## Create a recurring invoice

1. Go to **Invoices → Billing Schedules** and click **Create Recurring Invoice**.
2. Under **Invoice**, choose the **Client**.
3. Choose a **Stripe Customer** if you want this schedule to charge a saved payment method automatically. Leave it as **None (manual payment)** to have your client pay each invoice themselves. See [Auto-pay and saved cards](https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices/autopay-and-saved-cards).
4. Enter an **Invoice Name**, such as `Monthly Retainer - {monthYear}`. Use the variable menu next to the field to insert dates and counts that fill in on each invoice. See [Smart variables](https://tillage.ai/docs/reference/smart-variables#recurring-invoice-names).
5. Set **Recurring Status** to **Active** to start billing, or leave it as **Draft** to save without generating anything.
6. Under **Schedule**, pick the **First Issue Date** and **How Often?**.
7. Under **Number of Invoices**, choose **Unlimited** or **Set Number** and enter **# Invoices**.
8. Choose your **Delivery Options** (below).
9. Add line items, then click **Create Recurring Invoice**.

Before you save, a preview sentence spells out what will happen, for example: "An invoice will be sent automatically for 12 invoices monthly starting November 1, 2026."

### Frequencies

| **How Often?** | Next invoice |
|---|---|
| **Weekly** | 7 days later |
| **Monthly** | Same day next month |
| **Quarterly** | 3 months later |
| **Biannual** | 6 months later |
| **Annually** | Same date next year |

> **Tip:** For monthly and longer schedules, choose a first issue date between the 1st and the 28th. Dates late in the month can shift after a short month.

### When invoices are created

Tillage creates each invoice at 9 AM in your team's time zone on its issue date. If you pick today as the first issue date before 9 AM, the form shows **Will process at 9 AM today**. After 9 AM, the earliest date is tomorrow.

### Delivery options

**Delivery Options** sets what happens on each issue date:

| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| **Create draft invoice for me to send manually** | The invoice is created as **Not Sent** for you to review and send. |
| **Automatically send invoice with email notification** | The invoice is issued and emailed to the client's primary contact. You can CC other contacts or email addresses. |
| **Automatically issue invoice without email (auto-charge)** | The invoice is issued with no email. Use this when the schedule charges a saved payment method. |

### Advanced settings

Open **Advanced** for:

- **Payment Terms**: days after the invoice is created before it's due. **0** means due on receipt, which suits auto-charge. 15, 30 and 60 give Net 15, Net 30 and Net 60.
- **Waive Platform Fee** and **Waive Processing Fee**, if per-invoice fee overrides are on for your team. See [Processing fees](https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices/processing-fees#waive-fees-on-one-invoice).

## Edit a schedule

Click a schedule in the list, or choose **Edit** from its menu. The dialog has two tabs:

- **Settings**: the same fields as when you created it, plus the line items.
- **History**: every invoice the schedule has created so far.

Click **Save Changes** when you're done. Changes apply to invoices created from then on; invoices already created aren't changed.

A few things work differently once a schedule has created invoices:

- **First Issue Date** is locked.
- **Next Issue Date** is calculated from the frequency. Click **Manual** to set a specific date, or **Auto** to go back to the calculated one.
- **Recurring Status** offers **Draft**, **Active**, **Paused**, **Completed** and **Cancelled**.

## Pause and resume

From a schedule's menu, choose **Pause** to stop it, or **Resume** to start it again.

While a schedule is paused:

- It doesn't create new invoices.
- Invoices it already created that are waiting to be sent automatically are held until you resume.
- Invoices already sent to the client are unaffected. If they're set up for auto-pay, they're still charged when due.

When you resume, if the next issue date is in the past, Tillage moves it forward to the next scheduled date on or after today. Periods while the schedule was paused aren't billed.

Cancelled schedules behave like paused ones for invoices waiting to be sent.

## Delete a schedule

Choose **Delete** from the schedule's menu and confirm. This can't be undone. Invoices the schedule already created stay in **All Invoices**.

## Payment plans

When a client signs a contract or approves a quote with a payment schedule, such as a deposit and milestones, Tillage creates a payment plan. Payment plans appear in **Billing Schedules** with a **Payment Plan** badge and a count like "2 of 4 invoices".

Edit one the same way as a recurring invoice; the dialog is titled **Edit Payment Plan** and the status field is **Plan Status**. To set up the schedule itself, see [Payment schedules](https://tillage.ai/docs/contracts/payment-schedules).

Payment plan invoices are charged automatically only if auto-charge was turned on in the contract's payment schedule, the client authorized automatic payments, and a payment method was chosen. See [Auto-pay and saved cards](https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices/autopay-and-saved-cards#what-gets-charged-automatically).

## Schedule statuses

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Draft** | Saved but not creating invoices. |
| **Active** | Creating invoices on schedule. |
| **Paused** | Temporarily stopped. Resume any time. |
| **Completed** | Finished its set number of invoices. |
| **Cancelled** | Stopped for good. |

## Related

- [Auto-pay and saved cards](https://tillage.ai/docs/invoices/autopay-and-saved-cards)
- [Import from Stripe](https://tillage.ai/docs/integrations/stripe-import) to move existing subscriptions into billing schedules
- [Dashboard and analytics](https://tillage.ai/docs/reports/dashboard-and-analytics)

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