Every invoice in Parsley Pay has a status that tells you where it is in the payment lifecycle. Understanding these statuses helps you track what's outstanding and what's been paid.
The invoice has been created but not yet sent to the customer. You can still edit all fields — line items, dates, amounts — freely while it's in draft. Draft invoices don't appear in your customer's inbox and don't have a payment link active.
The invoice has been emailed to the customer. A payment link has been generated and is included in the email. The invoice is now locked for editing — to make changes, you'll need to edit and resend it (see Editing or deleting an invoice).
The customer has opened the payment link at least once. The invoice status moves from Sent to Viewed the first time the payment page is accessed. This gives you a signal that your customer has seen the invoice and is aware of the outstanding amount.
Payment has been completed via Stripe Checkout. The status is updated automatically when Stripe confirms the payment — you don't need to do anything manually. You'll also receive an email notification confirming the payment.
At present, invoices can only be marked as paid automatically by Stripe when a payment is completed. If a customer pays you by bank transfer or another method outside of Stripe, you may want to note this in the invoice memo. Manual status overrides are on our roadmap.
Your dashboard groups invoices by status and shows you the total outstanding amount (invoices that are Sent or Viewed but not yet Paid), the total received this month, and your all-time total. This gives you a quick financial overview without needing to run any reports.