Automate recurring sales invoices in SamBooks
7 min read
Set up a recurring sales invoice template and let SamBooks generate it automatically at each due date, instead of recreating it by hand every month or quarter.
What it's for
If you invoice the same thing to the same customer at regular intervals — a monthly fee, a quarterly subscription, a service retainer — you don't need to recreate it every time. In Recurring invoices you define a template: customer, lines, cadence and payment details. SamBooks automatically generates the invoice draft at each due date, without you having to remember it; if you want, it can even submit it to SDI on its own.
Before you start
You need a role with write permissions on invoicing (Gestore or Amministrativo) — a Viewer can see the list of templates but can't create or edit them. The customer the template is for must already exist in your customer directory: it's picked from there, not typed freely.
Step by step
1. Open Recurring invoices and create a new template
Go to Recurring invoices from the left menu. The page lists existing templates with columns Customer, Description, Amount, Cadence, Next issue and Status. Press "New recurring invoice" at the top to open the creation dialog.
2. Choose customer, document type and cadence
Select the Customer from your directory and the Document type: Invoice (TD01) for a regular sale, Professional invoice (TD06) if the template is for a professional with withholding tax. Set the Cadence — Monthly, Bimonthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly or Yearly — and the Next issue date, i.e. when SamBooks will generate the first invoice from this template. Optionally set the Issue day (1-31), the day of the month you'd like the invoice generated on.
3. Fill in payment details, lines and any withholding tax
In the "Payment details" section, set Payment terms, Payment method and, if needed, the IBAN that will appear on the generated document (it's a free-text field on this template, not a bank-account selector like on a regular invoice). If you chose Professional invoice (TD06), the "Withholding & pension fund (professional invoice)" section also appears: withholding type, rate, payment reason, and — if the professional has a pension fund — its type and rate too. They're optional, but if a professional needs them, set them here so the generated invoice applies them on its own. In "Lines", add at least one line with "Add line": description, quantity, unit price, discount %, VAT rate (and VAT nature if the rate is 0%).
4. Decide the automation and save
In the "Automation and status" section you'll find two separate switches: "Template active", which — if turned off — stops SamBooks from generating new invoices from this template, and "Submit automatically to SDI". With the latter off (the default), every generated invoice stays as a draft and you send it yourself; turned on, the nightly run transmits it to SDI on its own, with no manual action — read the warning carefully: automatic submission is only paused during the free trial, and the manual "Generate now" button never uses it (an invoice generated by hand always stays a draft). Press "Create": if a required field is missing, the dialog stays open and shows the exact error, for example "Select a customer.", "Select the cadence.", "Set the next issue date.", "Add at least one line." On success you'll see "Recurring invoice created."
What happens at the due date
Every night at 06:30 (UTC), SamBooks checks every active template whose next issue date has passed and generates one invoice per template per run, then works out the new next-issue date from the cadence on its own. If the template has "Submit automatically to SDI" on, that same night the generated invoice is also sent to SDI; otherwise it stays as a draft among Sales invoices, waiting for you to review and send it. Either way, you get an in-app notification for every draft generated. A template linked to a Stripe subscription (see below) is the exception: it no longer follows this nightly cadence.
Generating an invoice outside the schedule
From a row's actions menu (the three-dot icon) press "Generate now" to issue the current period's invoice right away, without waiting for the night run: the button is disabled if the template isn't active, and either way the system rejects the attempt if the current period's invoice was already generated. The invoice is always created as a draft, even if the template has automatic submission on — "Generate now" never submits on its own. If the customer's and company's data are complete you'll see "Draft invoice created." with a "Go to drafts" link; if required e-invoicing data is missing you'll see "Draft created, but incomplete" — the invoice still exists among the drafts (without a number), but you need to complete it before you can send it to SDI.
Editing, activating/deactivating, deleting a template
From each row's actions menu you have "Edit" (reopens the same dialog with every field pre-filled), "Activate"/"Deactivate" (this only stops future generations — invoices already issued are untouched), and "Delete". Deleting asks for confirmation — "Delete this recurring invoice?" / "The template for '{customer}' will be deleted. Invoices already generated won't be affected." — and is irreversible only for the template: the invoices it already produced remain in the Sales invoices list as standalone documents, and there's no way to restore a deleted template.
Linking a Stripe subscription
If the customer pays through a Stripe subscription, you can link the template to it: from then on the template drops out of the cadence-based schedule and generates the invoice on the actual Stripe payment instead of the scheduled date; when the subscription is cancelled, SamBooks automatically deactivates the template, so it stops generating invoices for a customer who no longer pays. Today this link has no dedicated field in the "New recurring invoice" dialog: you set it by asking Sam (see below), or it results from activating a subscription through "Integrate Stripe".
Ask Sam
You can ask Sam to create a template, activate or deactivate it, and generate the current period's invoice — for example "create a monthly recurring invoice of €500 + VAT for customer Rossi Srl starting next month", "deactivate the recurring invoice for customer Bianchi", "generate now the recurring invoice for Rossi Srl". Sam can also link a template to a Stripe subscription. It cannot, however, edit an existing template's lines or delete it: for those two actions you need the form or the list, via "Edit" and "Delete".
If something goes wrong
- The "Generate now" button is disabled: the template is deactivated. Turn it back on with "Activate" from the actions menu.
- "Generate now" created the invoice but it's "incomplete": required customer or company data for e-invoicing is missing (for example the linked account's IBAN). Complete it from the draft invoice's detail page before sending it to SDI.
- I can't find a way to skip automatic submission just once: there's no per-invoice exception — the "Submit automatically to SDI" switch applies to every nightly generation. For an off-schedule invoice, use "Generate now", which always stays a draft.
- I deleted a template by mistake: the invoices it had already generated are untouched, in Sales invoices. The template itself has to be recreated — there's no restore.
- The next-issue date doesn't look right after the first generation: SamBooks automatically advances it according to the chosen cadence at every generation — check the date on the template row, not on the already-generated invoice.
- I want to link the template to a Stripe subscription but can't find the field: it isn't in the form today; ask Sam, or check whether the link already happened automatically when you activated the subscription from "Integrate Stripe".
Frequently asked questions
How do I avoid recreating the same invoice for a customer every month? Create a template in Recurring invoices with the cadence you need: SamBooks generates the draft on its own at each due date.
Can recurring invoices be sent to SDI without me doing anything each time? Yes, by turning on "Submit automatically to SDI" on the template: the nightly run transmits it on its own. Automatic submission is paused only during the free trial.
Why did a recurring invoice stay as a draft even with automatic submission on? Because you generated it with "Generate now": that manual action always creates a draft and never submits on its own. Automatic submission only applies to the nightly run.
Can I change the cadence of an already active template? Yes, with "Edit": the new cadence applies from the next generation onward.
If I delete a template, does an invoice it already issued disappear too? No: deleting only removes the template. The invoices it already generated stay in Sales invoices.
Can recurring invoices be linked to a Stripe subscription? Yes: a template linked to a Stripe subscription generates on the actual payment rather than the schedule, and deactivates itself when the subscription is cancelled. Today the link is set by asking Sam.
Who can create or edit a recurring invoice? Only Gestore and Amministrativo. A Viewer can see the list but can't make changes.