What is an Invoice Draft?
An invoice draft is a preliminary version of an invoice, serving as a preparatory step before the invoice is finalized and sent to the client.
It can function similarly to a pro forma invoice, allowing for adjustments and reviews before finalization.
Managing Invoicing Access
In Productive, invoicing permissions determine who can create and finalize invoice drafts. Some users may only have access to create drafts, while others can review, finalize, and send invoices.
If you can’t finalize an invoice, your permissions may be limited to draft creation. An admin can adjust your access in the Permission Builder.
📌 Check out the Custom Invoicing Permissions article for more details.
Creating an Invoice Draft
When creating an invoice, the invoice creation wizard guides you through creating a draft first, rather than finalizing the invoice immediately.
Within the draft, you can choose and adjust the following:
Invoicing method: Select the method you'd like to use (learn more about invoicing methods here).
Subsidiary: Choose the subsidiary you want to invoice the client from (more on subsidiaries here).
Tax rate: Choose one of the tax rates you set up for the subsidiary.
Document template: Select the template for your PDF and invoicing email's appearance (learn more about document templates here).
Item display: Decide how you'd like to display the items in your invoice (more about optimizing your invoices here).
Once satisfied with your invoice (you'll see a preview at the bottom), select "Create draft" in the upper-right corner.
This will take you to the final step of the invoice creation process.
Automatic Invoice Settings
Productive will automatically preselect invoice settings based on the previous invoice drafted or sent to the same client.
This feature helps you avoid manually selecting the same settings again, making your invoicing process smoother and more efficient!
What's Copied?
Invoicing method
Subsidiary
Document template
"Display line items as" information
Tax rate
Draft Stage Features
The invoice will have a Draft badge.
It will not have an invoice number.
It is not accounted for in revenue calculations but is visible in your budget in the Services tab.
It will also appear in the Invoices tab within a budget. To learn more about tracking finalized, draft, and remaining amounts, check out the Invoicing Progress Bar article.
Draft invoices can be analyzed through reports.
Will show a Draft watermark if exported to PDF.
Managing the Draft
Draft invoices include several tabs:
Invoice: Main invoice details
Feed: A log of all changes and a space for comments and tagging
Payments: Overview of any payments linked to the invoice (once finalized)
Reminders: More on payment reminders (once marked as sent)
You can also:
Add or adjust line items – Update descriptions, quantities, or amounts before finalizing the invoice or add new line items.
Manage subscribers – Add teammates who’ll get notified of updates.
Use a custom BCC email address – Link external emails to this invoice. Learn more.
Duplicate or delete the draft or export a timesheet if time has been logged to the budget you’re invoicing, all via the three-dot menu
Invoice Drafts and Accounting Integrations
An invoice can be exported to the accounting tool even while in draft status.
The invoice number can be also assigned by the accounting tool, as adjusted in the integration settings (Settings > App Marketplace).
Selecting "Copy to accounting" will also finalize the invoice.
Finalizing the Invoice
Once you’re done editing and reviewing your draft, you’ll move on to finalizing the invoice. To learn more about this, check out Finalizing and Sending Invoices.
Monitoring Invoice Drafts
To keep track of your invoice drafts and see how they contribute to your overall billing process, you can build custom reports or use ready-made templates. Learn more in Monitoring Invoice Drafts and Finalized Invoices.