Build the invoice at /invoices/new, click Create Invoice, then click Send now on the detail page. Your client gets one email from "Northwind Studio via JupiterInvoice" with the subject Invoice H4RQ7X2M-0003 from Northwind Studio ($2,400.00) and a View Invoice button that opens the invoice as a web page: no PDF attachment, no login, no account on their end. The status flips from Sent to Viewed the moment they open it, and the Views panel on your side records when, from what device, and from where.
The steps below run one real invoice end to end: Northwind Studio billing Blue Pools LLC $2,400.00 on Net 30 terms.
Step 1: Open the invoice builder
From your dashboard, click New Invoice. The document-type toggle at the top is already set to Invoice, so leave it alone (flip it to Quote if you want an accept-or-decline document instead).
Step 2: Pick the recipient and their billing contacts
Choose a saved customer from the picker, or type the company, contact name, and email by hand. For the example: Blue Pools LLC, contact [email protected], and [email protected] in the AP contact field so accounts payable is copied on every send. A recipient you type by hand is saved to your customer list, so the next invoice to them takes seconds.
Step 3: Fill in dates, currency, and line items
Issue date Aug 05, 2026, due date set with the Net 30 chip (Sep 04, 2026), currency USD, then two lines: "Website redesign: discovery and wireframes" at 12 × $150.00 = $1,800.00, and "Brand style guide" at 1 × $600.00 = $600.00. The total updates as you type: $2,400.00. The invoice number is generated for you (H4RQ7X2M-0003: an 8-character customer code plus a per-customer sequence) unless you type your own.
Step 4: Create the draft
Click Create Invoice. That saves the draft, mints the private share link (/i/inv-7kQ2mB4xTp9Ldz1r), and opens the detail page. Nothing has gone to the client yet: a draft is visible to you only, and the share box there has a Copy link button if you would rather send it yourself over Slack or WhatsApp.
Step 5: Send it
The recipients block lists the exact To and Cc addresses it will use, with a checkbox next to each Cc so you can drop one for this send. Use Send test email to [email protected] to read it in your own inbox first, then click Send now. The status flips to Sent and the send is logged with a UTC timestamp.
What the client receives
One email, from Northwind Studio via JupiterInvoice <[email protected]>, with Reply-To set to your own address, so hitting reply reaches you rather than a no-reply mailbox.
- Subject line: Invoice H4RQ7X2M-0003 from Northwind Studio ($2,400.00). Number, sender, and amount are all in the subject, which is what makes it findable when AP searches their inbox six weeks later. A resend is prefixed Reminder:.
- Body: the headline "You have a new invoice", one line reading "Northwind Studio sent you an invoice", then three rows: Invoice
H4RQ7X2M-0003, Amount due $2,400.00, Due date Sep 04, 2026. - The link: a purple View Invoice button, with the same URL printed underneath as plain text for clients that strip buttons. A full plain-text version ships alongside the HTML, so it still works in a text-only client or after a security gateway rewrites the message.
- No attachment. Nothing is attached, which is deliberate: attachments are the single biggest reason invoice emails land in spam or get stripped by corporate mail gateways. The PDF is a Download PDF button on the invoice page instead. See sending an invoice without a PDF attachment.
How the client pays
The link opens the invoice as a normal web page, no sign-in. What they can do there:
- Pay by bank transfer. The Payment Details block shows the account name, account number, routing number, SWIFT, and IBAN that were snapshotted when the invoice went out, so changing your profile later never rewrites an invoice already in someone's inbox.
- Pay by card. If you have connected Stripe, a Pay by card button opens Stripe Checkout on your own connected account and the money lands in your Stripe. It is on by default per invoice, switched off with the Accept card payment toggle in the builder, and hidden on totals under $5.00 where the fixed processing fee eats too much of the payment.
- Tell you it is paid. Under Already paid? they click I've paid this invoice and pick Check, ACH transfer, Wire transfer, Card, or Other, with an optional reference. That notifies you but does not change the status: you confirm with Mark as paid once the funds land. Card payments settle themselves.
They can also do the things a PDF cannot: add a PO number, correct the Bill To entity, forward the invoice to their AP team, download the PDF, or post a comment you get emailed about.
How you know it was delivered, viewed, and paid
- Accepted for sending (instant). A successful send flashes "Invoice emailed to [email protected] (plus 1 cc)" and writes a row to the send history. If the send fails you get "Failed to send email. You can share the link directly instead." on the spot, and nothing is logged, so the history never lies about what went out.
- Viewed (usually minutes to hours). The status badge flips Sent to Viewed and the Views panel fills in: "Last viewed 2h ago from Boston, MA, US", first and last view timestamps, the device ("Chrome on Mac"), total views, unique visitors, and views in the last 7 days. Your own previews are counted separately, so you cannot mistake your spot-check for the client opening it. Views from two different devices usually mean it was forwarded internally, which is a good sign.
- Paid. A card payment flips the invoice to Paid automatically on return from Stripe Checkout, with the amount and receipt recorded. A bank transfer you confirm yourself with Mark as paid, which is undoable.
Zero views after two business days is a delivery problem, not a payment problem. Resend with the link in the body and check why invoice emails go to spam.
Resending and automatic reminders
Once one real email has gone out, the panel reads Resend invoice and the button becomes Resend now. Second and later sends carry Reminder: in front of the subject and the headline "Reminder about your invoice", so the client does not read it as a duplicate bill. The send history lists every one of them (Initial send, Reminder 1, Reminder 2) with the recipients and a UTC timestamp. The share link never changes, so an old email still opens the current invoice.
To stop chasing manually, turn on payment reminders on your Sender Profile. Overdue invoices are then emailed automatically at 3, 7, and 14 days past the due date, three reminders maximum. For the example invoice, due Sep 4, that is Sep 7, Sep 11, and Sep 18. Any single invoice can be excluded with Pause reminders on its detail page.
Sending to several people at once
To is the recipient email (or the AP address if there is no primary contact). Cc is the AP contact plus every address in the invoice's Cc list, which comes from the saved customer record, so a client whose invoices need to reach a manager and a shared finance inbox is set up once. Every Cc has its own checkbox in the send panel, so you can leave one off a particular send without rebuilding the list. If the recipient forwards the invoice themselves from the invoice page, the person they forwarded it to is added to the Cc list for future sends and you get an email telling you it happened.
Sending without an account
You can create and share an invoice with no signup: the anonymous builder at /new saves the invoice to a private share link (kept for this browser) and hands you that link to paste into your own email, WhatsApp, or Slack. What guests cannot do is have JupiterInvoice send the email for them. Outbound invoice email needs a verified account, which is what stops the platform being used as a relay for fake invoices. Verified accounts also get an age-based ceiling: 8 invoice emails per 24 hours in the first 48 hours, 25 up to 14 days old, 100 after that.