Invoice
The itemized request you send a client telling them what they owe, when it is due, and exactly how to pay.
See it
What it is
An invoice is a dated, itemized request for payment. It names the client and supplier, says what was delivered, shows the amount and any tax, gives a due date, and tells the client how to pay. A quote names a firm price for defined work before it begins; an invoice asks for the agreed money after a contract trigger; a receipt proves the money arrived.
Send one as soon as the event in the contract occurs, whether that is signature, a completed milestone, monthly service, or final delivery. Give it a unique invoice number and repeat the project name, PO number, payment terms, and bank or payment-link instructions so accounts payable does not have to reconstruct the deal from an email thread. In a growing number of places the invoice is not a PDF at all but a structured file: Italy has routed B2B invoices through the Sistema di Interscambio as FatturaPA XML since 2019, and EU public bodies must be able to receive invoices in the EN 16931 format, usually delivered over the Peppol network.
Gotcha: the due date does not repair bad payment terms. If the contract says net 30, putting 'due on receipt' on the invoice does not replace that agreement. A missing PO number, wrong legal entity, or vague line item can also get the invoice rejected as invalid, which may delay the start of the payment clock. Plenty of large accounts payable teams run an explicit 'no PO, no pay' policy, so an invoice without the number bounces back before a human has read a word of it.
Ask AI for it
Draft a professional-services invoice from the project details below and output it as a Stripe Invoicing draft invoice payload. Set `collection_method` to `send_invoice` and `days_until_due` to the contractual net terms. Put the PO number and project reference in `custom_fields`, the supplier legal name and remit-to bank details in `footer`, and each deliverable in its own invoice item with description, quantity, unit amount, and currency. Add `metadata` for the SOW reference and the milestone that triggered the invoice. Leave `number` to Stripe and do not set it by hand. Flag any missing information instead of inventing it, and match every line-item wording to the signed SOW.