Invoicing & Getting Paid

HomeWatcher isn't just where you do the work — it's where you bill for it. You can build an invoice from the visits and concierge tasks you've already completed, email it to your client, and collect payment by card online or record a payment you took offline. This guide walks you through the whole flow.

Create an invoice

You assemble a bill that can mix recurring home-watch fees and one-off concierge work, so a single invoice can cover everything you did for a client this month.

1. Go to Invoices and click New invoice.
2. Pick the Client and Property. The property list narrows to the client you chose, and if that property has a saved billing rate, HomeWatcher seeds a default line item for you.
3. (Optional) Set a billing period and a due date. The due date defaults to today plus your standard payment terms.
4. Click Pull in visits to automatically add every completed, not-yet-invoiced home-watch visit for that property, and Pull in services to add billable, completed concierge tasks. Each one becomes a line item — no retyping, and nothing gets billed twice.
5. Add any extra manual charges with Add line item, set a tax percentage if you need one, and watch the live Subtotal / Tax / Total preview update.
6. Click Create invoice. It's saved as a draft with the next sequential number (INV-0001, INV-0002, and so on).

While it's still a draft you can re-open and edit anything — add more visits, change the tax, tweak the notes. Once you send it, the invoice locks except for recording payments or voiding.

Send it to your client

1. Open the invoice and click Send to client.
2. Confirm in the dialog. HomeWatcher generates a PDF, emails it to your client's primary email address, and moves the invoice to Sent.

The emailed invoice includes a secure Pay now link, and the same link appears on the invoice page so you can copy it anytime.

Let your client pay online by card

If you've connected Stripe (a one-time setup in your billing settings), your client can pay by card in a couple of clicks:

1. Your client opens the Pay now link and lands on a secure Stripe checkout page.
2. They pay the outstanding balance by card. The money goes directly into your own Stripe account — HomeWatcher never sits in the middle of your invoice payments and takes no cut.
3. They see a friendly Payment received confirmation page, and the invoice is automatically marked paid. A receipt is emailed to them.

If a client is already paid up, the link shows an "already paid" message instead. And if you haven't finished connecting Stripe yet, the link shows your contact details so the client can arrange payment another way.

Recover the card processing fee

Card payments are convenient for your client and a cost to you. Stripe's processing fee comes straight out of what you collect, so a $200 invoice paid by card does not put $200 in your account.

You can pass that cost on. In Billing Settings, set a payment fee percentage. From then on, invoices carry the fee as its own line, and three things happen automatically:

• The invoice shows the fee separately, under the label you choose, so nothing looks like a mystery markup.
• The Stripe checkout page repeats it in the payment description, so the client sees it again before they pay.
• The invoice total, the payment link, and your finance reporting all use the fee-inclusive amount.

You stay in control per invoice. Any single invoice's fee can be waived if you would rather absorb it for a particular client, and the invoice recalculates on the spot.

Two things worth knowing. The fee is yours, not ours: HomeWatcher takes no cut of your invoice payments, and this setting only recovers what Stripe charges you. And check your local rules before switching it on, because some states and card network agreements limit how card surcharges can be applied. A flat service fee applied to every payment method is usually the safer framing.

Record a payment you took offline

Not every payment comes through the card link. When a client pays by check, cash, or bank transfer, record it yourself:

1. On the invoice, click Record payment.
2. The Amount pre-fills with the current balance due. Choose the payment method (check, bank transfer, cash, card, or other) and add a note if you like, such as a check number.
3. Click Record. If it covers the full balance the invoice becomes Paid; otherwise it's marked Partially Paid, and you can record more later until it's cleared.

Void a mistake

If an invoice was sent in error, open it and click Void. It's marked void and dropped out of your outstanding and overdue totals. Drafts you never sent can simply be deleted.

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Every invoice and payment feeds straight into your finance reporting, so your numbers always stay current. Want to see how it all fits together? Explore the full feature set, check pricing, or jump in at app.homewatchtools.com.