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Understanding the schedule

A recurring invoice is generated when three things line up: today's date matches the schedule, the recurring invoice is in the Active state, and SolidInvoice's background scheduler runs. This page explains each piece.

How generation works​

SolidInvoice's background scheduler runs every hour. On each run, it:

  1. Finds every active recurring invoice.
  2. Checks whether today's date is one of the schedule's matching dates.
  3. If a date matches and an invoice hasn't already been generated for that day, it creates one.

That last step means a recurring invoice will only ever produce one invoice per matching day, even if the scheduler runs many times.

warning

The scheduler is what does the work — without it running, no invoices are generated. The Cron job setup guide covers how to set it up on each platform. The Homebrew, Docker, and quick-install paths run it automatically.

Recurring types​

The Recurring Type field decides what counts as a "matching day". Each type asks for a different follow-up.

Daily​

Generates an invoice every day from the start date onward. No follow-up field — once it's Active, it generates daily.

Weekly​

Reveals a Repeats on row of checkboxes for Monday through Sunday. Tick one or more days. An invoice is generated on each ticked day every week.

For a once-a-week subscription, tick a single day. For an every-weekday schedule, tick Monday through Friday.

Monthly​

Reveals a Days of the month multi-select with values 1st through 31st. Pick one or more. An invoice is generated on each picked day every month.

note

If you pick 31st and a month has 30 or fewer days, no invoice is generated for that month on that date — the day simply doesn't exist in that month.

Yearly​

Reveals two fields:

  • Repeats in months — checkboxes for January through December. Pick one or more.
  • Day of month (optional) — a dropdown with 1st through 31st. If left blank, the schedule uses the day from the Start Date.

A yearly schedule generates one invoice per chosen month per year, on the chosen (or inherited) day.

End conditions​

The End Recurrence field controls when the schedule stops.

  • Never — invoices are generated indefinitely until you pause, cancel, or archive the recurring invoice.
  • On the following date — reveals an End Date picker (must be in the future). The schedule stops on or after that date and the recurring invoice is automatically marked Complete.
  • After x occurrences — reveals an End After Occurrences number field. Once that many invoices have been generated, the schedule stops and the recurring invoice is marked Complete.

Complete is the natural end state — it's set automatically when one of the end conditions is reached. To stop a schedule manually, see Managing the schedule.

What you see on the view page​

The recurring invoice's view page shows a Recurring Schedule card summarising the configuration in plain English (for example, Every Monday), the Start Date, and the End Date if one is set.

While the recurring invoice is Active, an Upcoming Occurrences card lists the next few dates the scheduler is going to fire — useful for verifying the schedule does what you expected.