Recurring bills¶
For bills that arrive on a regular schedule, such as rent, insurance or a monthly subscription, a recurring bill template creates the bill for you each time it is due.
You will find them in the Expenses area under Recurring.
How it works¶
A recurring bill is a template, not a bill itself. It holds the details of a bill that repeats: the supplier, the line items, and a schedule. On each due date, FairBooks generates a real bill from the template. From there, those generated bills behave like any other bill, including marking them as paid.
Creating a template¶
- Go to Expenses, then Recurring.
- Click New Template.
- Fill in the template details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Template Name | A name for the schedule, for example "Monthly Rent". |
| Supplier | Who the bills are from. Required. |
| Reference | The supplier's reference. Optional. |
| Tag | An optional free-text label. Optional. |
| Frequency | How often to generate a bill (see below). |
| Start date | When the schedule begins. |
| End date | When it should stop. Leave empty for an indefinite schedule. |
| Generate as draft | If ticked, new bills are created as drafts for you to review before they go to awaiting payment. |
| Notes | Notes to include on each generated bill. Optional. |
- Add the line items that should appear on every generated bill (description, account, quantity, unit and price, the same as on a normal bill).
- Click Create Template.
Frequency¶
Set the frequency as "every N" of a period. The periods are days, weeks, fortnights, months, quarters and years. For example, every 1 month, or every 2 weeks.
Managing templates¶
Each template shows its frequency, next run date, status and how many bills it has generated. From the list you can:
- Pause an active template to stop it generating new bills, and Resume it later.
- Generate Due to create any bills that are due right now, without waiting.
- View Bills to see every bill this template has generated.
- Edit the template or Delete it.
A template's status is Active, Paused, or Completed (once it reaches its end date).
Deleting a template¶
Deleting a template moves it to the Rubbish Bin, where you can restore it within 30 days. Bills that the template has already generated are not affected, so you will not lose any records you were relying on. See Data and record keeping.