Invoice Statuses and Lifecycle

Last updated: 2026-07-09 Summary:

• An invoice moves Draft → Sent → Viewed → Partial → Paid as it is issued, opened, and collected.
• Overdue and Void are side states; Written-off exists as a status only.
• Statuses in the shareable set (Sent, Viewed, Partial, Overdue, Paid) can carry a public pay link.

The statuses

Status	Meaning	What triggers it
Draft	Created but not issued; no journal entry yet	Saving a new invoice
Sent	Issued to the customer; revenue + receivable posted	Clicking Send Invoice, or emailing a draft
Viewed	The customer opened the public invoice page	Customer opens /public/invoice/{token}
Partial	Part of the balance is settled	A partial payment or credit memo is applied
Paid	Balance due is zero	Payment or credit brings the balance to nil
Overdue	Past its due date and still unpaid	Due date passes with a balance outstanding
Void	Cancelled; original postings reversed	Clicking Void Invoice
Written-off	An uncollectible-debt status	See note below

How the lifecycle flows

A normal invoice starts as Draft. Sending it (or emailing a draft) posts the journal entry and moves it to Sent. When the customer opens the public page it becomes Viewed. As payments — or applied credit memos — come in, it becomes Partial and then Paid once the balance reaches zero. If the due date passes while a balance remains, it shows as Overdue.

Void is a terminal side state: voiding posts a reversing entry and removes the invoice from AR aging and from the shareable set. See Void an invoice.

The shareable set

An invoice can mint a public pay link and be viewed online when it is Sent, Viewed, Partial, Overdue, or Paid. Draft, Void, and Written-off are not shareable — their public links return “not found.” A Paid invoice keeps its link live as a receipt. See Send a customer a pay link.

A note on Written-off

Written-off is a defined status, but there is no user-facing write-off action in eKapital today — you cannot mark an invoice written-off from the app, and no workflow transitions an invoice into this state. Treat it as a reserved status value, not a feature. To remove an uncollectible sale from your books today, use a credit memo or void as appropriate.

See also

• Invoice document types
• Void an invoice
• Read the AR aging report
• Email an invoice to your customer