Cobot simplifies your administrative tasks by automating the invoicing process for your memberships, member bookings, and one-time member charges.

With automated invoicing, you can direct your focus towards other aspects of your workspace management, ensuring a more efficient and hassle-free experience. Enhance your user experience even more by adding automated payment methods. Hence, your invoices are not only automatically generated but charged as well!

You can invoice non-members in your space, such as visitors who book a room or purchase day passes from your Homepage. Click here to read more on this.

By default, Cobot automatically generates and sends invoices to your members on two cycles:

The membership renewal date is when membership fees are charged. Their monthly invoicing date is when extra charges, such as one-time fees and bookings, are processed.

When an invoice is generated on either billing cycle, Cobot will:

Whenever someone registers for a membership in your space, they are automatically assigned a renewal date. The renewal date is based on the cycle set in the 'Per' field in the membership plan's 'Basic Settings' tab.

If your member is billed monthly, this date is the same as their monthly invoicing date.

You can change your member's renewal date by going to Manage » Members » Click on the member's name » Membership » Change Renewal Date.

Along with automated invoices created on your member's renewal date, Cobot will also look for any additional charges on the member's account, such as booking fees or one-time charges/credits, and generate a monthly recurring invoice for them.

Only a single invoice for all charges will be created if the membership fees are also monthly.

The monthly billing date is also tied to the date the member registers, but NOT to the frequency of their membership renewal fee.

For example:

It is good practice to review your member's upcoming invoices anytime you make changes to their account, such as changing their renewal date or adding a one-time charge.

Head to their member profile » Invoicing » Preview Next Invoice to see what's coming.

Utilize free-form invoices when you want to charge your member promptly rather than post charges to the member's account so it is added to their next recurring invoice.

To create a free-form invoice, go to your members profile » Invoicing » New Free-form Invoice or Manage » Invoices » New Invoice.

After generating the invoice, it will be posted to the member's profile and to the member's portal. You can charge the invoice (when an automated payment method is present) and email it to them. Both of these actions can be seen on the invoice overview.

Cobot's Payment Reminders feature helps manage late invoices more effectively. This tool lets you notify members via email about late payments and customize reminder messages for better communication.

Click here to read more on how to set these up and how they work.

Want to review your invoices before charging your members? No problem.

Go to Customize » Features » Payments and activate 'Don't charge invoices automatically.' With this feature, all invoices are generated and posted to your member's profile but are NOT charged, even when an automated payment method is present.

​You can view all generated invoices under your members profile » Invoicing » Past Invoices and your general invoice section under Manage » Invoices.

Your invoices are now required to have payments recorded manually.

To process payments manually, go your members profile » Invoicing » Past Invoices or to you general invoice section under Manage » Invoices. Click the hamburger menu next to the invoice and then 'Record Payment.'

Select the payment method and save the payment record. Partial payments can also be applied.

Click the 'Save Payment Record' button. The general invoice overview will now display the invoice as 'paid'.

Now that your invoices are coming in fast, you might need to make small tweaks for accuracy, fix duplicates by deleting, and wave goodbye to uncollectible income. But which one should you do and when?

Consider editing an invoice when errors or inaccuracies are identified. This is particularly useful for refining details such as charges or billing information. Maintaining accuracy in your invoices is crucial for providing clients with reliable information.

Edit an invoice by going to Manage » Invoices » Click on the hamburger menu » Edit.

You can edit the following fields:

Editing an invoice will not automatically re-send it to your member, you will have to do this manually. It will, however, automatically update the invoice in that member's invoicing section in their member portal.

Generally, deletion is reserved for instances where correction through editing is not feasible or when a duplicate entry has been mistakenly created. Regularly reviewing invoices helps identify such situations where deletion may be necessary.

It's important to exercise caution when deleting invoices, as this action permanently removes the record.

Delete an invoice by going to Manage » Invoices and clicking on 'Edit' from the invoice menu. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the Delete option.

If you would like to retrieve a deleted invoice, we may be able to help you. Please contact support at support@cobot.me with the invoice number.

Unlike deleting an invoice, writing it off recognizes the debt while removing it from active accounts, preserving a record of the attempted transaction. So you should only write off an invoice when it's clear the amount won't be collected due to a client's inability or unwillingness to pay. This acknowledges the financial loss, ensuring accurate accounts.

Write off an invoice by going to Manage » Invoices » Click on the hamburger menu » Write-off.

Once written off, the income will be removed from your unpaid accounts in your Analytics and appear as lost income.

If you have received a payment via an automated payment method, refunds cannot be processed through Cobot for those invoices.

To request a refund, you need to log into your payment provider's platform directly. This is where you can manage transactions and submit refund requests according to the provider's specific procedures and policies.

After you have done that, create a new invoice with the refund amount posted so your analytics are correct.

As an alternative to refunds, you can issue credit to a member that will be applied to their next invoice. Click here to read more on how to do this.

But what do you do with your existing invoice?

Handling Overpaid Invoices: Invoices that are overpaid are marked as "unpaid," despite being officially paid. This labeling is a prompt for necessary follow-up actions, such as issuing a refund or applying a credit to the member’s account.

Adding Credits: To add a credit to an existing invoice, click 'edit' and add a new line item. Enter the details as you would for a standard item but with a negative amount. Editing invoices will not automatically charge, refund or credit the member. It will only change the information on the invoice.

If you want to make it so invoices are not generated by Cobot at all, contact support and we will deactivate them for you.