A delivery only becomes revenue when it is invoiced. Loaditude closes the loop from completed job to issued invoice without spreadsheets or re-keying: delivered work queues up ready to bill, you raise invoices in a couple of clicks (one at a time or in bulk), push them to your accounting system, and track who has paid. This guide walks through the invoicing flow step by step.
Step 1: Work the ready-to-invoice queue
A transport job becomes ready to invoice the moment it is marked delivered and has not already been put on an invoice. You can see these jobs two ways. The TMS dashboard has a Ready to invoice card showing the count of waiting jobs and their estimated value, and the Jobs list has a Ready to invoice filter that lists every delivered, uninvoiced job regardless of date. This is your billing backlog: work that is done and earning nothing until it is invoiced. The headline value on the dashboard is an estimate to size the backlog; the amount that actually gets billed is each job’s freight cost.
Step 2: Raise an invoice
The simplest route is the invoice generator. Pick a client, and Loaditude lists that client’s delivered, uninvoiced jobs. Select the ones to bill, watch the running subtotal, and generate the invoice. A few rules keep your billing clean:
- Every job on an invoice must belong to the same client, so you never accidentally cross-charge.
- Jobs with no freight cost are flagged and cannot be selected, so you do not raise a zero-value line by mistake.
- A late cancellation with a cancellation fee can be billed as its own line, so abortive work is not written off.
The invoice number is generated for you, the tax rate defaults to the client’s rate, and the due date is set from your company payment terms (30 days unless you change it). Each selected job becomes a line on the invoice, and those jobs are stamped as invoiced so they cannot be billed twice.
Step 3: Invoice in bulk
When a billing run covers many jobs across several customers, you do not need to do them one at a time. From the Jobs list, select the delivered jobs you want to bill and choose Invoice these. Loaditude groups the selection by client and raises one invoice per client automatically, so a week’s deliveries across a dozen customers becomes a dozen invoices in a single action. This is the fastest way to clear the ready-to-invoice queue at the end of a period.
Step 4: Multi-drop jobs read correctly
Multi-drop work invoices cleanly. Rather than a vague single line, the invoice describes the full route, so a run reads as its origin through each drop to the final destination. The customer can see exactly what they paid for, and a query about a specific delivery is easy to settle because the route is on the document.
Step 5: Proof of delivery alongside the invoice
Proof of delivery is the evidence that backs a charge. In Loaditude the signature, signed-by name, capture time, delivery photo, and notes are captured against the job (per stop on a multi-drop run), and you can download, print, or email a job’s proof of delivery as its own PDF. When a customer queries an invoice, you have the matching proof ready to send to support it. The proof of delivery document is kept separate from the invoice so each can be shared with the right person, and the invoice line still ties back to the delivered job it came from. For how that proof is captured on the road, see Transport jobs and proof of delivery.
Step 6: Send the invoice
From an invoice you can download a branded PDF or email it straight to the customer. The email defaults to the client’s address on file and attaches the invoice PDF, with the invoice number, total, currency, and due date in the message. While an invoice is still pending you can edit dates, tax rate, notes, and line descriptions or amounts, and the totals recalculate. Once it is paid or cancelled it is locked, so issued figures cannot be quietly changed.
Step 7: Sync to Xero
If you keep your books in Xero, connect it once and push invoices across with a single action, individually or in bulk from the invoices screen. Loaditude records that the invoice is synced and links it to its Xero counterpart, so you can see at a glance what has gone over. Storage and transport invoices share the same Xero connection, so your whole 3PL billing lands in one ledger.
Step 8: Track payment status
Every invoice carries a status: pending, paid, overdue, cancelled, or voided. You can mark an invoice paid (which records the payment date), or cancel or void one, which releases its jobs back to the ready-to-invoice queue so they can be billed again correctly. An invoice that has passed its due date and is still unpaid is highlighted as overdue so it stands out for chasing. If you use the Xero connection, payment status flows back automatically: when an invoice is settled in Xero, Loaditude marks it paid and records the date, so you are not reconciling two systems by hand.
Where to go next
- Quotes and rate cards covers pricing the work before it is delivered and invoiced.
- Transport reports and analytics covers the financial reports that sit on top of your invoicing.