Creating Invoices

Creating Invoices

Every dollar of revenue in TrailerBase flows through an invoice. Whether it is a simple weekend rental or a multi-line commercial charge with deposits, tolls, and delivery, the invoice builder is designed to take you from blank to sent in about a minute.

Starting a new invoice

From the left nav, open Invoices and click New. You will see two options:

• From reservation — pick an existing reservation and TrailerBase auto-builds the invoice with the rental charges, any add-ons you logged, and the renter already selected. This is the path you will use 90% of the time.
• Blank — start from scratch with an empty invoice. Useful for one-off charges like a sold-for-parts axle or a commercial-account consulting fee.

Renter selection

If you started from a reservation, the renter is pre-filled. Otherwise, pick the renter from the autocomplete or click + Add new renter to create one on the fly.

Once a renter is selected, their saved address and billing details populate the invoice header. If you have a company name on file, it appears above the renter name so commercial accounts look right on PDFs.

Line items

The heart of the invoice. Each line has:

• Description — what the renter is paying for.
• Quantity — number of units, days, hours, whatever makes sense.
• Unit price — per-unit cost in your default currency.
• Amount — calculated automatically (qty * unit price).

You can re-order lines with the drag handle, duplicate a line with one click, and delete with the trash icon. TrailerBase keeps a subtotal tally at the bottom that updates live as you edit. For a full breakdown of what each line type means, see Invoice Line Items.

Tax line

Toggle on the Tax line and choose a rate (workspace default or a custom rate you enter). Tax is applied to the subtotal. If some lines are tax-exempt (for example, a security deposit hold), you can mark those lines individually with the exempt flag — the tax calculation skips them automatically.

Discount line

Add a discount as either a flat amount or a percentage of the subtotal. Type a description ("Loyalty 10%", "Weather credit", "Referral discount") and the amount — it subtracts from the running total. Discounts always apply before tax unless you flip the toggle in Invoice Settings.

Notes

Two notes fields are available:

• Public note — appears on the renter-facing PDF and online invoice page. Use this for thanks, payment instructions, or policy reminders.
• Internal note — staff-only, stored with the record, never shown to the renter. Good for reminders like "negotiated rate, do not raise."

Due date

Set the date by which payment is expected. If you have a default in Settings > Invoicing (such as Net 7 or Due on Receipt), the field is pre-filled but can be overridden per invoice. The due date drives every downstream reminder and overdue calculation.

Saving vs. sending

At the bottom of the invoice you have three paths:

• Save as draft — stores the invoice without sending. It appears in your Drafts tab for later editing.
• Preview — renders the PDF and the public page exactly as the renter will see them, so you can sanity-check formatting before hitting send.
• Send — emails the invoice with your configured template. See Sending Invoices for the details.

Editing after send

You can still edit a sent invoice as long as no payments have been applied. Once a payment is recorded, the invoice locks; further changes require issuing a credit note or a new invoice to keep the audit trail clean.

Clean, itemized invoices are the difference between getting paid on time and chasing invoices all week. Take the extra 20 seconds to describe each line well — your future self will thank you.