How to generate an invoice for a customer?

Problem Statement

Chargebee supports two types of invoices: Recurring and One-Time.

Recurring invoices are generated automatically for subscriptions based on the plan's billing frequency (weekly, monthly, yearly). No manual action is needed for renewal invoices unless Metered Billing is enabled.

You can view invoices for a customer or subscription under the Invoices tab. Use filters to narrow the list by customer ID, subscription ID, or other criteria.

Solution

Ad-hoc or one-time invoices

Besides recurring invoices, Chargebee lets you collect non-recurring charges by generating a one-time invoice. You can do this in two ways: as the merchant or through your customer.

By the merchant

Option 1: From the customer or subscription details page, use Add Charge or Add Addon.

Option 2: Use the APIs:

• Create Invoice for Charge
• Create Invoice for Addon

By your customer

The one-time payments checkout feature (released Feb 2021) lets customers make one-time purchases directly from checkout. In this case, the invoice is generated automatically.

Past or historical invoices

To create invoices for past periods (months or years), use the Import Invoice bulk operation or API. The supported parameters let you set invoice attributes such as status (Paid, Payment Due, etc.) and line items.