Thank you for participating in the New Invoice Format & Easier Billing Format Beta Program! You're getting early access to Phase 1 of the new invoicing experience we've been building in LMN, and your feedback will directly shape how we release it to everyone else
In this article:
Feature Overview
New Invoice Format
Our goal is to save you time by turning your estimates into clean, professional invoices, automatically carrying over your work areas, line items, prices, cost codes, and line item taxability.
Easier Billing Setup
Billing configuration now lives on a clearer Billing Setup tab. You will be able to pick an Invoice Plan — Milestone or Single Invoice (and coming soon: Progress Billing) — you won’t have to guess which plan you need.
Customize Invoice View
You can now decide per invoice how much detail to show your customer (work areas, item detail, item prices, etc. ) – high-level summary detail for one or a fuller breakdown for another.
How to Get Started:
In LMN, once you have added work areas to a standard estimate, open the Billing Setup tab.
From here, you can choose between Milestone Billing vs Single Invoice
Milestone Billing from a Standard Estimate
Milestone billing splits a job into payments tied to defined stages rather than one invoice at the end.
Click on Milestone Billing under Billing Setup
You can now easily create a deposit invoice by clicking on the toggle beside Deposit on the right hand side.
⚠️ Note: If you are not creating a Deposit, you can go directly to + Add Milestone
Enter the Deposit amount as a percentage.
Next, create your milestone schedule by clicking on + Add Milestone. Each milestone has a description field, a percentage and the dollar amount calculated automatically for you.
Click Save
💡A note on taxes: The tax rate shown on the right pulls from the estimate. If line items have mixed rates (EXMT and actual), it uses the actual rate, which you can still edit. If you have multiple actual rates, it uses the most commonly selected rate.
Once you click Save, you can generate the Deposit invoice.
The New Invoicing Format will now display the dollar amount billed towards the planned job total, as well as work areas and details pulled in directly from the estimate (which you can show/hide on the Preview & Send screen with Customize Invoice View - more on this below).
Single Invoice Billing from Standard Estimates
You are now able to schedule a single invoice that pulls work areas, pricing and taxes directly from the estimate. This workflow is targeted at smaller or straightforward projects, and billed for the entire job once the job is complete.
From the Estimate, click on Billing Setup
Click on Single Invoice
A scheduled invoice will appear for you that has a description field, a percentage field and a dollar amount calculated automatically for you based on the percentages entered.
If a Deposit needs to be collected, you can click on the toggle to initiate the Deposit setup. Enter in the % of the Deposit and click Save. The percentage in the scheduled invoice will adjust automatically and deduct from the Deposit %.
Example: Deposit = 10 %, Single Invoice is automatically = 90%
Next, generate Deposit invoice, then Create Invoice
From the New Invoice Details Screen, you can edit the invoice status under Pending on the top left, see the percentage of the job billed, work area details and percentage of planned total billed. (If you have LMN Pay, you can adjust the allowed Payment Methods, edit your Processing Fees % (Stripe only) and process a card or ACH payment).
⚠️ Work Areas cannot be edited as they are populated directly from the estimate. If you need to edit the Cost Code or Crew Lead associated with the invoice, you can do so at the bottom.
Once reviewed, click on Preview & Send to customize what your customers will see under the new Customize Invoice View feature
Customize Invoice View
From the Preview & Send screen, users can now decide per invoice how much detail to show (work area detail, line detail and prices) prior to sending an invoice out.
By default, only work area details and item details will show, not prices. A user can choose to set a customized view one time or set them as the default for all future invoices of the same type (Standard).
To start, click on Customize
From the Customized Invoice View panel, you can choose which line items your customer will see on a particular invoice.
To change what is selected as the Default moving forward for all invoices, click on Save as Default and then Apply. Defaults can be set by each user within an Account.
Once you have previewed your invoice, click Send
Generating Invoices from the Job
Milestone Billing and Single Billing Invoices cannot be generated into invoices from the estimate, only scheduled.
To generate your Milestone or Single Billing invoice,
Click on Create Job from the estimate > Import Now
Then click on Billing. Your Billing Setup will be reflected here, along with any deposit invoices created from within the estimate.
💡TIP: If you forgot to generate a Deposit invoice from the estimate, you can create one in the Job. If you wish to change your billing setup prior to generating any invoices, click on Edit Plan
When you are ready to generate your Milestone or Single Invoice, click on Generate > Create Invoice
Milestone Billing View (New Job Detail Page)
If you are using Jobs Classic view, and not the New Job Detail Page, your Billing screen will look like this inside the job:
Single Invoice Billing View (New Job Detail Page)
If you are using Jobs Classic view, and not the New Job Detail Page, your Billing screen will look like this inside the job:
Milestone and Single Billing invoices generated from the Job (either Classic View or New Jobs Detail Page) will have the same New Invoicing Format as the Deposit invoice. You will be able to see the percentage previously billed, what percentage the current invoice adds up to, and the remaining amount to be billed from the planned total of the Job.
⚠️ Note: Planned total includes only planned (milestone) invoices – not other one-off invoices you create outside the plan (more on these below).
