Invoice types
Mallow offers three distinct ways to invoice your customers, allowing you to choose the level of automation that fits your business.
1. One-off Invoices
This is a standard, single-use invoice. You create it, send it, and the process is complete once the customer pays. This is ideal for one-time projects or sales of hard goods.
2. Subscription Invoices (Auto-pay)
To automate your revenue entirely, select "Subscription" from the cadence dropdown in the invoice builder.
How it works: Once your client pays the initial invoice, Mallow securely saves the payment method and automatically withdraws the funds for all future billing cycles.
Hands-off Management: Mallow handles all renewal notifications, receipts, and billing reminders so you and your client stay informed without manual effort.
Before the first invoice is paid, the subscription is considered not started. The merchant subscriptions list shows Date TBD together with the interval name in the Payment Interval column, and the subscription details show Next billing date: Date TBD. The client portal and subscription update emails also show Date TBD in place of renewal or start dates. Renewal reminder emails are skipped until the first payment is received.
When the first payment succeeds, Mallow locks in the billing schedule from that invoice. The Payment Interval column then displays the actual next billing date and interval, and the automated reminder cycle begins. Learn more about Date TBD
3. Recurring Invoices (Scheduled Sending)
Recurring invoices are a hybrid between a one-off and a subscription. They are sent to your client on a recurring schedule, but they do not automatically withdraw funds.
Why use this? It’s perfect for clients who prefer to manually review and pay their bills but have the same recurring charges.
The Benefit: You save time by automating the creation and delivery of the invoice, while still giving your client the flexibility to pay on their own terms instead of being bound by a subscription.
Managing payment methods: Request and manage client payment methods — how to request a stored payment method from a client and manage or delete existing methods.
Supported billing intervals
Both subscriptions and recurring invoices support the following billing intervals:
Weekly — every 7 days
Monthly — every month on the same day
Every 4 Weeks — every 28 days on the same weekday
Quarterly — every 3 months on the same day
Semi-annually — every 6 months
Annually — every 12 months
Choosing the start date for longer intervals
When you select a long-interval cadence—Quarterly, Semi-annually, Annual, or Every 4 Weeks—the invoice builder switches to a date picker instead of the day-of-month dropdown used for Weekly and Monthly.
For Quarterly, Semi-annually, and Annual cadences, the date picker only accepts dates between the 1st and 28th. If you try to select the 29th, 30th, or 31st, the builder shows an inline error. This restriction prevents month-end dates that do not exist in every month (for example, February has no 30th or 31st). Every 4 Weeks is not affected by this rule because it advances by a fixed 28-day cycle and preserves the weekday regardless of the starting date.
What the list totals show
The Subscriptions and Recurring Invoice tabs show tax-inclusive totals in their main pricing columns. For any row that has already generated at least one invoice, the total is taken from the most recent non-cancelled invoice. If a row has not generated any invoices yet, the column shows the stored base amount.