An invoice in Pistonlog is a separate, formal document raised from a jobcard. Clicking Create invoice on the jobcard's Invoices tab captures a snapshot of the jobcard's current jobs, parts and labour as a draft; issuing that draft turns it into a locked, sequentially numbered VAT record. The jobcard itself is never the invoice.

Where invoices live

On the jobcard: the Invoices tab is where you create invoices and see every one raised for that jobcard. You need the payments.view permission to see the tab and payments.edit to act. Estimates don't have an Invoices tab: convert to a live jobcard first.
The Invoices page: lists every invoice across the garage, with quick filters for All / Draft / Issued / Sent / Part paid / Paid / Cancelled. It's a read-and-review view; there's no create button here because an invoice always starts from a jobcard.

The lifecycle at a glance

Status	What it means
`draft`	Editable working copy; no invoice number yet
`issued`	Numbered, locked VAT document with a due date
`sent`	Emailed to the customer via Send Invoice
`part paid`	Some payment recorded, but less than the total
`paid`	Recorded payments cover the frozen total
`cancelled`	Reversed by a credit note (via Cancel or Amend)

The paid states are calculated, never set by hand: they derive from the payments recorded against the invoice. See Invoice lifecycle for the full picture.

Multiple invoices per jobcard

A jobcard can carry more than one invoice (for example, an amended replacement, or split billing). If a draft already exists, creating another triggers a warning dialog, but it isn't blocked: two drafts can be legitimate.

What's on the invoice

Every issued invoice includes the standard fields described in What customer-facing outputs always include: branding, reference, date, customer, vehicle, and the full cost breakdown with VAT.

In this section

Printing an Invoice

Print a customer invoice from a jobcard, record payments, and manage VAT

Invoice lifecycle

Draft → issued → sent → part paid → paid (or cancelled), and what moves an invoice between them

Issuing an invoice

Create a draft from the jobcard, then issue it: a numbered, locked VAT document you can print or email

Amending an invoice

After issuing, you can still change line items, prices, or VAT — and what to do when money has changed hands

Recording a manual payment

Record a payment against an issued invoice; the part-paid and paid statuses follow automatically

Manual vs Square payments

Two payment-tracking systems on a jobcard, and why they don't merge