Invoicing
Good work deserves a good invoice, and a paid one
Quote, invoice, get paid, and know what each payment does to your tax position. Bilbee's invoicing is the engine under the estimate, and it's complete: quotes with deposits, recurring retainers, scheduled sends, card payments through your own Stripe, reminders that go out on time, credit notes and statements when you need them. Reminders, statements and late fees come with Standard; scheduled sends, auto-send and time tracking with Pro.
Jamie Okafor · ABN 91 345 678 901Tax invoice INV-0043
$1,980.00
Due 28 Sep 2026
Ref INV-0043
Quotes
Clients say yes with one click
Send a quote as a link. Your client reads it, accepts or declines, and you hear about it straight away. Accepted? Convert it to an invoice, or raise a deposit invoice first and keep the balance linked to the same job. The quote stays on record, marked converted, so nothing gets billed twice.
Valid-until date on every quote, so an old one doesn't get accepted in March.
Deposit on acceptance, a percentage of the quote, raised as a draft invoice from the quote page.
Duplicate last time's for the client who books the same job every quarter.
Invoices
Your logo, your colour, your bank details, every time
Set them once. Every invoice carries your branding and your ABN, and says TAX INVOICE only when it's allowed to: when you're registered for GST and the ABN checks out. Line items come from your catalogue so the same service is priced the same way. Unbilled expenses and tracked hours for the client sit in a side panel, ready to pull in.
A catalogue of what you sell, so "Half-day illustration" is one click, not a retype.
Bill the expenses back. Passed-through costs come straight off the expense you already logged.
GST done properly. Registered or not, GST-free and export lines handled, totals that agree with the BAS.
Payments
Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, through your own Stripe
Connect your Stripe account and every invoice link gets a Pay now button. The money settles in your Stripe, then your bank, the way it would if you'd built the checkout yourself. Bilbee doesn't touch it and doesn't take a cut. No Stripe? Your bank details are on every invoice and clients pay by transfer, as they always have.
Stripe's fees are Stripe's. The invoice shows the full amount; what you receive is up to your Stripe pricing.
Your account, your money. We ask for a restricted Stripe key that can create checkouts and read payments, and nothing else: it can't refund, pay out or change your account. It's stored encrypted, separate from everything else in your account.
Recorded automatically. A card payment marks the invoice paid, logs the payment, and updates your set-aside.
Test mode included. Try it with a test key and a test card before you go live.
Getting paid
Never write the awkward email again
On Standard and Pro, turn reminders on and Bilbee sends a gentle heads-up three days before the due date, then a nudge at three days overdue and again at seven. Late fees, if you use them, apply on the schedule you set. A client with several invoices open can get a single statement of everything outstanding.
Choose the steps. Keep all three or drop the early one.
Late fees, your rules. A flat amount or a percentage, after the grace period you pick.
Credit notes done properly. Refund or correct an invoice with a note that references it, so the books and the BAS stay straight.
Recurring
Set the retainer once
A monthly retainer, a fortnightly or weekly maintenance fee: set up the template and Bilbee raises the invoice each period, early that morning. On Pro, turn on auto-send and it goes to the client too.
Catch-up is careful. If a template starts in the past, the back-periods arrive as drafts for you to check, not as twelve emails at once.
Pause and resume without losing the sequence.
Scheduled sends on Pro, for one-off invoices: write it Friday, send it Monday morning.
Time
Track the hours, then invoice them
On Pro, run a timer or log the day in the timesheet. Bilbee can overlay your Google Calendar so you can see what the day was and mark the billable bits. When the job's done, the hours pull straight into an invoice line, at the client's rate.
Day and calendar views, with copy-yesterday for the weeks that repeat.
Calendar overlay is read-only: Bilbee looks, never writes.
Unbilled hours wait in the invoice builder when you pick the client, until they're invoiced.
The tie-back
Every paid invoice moves the number
This is where invoicing and tax meet. When INV-0042 is paid, the estimate for the year updates, the set-aside for that payment is shown, and the BAS worksheet picks up the GST. Invoicing and tax aren't two apps that happen to share a login. They're the same books.
How the estimate worksSample data: Jamie, illustrator, Brunswick.
Questions about invoicing
Can my clients pay by card?
Yes, if you connect your own Stripe account. The invoice link gets a Pay now button with card, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Money goes to your Stripe; Bilbee takes nothing.
Do I need Stripe?
No. Without it, invoices show your bank details and clients pay by transfer. Record the payment when it lands, or import your bank statement and match it.
Can I send a quote first?
Yes. Quotes go out as links, clients accept or decline online, and an accepted quote converts to an invoice, or to a deposit invoice with the balance to follow.
Can I schedule an invoice to go out later?
On Pro, yes, to the date and the minute, and recurring templates can send themselves.
What if I'm not registered for GST?
Your invoices say INVOICE rather than TAX INVOICE, no GST is added, and nothing about the BAS appears until you register.
Can I import from a spreadsheet or another tool?
Your client list and your bank statement, yes. Save your clients as a CSV (exports from Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks work as they are) and Bilbee adds them, skipping any it already has. Export a CSV from your bank and Bilbee reconciles it against what you've recorded. Bringing historical invoices across isn't there yet; most people start fresh at the beginning of a quarter, which is also when the BAS starts clean.