Progressive invoicing lets you keep billing a job on the same invoice. After an invoice is issued, you can add the next phase of work or change lines that are not paid yet. Every change is kept in the invoice's history, and earlier versions are never overwritten.
Owners, administrators, dispatchers, and office staff can make these changes.
Add work or edit lines
- Open the issued invoice from
/invoices. - Select Add work (or Edit invoice once it has been changed before).
- Edit unpaid lines, or use Add work in the editor to bill the next phase. A negative price adds a discount. Paid lines stay as they are.
- Check New invoice total, Paid and credited, and Balance due.
- Optionally fill in What changed (for your history, not the customer).
- Select Save changes.
The new total cannot be less than what has already been paid.
What happens after you save
- Payment link: an unused payment link is replaced with one for the new balance, and the old link stops working. If a new link could not be made, the invoice says an owner or admin can create one.
- Accounting: if Trades Operator keeps your books, amount changes post an adjusting journal entry and the original entry is not edited. If QuickBooks keeps your books, Trades Operator does not send the change to QuickBooks, so update the invoice there too.
- Select Text the customer the update in the confirmation to send the updated invoice to the customer.
- Select History (shown once the invoice has been changed) to see each revision.
If it is not working
The Add work button is disabled with a reason when:
- "A payment is awaiting confirmation": editing opens again when its result is confirmed.
- "A payment on this invoice is disputed": the dispute must be resolved first.
- "This invoice was imported": change it in the system it came from.
- "Issued before Trades Operator kept your books": review it in Accounting first.
Other messages:
- Invoice not updated: check that each line has a description, quantity, and price, then try again. Paid lines and lines from the accepted estimate cannot be changed; add a new line instead.
- If the accounting period for that date is closed, only wording can change until it is reopened.
Last updated 2026-10-09. Questions? Email support@tradesoperator.com.