The work area names, prices and taxes will appear here directly from the estimate. The work area line items cannot be edited on the invoice, but you can customize what the customer sees on theirs through the Customize Invoice View feature
If you need to edit the Cost Code or Crew Lead associated with the invoice, you can do so at the bottom
One-Off Invoices from the Job
If you need to create a one-off invoice within the job outside of the schedule created, you can do it under the Milestone Schedule by clicking Create Invoice.
Any totals from one-off invoices will get added to the Jobs Billing Summary total (New Job Detail Page only).
Taxes
All scheduled Milestone or Single Billing invoice totals will be reflected pre tax before they are generated. The tax rate will auto populate based on options selected on the estimate’s Work Areas+ Pricing Tab as follows:
If all items in all work areas have tax set to EXMT: EXMT
If at least one item has an actual tax rate other than EXMT: that actual tax rate
If multiple tax rates exist on different items within the same estimate: the actual (non-EXMT) tax rate that appears the most
🛑 Very Important: We know a small portion of our customers use multiple tax rates inside the same estimate. We cannot support this for invoicing, as QBO does not support multiple tax rates per invoice.
FAQs
Does this change invoices I've already created or sent?
No. Invoices you've already created or sent keep their existing format. The new format applies to new invoices you create after the feature is turned on for your account. Existing configured milestones are not rewritten.
Are the invoice PDFs changing?
The PDF will remain as it is today with showing the summary: the milestone name and its total.
Do I still need to activate invoicing?
No, except if you create a job without an estimate.
Can I control how much detail my customer sees?
Yes. Customize Invoice View (the gear icon in the top right of the Preview & Send screen) lets you decide, per invoice, whether to show work areas, item detail, and/or item prices. You can share a full breakdown with one customer and a simpler view with another.
What happened to the cost code and tax fields on Billing Setup?
Cost codes now flow automatically from work areas, and taxability flows from line items directly to the invoice, instead of being re-entered on Billing Setup.
Tax rate is auto-populated based on the options selected on the Work Areas + Pricing tab, as follows:
If all items in all work areas have tax set to EXMT: EXMT
If at least one item has an actual tax rate other than EXMT: that actual tax rate
If multiple tax rates exist on different items within the same estimate: the non-EXMT tax rate that appears most often
🛑 Very Important: We know a portion of our customers use multiple tax rates inside the same estimate. We will not support this for invoicing in the near future, as QBO does not support multiple tax rates per invoice.
What about progress (percentage-based) billing?
Coming later this year.
What if we skipped billing setup on the estimate?
You can set up the Invoice Plan directly from the Billing tab on the Job — no need to go back to the estimate.
Can I set taxability or cost codes per milestone during setup?
No. Taxability and cost codes are set at the line-item and Work Area level on the estimate and carry through to the invoice, which keeps that data consistent end to end. You can still toggle line-item taxability on the Work Areas + Pricing tab, and milestone and invoice totals reflect it when calculating tax.
Can I still bill milestones by a fixed dollar amount?
No. Milestones and deposits are now percentage-only. You set each milestone's %, and the dollar amount is calculated for you. We went this direction because percentages always recalculate cleanly against the updated project total if scope changes (change orders and optional work areas on estimates — both coming soon). We may also allow dollar amounts down the road, pending feedback
What happens if I create a job without an estimate?
You'll get the old Invoice Activation tab, where you can pick a billing type, plus the old invoice tabs (Invoice Schedule and Invoices). You will not get the new Billing tab. Invoices created on that job will not have the new Work Areas + line items format, but they will still have a refreshed appearance.
Can I generate invoices from the estimate?
Only deposits can be generated and sent from estimates. You must convert the estimate to a job to create and send milestone or single invoices.
If I edit the estimate after the job exists, does the invoice update?
No. Invoice content is captured when the invoice is generated — Work Area details are copied onto the invoice at that moment. Estimate edits made after the job is created don't flow back into already-generated invoices (this matches how LMN works today).
What's different on the milestone invoice details page?
A few things, all aimed at keeping billing accurate. You can no longer add extra items to a milestone invoice (we may support this down the road, but for now you can create a one-off invoice instead). Tax can't be changed on the invoice because it flows in from the estimate and Billing Setup (can only be changed on one-off invoices). Payment history and outstanding balance are shown on each invoice. Billing-progress detail is now available. You can change stage and status right from the top of the page. Send Reminder is now a top-level action instead of buried in the "More" menu. Lesser-used fields (salesperson, account manager, etc.) are tucked into a More Details panel to reduce clutter
Can I merge a milestone invoice with other invoices?
New-format milestone invoices (Work Areas + line items) can't be merged with any other invoices. One-off and T&M invoices can still be merged with each other. We may add a way to merge milestone invoices later, depending on feedback.
Can the contracted total change after billing is set up?
No. The contracted total is locked when an estimate and billing setup are in place, to keep the invoice in sync with the Work Areas / pricing source of truth. In the near future, our new change orders feature will help support this.
Do milestone invoices created from the Generate screen get the new format?
No. Milestone invoices created from the Generate screen will not use the new invoice format. This is a rarely (if ever) used workflow for milestone invoicing.
Is the one-off / T&M invoice details page changing?
It's getting a visual refresh — the functionality is exactly the same, but the page is cleaner and snappier. We’re improving the T&M invoice format along with our upcoming maintenance invoicing changes.
Why do invoices and Billing Setup still look the same for Service and Maintenance?
We’re improving these next. Stay tuned.