The Invoice Lifecycle

Overview

Every Seniorverse invoice moves through the same pipeline: it starts as a Draft, is Prepared, then Finalized, and finally Sent. Understanding what happens at each stage — and which statuses appear along the way — helps you know why a button is (or isn't) available and what the system does behind the scenes.

This article is the map. The other invoice articles ("Creating an Invoice," "Finalizing & Sending an Invoice," "Voiding an Invoice," and so on) each drill into one part of it.

The key thing to know up front: on a Draft invoice, the single primary button reads Send Invoice, and it runs every remaining step for you — Prepare, then Finalize, then Send — skipping any that are already done. You can also run each step on its own from the actions menu.

Before You Begin

• You need access to the Billing module (the Billing:View permission).
• The invoice must already exist as a Draft. See "Creating an Invoice."
• Make sure the invoice has a Payor, an Invoice Period, and at least one line item before you try to Finalize.

Steps

Step 1: Start with a Draft

A new invoice is saved with the status Draft. While it is a Draft, you can edit its details, add or remove line items, and review the charges that will be billed. Draft invoices also show preview lines — charges derived live from attendance and transportation records in the invoice period — before those charges become permanent records.

Step 2: Prepare (readiness)

Prepare is the readiness step. When you run it (via the Prepare Invoice menu item, or automatically as the first stage of Send Invoice), Seniorverse enqueues a background job that:

• Turns the preview lines into real invoice line records (dropping any charge already billed on another invoice).
• Creates and splits claims for a claims invoice.
• Updates the underlying attendance records where a charge code was reassigned.
• Recomputes the invoice totals.

Because a large invoice can take a while, this runs in the background. The Activity tab shows a Preparing card while the job runs and an Invoice Prepared card when it finishes (the screenshot below shows an invoice where the job already completed, so all three pipeline cards read as done).

Step 3: Finalize (validate, generate PDF, lock)

Finalize validates the invoice, generates the PDF, and locks it. Specifically, it:

• Checks that the invoice is not voided, has a payor, has at least one line item, has no unposted credit memos, and is not already paid.
• Generates the invoice PDF on the server and stores it with the invoice.
• Sets the finalized date, changes the status to Unpaid, and locks the invoice so it can no longer be edited.

The confirmation dialog warns: "Are you sure you want to finalize this invoice? It will no longer be editable."

(Screenshot not available: reaching this dialog requires an invoice that has already been through Prepare — every Draft in the demo center still has unprepared preview lines, and running Prepare for real would persist data in the shared demo, so this step was left uncaptured.)

Step 4: Send (email payor and/or submit claims)

Send is the final step, and what it does depends on the invoice type:

• Non-claims invoice: Seniorverse emails the Payor the PDF (including a payment link when Stripe is enabled) and marks the invoice as sent.
• Claims invoice: Seniorverse queues the draft claims for submission (in batches of 5) and marks the invoice as sent. It does not email the payor — which is why a claims invoice does not require a payor email address, while a non-claims invoice does.

The Activity tab shows a Sending invoice card and then an Invoice Sent card.

Step 5: Use Dry Run to preview claims (optional)

For a claims invoice, Dry Run (in the actions menu, available once the invoice is finalized) builds and logs the Stedi 837 claim payloads to the Activity log without submitting anything. Use it to inspect exactly what will be sent before you Send for real.

Step 6: Read the Activity log

The Activity tab is the full audit trail for the invoice. Every step — preparation started, invoice validated, lines created, claims finalized, invoice finalized, email sent, claims queued, dry-run payloads — is recorded there with a timestamp.

Tips

• The Send Invoice button on a Draft is an orchestrator: it runs Prepare → Finalize → Send and skips any step that is already complete. You don't have to run the steps one at a time.
• While a readiness job is in flight the primary button reads Preparing… and is disabled, so you can't double-send.
• Finalizing is a one-way lock. Prepare and edit freely while the invoice is still a Draft.
• Re-finalizing is a safe no-op — the Finalize step only ever locks the invoice once.

Troubleshooting

Related Articles

• creating-an-invoice — Creating an Invoice
• finalizing-an-invoice — Finalizing & Sending an Invoice
• adding-invoice-line-items — Adding & Editing Invoice Line Items
• viewing-and-editing-invoices — Viewing & Editing Invoices
• voiding-an-invoice — Voiding an Invoice