Invoices, Quotes, and Payments in Pulse - What Each One Is For

Pulse keeps billing practical by separating the document from the collection view. The invoice or quote is what your client sees. The Payments page is where your team checks what is unpaid, overdue, paid, refunded, or cancelled.

Invoices

An invoice is used when the client owes money. You add the client, line items, tax, discounts, shipping, banking details, notes, and terms. You can link the invoice to a project so the billing record stays connected to the work it belongs to.

Invoices can start as drafts. A draft lets you build the document without sending anything to the client yet.

Quotes

A quote is used before the client has approved the work. It uses the same editor as invoices, but the document type is set to quote. This lets you prepare a clean customer-facing quote with line items, terms, and a PDF or email flow.

Use a quote when the client still needs to agree to scope or price. Use an invoice when you are ready to collect money.

Payment links

A PayFast link is a payment option attached to a sent billing item. Pulse can generate one when your organisation has PayFast credentials saved in Admin > PayFast Settings. If credentials are missing, the invoice can still be sent, but it will not include a PayFast link.

The Payments page

The Payments page is your collection dashboard. It brings active payment items, overdue balances, recent payments, refunds, pending quotes, and draft invoices into one place so finance work does not disappear inside individual client or project records.

How the pieces fit together

A typical flow looks like this:

1. Create a quote or invoice.
2. Save it as a draft while you are still editing.
3. Send it when it is ready for the client.
4. If PayFast is configured, Pulse adds a payment link.
5. The item appears in Payments for follow-up and collection.
6. When payment is received, Pulse marks the balance as paid or partial.

When to use each billing path

• Quote: the client needs to approve price or scope.
• Invoice: the client owes money now.
• Project-linked invoice: the invoice belongs to a specific project or delivery job.
• Quick payment: you need a simple one-line invoice from the Payments page.
• Quick Job payment: the invoice/payment is attached to a one-off delivery or downloadable file job.