An invoice gathers a client's billable line items for one payer over a billing period, so you can review the charges and send them for payment. Here's the full flow.
Invoices are for private-pay payers — the client, their family, or another direct (non-insurance) payer. Insurance and other third-party payers are billed through claims instead, a separate flow covered in the Insurance & Claims articles.
Create an invoice
Go to Billing → Invoices → Create Invoice, then choose:
Client
Payer — the private-pay payers linked to the client by an active policy.
Service — only services covered by an active policy for that client and payer appear.
If a client has no policy linking them to a payer, you'll be prompted to create one first — that's how Careswitch knows what to charge and for what services.
Invoices are organized into invoice groups — one per client, payer, and billing cycle — so related charges stay together.
Invoice numbers
Every invoice (and reimbursement invoice) carries a consistent invoice number — for example, CS-PP-1023. The same number appears everywhere the invoice does: the invoice page, PDFs, emails, payment pages and receipts, exports, and file names. You can search for an invoice by its number from the invoice tables or the global search, and if you sync with QuickBooks Online, the number in QuickBooks always matches.
Review before sending
On the invoice you can see and adjust everything before it goes out: line items (shift hours, travel time, mileage), expenses, the amount due, and any convenience fee. While line items are Billable you can add, remove, or edit them; once the invoice is sent, they lock.
Check the invoice is complete
Invoices tell you whether anything is missing. When a billing period ends, the invoice page flags shifts from that period that aren't on the invoice yet — grouped by whether they're ready to add, still need review, or were never worked — with one-click Add and Add all actions to pull the ready ones in. If you send an invoice while shifts are still missing, the send confirmation warns you first.
Mark it Reviewed — or put it on hold
Two statuses help you manage the review step on private-pay invoices:
Reviewed — the invoice is checked and ready to send. It locks against edits, and Careswitch records who marked it reviewed and when.
Paused — the invoice is on hold: still editable, but it can't be sent until you take it off hold.
Move line items to another invoice
Every line item — shift hours, travel time, mileage, and expenses — can be moved to another invoice, individually or in bulk. Select items with the per-item checkboxes and choose Move to invoice… to consolidate the selection onto one destination invoice. Moves never change rates or payers on their own — the amounts stay exactly as they were. (Items can be moved while they're still Billable; once an invoice is sent or marked Reviewed, its items are locked.)
Send and get paid
Sending the invoice moves its line items to Billed. An invoice moves through these statuses:
Open — being prepared.
Reviewed — checked and ready to send; locked against edits.
Paused — on hold; editable but can't be sent.
Sent — delivered to the payer.
Processing — an electronic (Stripe) payment is in flight.
Paid / Partially paid — payment received.
Failed — an electronic payment didn't go through; retry it.
Void — canceled.
For how clients pay online, see "Collecting private-pay payments and convenience fees."
Attach client documents to an emailed invoice
When a payer needs supporting paperwork with the bill — a signed service agreement, a care plan, a doctor's order — you can send documents that are already on the client's profile along with the invoice email, instead of sending them separately.
Open the invoice group and choose to send (or resend) the invoice by email. In the Send Invoice dialog, check Attach client documents.
Pick the files from the list of the client's documents (newest first, each with its upload date). You can search by name. Choose up to 5 documents per send.
Send the invoice as usual.
A few things to know:
The option appears when the invoice is set to be delivered by email, the payer is an organization contact, and you have permission to view client documents.
Nothing new is uploaded here — the list is the client's existing Documents tab. If the document you need isn't there yet, use Upload a document to the client profile from the dialog, then come back and attach it.
There's a total size limit for one email (about 18 MB of attachments). If the selection is too large to send together, Careswitch tells you and asks you to deselect some documents.
The invoice's Activity records the send, including the address it went to and the name of each document attached — so you can prove later what was sent with the bill.
The invoice activity feed
Each invoice group keeps an Activity history of what happened to it: creation, edits, status changes, sends and resends (with any attached documents named), payments, and adjustments. For third-party claims it also records the claim's story — submissions, submission errors (logged as Claim issue entries showing when they were reported), any error a teammate dismissed (with who dismissed it and what the error said), and ERA payments. When a payer reverses an earlier payment and issues a corrected one on the same remittance, both transactions appear: an ERA payment reversed entry and a New ERA payment entry.
Keeping an eye on all your invoices
The Billing → Invoices tab has summary cards across the top — Submission Ready (unsent billing waiting to go out), Total Paid, Total Outstanding, and Total Billed. Click a card to filter the table to the invoices behind it, and use the Invoice Age filter to narrow by how long invoices have been outstanding. When unsent billing is waiting, a pulsing indicator on Billing in the navigation tells you at a glance. For a payer-by-payer view of what's owed and for how long, see the Receivables tab.
Billing periods
For a private-pay invoice, you choose the billing period when you create it. (Third-party claims run on a set billing frequency instead — see the Insurance & Claims articles.)
FAQ
Why can't I create an invoice for this client?
The client needs an active private-pay policy linking them to the payer, and the service must be covered by it. Set up the policy first. (If the payer is insurance, you'll bill them through claims, not an invoice.)
Can I change an invoice after I send it?
No — once sent, its line items are Billed and locked. Void the invoice if you need to start over.
Why don't I see "Attach client documents" when sending?
It only shows when the invoice is delivered by email, the payer is an organization, and your role can view client documents. If the client has no documents yet, the dialog offers a link to upload one to their profile first.
How is billing different for insurance clients?
Insurance is billed through claims rather than these private-pay invoices. We cover that in the Insurance & Claims articles.