Sending Invoices

Sending Invoices

An invoice is only useful once it reaches the renter. TrailerBase ships with a send flow that covers the three moving parts — a clear email, a clean PDF, and an easy way for the renter to pay — plus the tracking you need to know what happened afterward.

Preview before sending

Always preview. Click Preview from the invoice editor and TrailerBase renders two views side-by-side:

• Email — subject line, body, and the from-address exactly as the renter will receive it.
• PDF — the invoice as it will appear both attached to the email and on the public payment page.

Preview catches the 90% of issues that happen before send: a misspelled name, a wrong line description, a missing address, a logo that didn't load. Fix and re-preview until you are happy.

Email subject and body

The default email template pulls from Settings > Invoicing > Templates. Placeholders automatically fill with real values:

• {{renter_first_name}}
• {{invoice_number}}
• {{invoice_total}}
• {{due_date}}
• {{company_name}}

You can override the subject or body on any individual invoice before sending — useful for personalized notes on larger invoices.

PDF attachment

The PDF is generated on-demand and attached to the email. It includes everything from the public page: logo, line items, subtotal, tax, discounts, total, deposits, notes, and due date. The PDF is paginated if the invoice has more than 20 or so line items, and each page carries the invoice number and your contact info in the footer.

The attachment filename follows the pattern 'Invoice-INV1042.pdf', which is friendly for renters who archive invoices in a folder.

Public link included

Inside the email, a prominent View & Pay Invoice button links to the renter's public invoice page. The page shows the same content as the PDF plus a Pay Online button wired to your connected Stripe (or similar) account. This is usually the fastest path to payment — see Public Invoice Page for what the renter sees there.

The public link is a unique, hard-to-guess URL. It is safe to share over email and it works without the renter signing in.

Click Send

Hit Send and TrailerBase does three things:

1. Emails the renter (and any CCs you added, such as a company accountant).
2. Logs the send event to the invoice's activity feed.
3. Starts tracking what happens next.

Event tracking

Once sent, the invoice records three renter-facing events automatically:

• Viewed — the renter clicked the View & Pay link or opened the email.
• Opened — the email client loaded the tracking pixel (not 100% reliable, but a useful signal).
• Paid — a payment was recorded against the invoice. Full payments close the invoice; partial payments update the balance and keep the invoice open.

The activity feed shows each event with a timestamp, and the invoice list uses these signals to highlight stalled invoices ("sent 5 days ago, never viewed").

Re-sending

If the renter says they never got the email, click Re-send in the invoice header. The same content goes out again — the link is stable, so if they paid through an earlier version, nothing breaks. You can also edit the subject to add "Reminder:" or similar before re-sending.

Bulk send

From the Invoices list, select multiple drafts and choose Send in the bulk toolbar. Perfect for month-end when you batch-prepare invoices during the day and send them all at 5 PM. See the bulk actions article for the full rundown.

A well-sent invoice turns into a paid invoice faster. Preview carefully, trust the tracking, and let the platform handle the rest.