The Invoice Lifecycle

Invoice links do not stay open forever, and that is deliberate.

An invoice page carries your customer’s name, email, phone and everything they bought. Leaving that reachable at a stable URL indefinitely is a liability, so invoice links close themselves.

When an invoice stops working

Paid

Stays open for 24 hours after payment, so the buyer can save or print a receipt. After that the link goes dark.

Past due

An unpaid invoice is payable through the end of its due date. Due the 5th means payable all day on the 5th. After that the page shows a message saying it is past due and asking them to contact you for a new one — and it stops accepting payment.

Anything else

Draft, cancelled, or an id that does not exist all show the same “we couldn’t find that invoice” page. They are indistinguishable on purpose, so nobody can probe for real invoice numbers.

Why a past-due invoice closes rather than nagging

An invoice that has aged out usually needs a conversation, not a payment. Closing it puts you back in the loop instead of a payment arriving weeks late against terms you had forgotten.

Re-issuing

Duplicate the original, set a new due date, and send it. The old one stays in your records; the customer gets a live link again.

What the customer sees when it has closed

A short explanation and a way forward — no line items, no totals, no personal details. None of that data is loaded on a closed invoice, so there is nothing on the page to read.

Tracking

The invoicing screen shows totals collected, outstanding and drafts, over a time range you choose. Filter the table by Sent to see what is owed and by Overdue to see what needs chasing.