To automate your recurring invoices on Magic Heidi, open an existing invoice, click "Edit", choose a recurrence (monthly, quarterly or annual) and turn on automatic sending. That's it — the new invoice will be generated and sent to your client at each due date, with zero effort on your part.

If you're a freelancer in Switzerland billing subscriptions, retainer agreements or recurring services, you recreate the same invoices every month. That costs time you cannot bill.

Good news: this task is a perfect candidate for automation. In this article you'll see exactly how to set up a recurring invoice in Magic Heidi, which option to choose based on how much control you want, and how to avoid the classic pitfalls — forgotten end dates, incorrect VAT, clients who change their plan mid-contract.

The key points are summarised in the grid below.

Why automating your recurring invoices actually changes your day-to-day

Take Lea, a fictional UX designer based in Lausanne. She has three clients on a monthly retainer at CHF 1,800 each, plus two annual clients for website redesigns. At the start of every month, she used to spend around 45 minutes duplicating her invoices, updating the dates, checking the invoice numbers and sending them one by one.

That's not the end of the world. But it's 45 minutes she's not spending on design, client outreach or simply switching off. And twice during the year, she forgot to send an invoice on time, which pushed her payments back by three weeks.

Automation solves two problems at once: it saves you time AND eliminates the risk of forgetting. For a freelancer, cash flow depends directly on how consistently you send invoices. An invoice that never goes out is a payment that never comes in.

Want to try it yourself? Create your Magic Heidi account for free → and set up your first recurring invoice in under 5 minutes.

The two recurrence modes available in Magic Heidi

Before diving into the setup, you need to choose your level of automation. Magic Heidi offers two approaches, and the right one depends on how you like to run things. A comparison is just below.

Mode 1: auto-generate, manual sending

In this mode, Magic Heidi creates the new invoice on the scheduled date but doesn't send it to the client. It simply appears in your dashboard, ready for you to review and send whenever you're ready.

Who is this for? This mode is ideal if you want to keep an eye on every invoice before it goes out — for example if you regularly adjust the amount, if clients sometimes ask for additional line items, or if you simply prefer to approve things manually.

Mode 2: fully automatic generate and send

Here, you don't touch a thing. Magic Heidi generates the invoice AND sends it by email to the client on the scheduled date. You just get a notification, and all that's left is to mark the invoice as paid when the money arrives.

Who is this for? This mode is made for stable recurring subscriptions — SaaS, fixed retainers, maintenance contracts — where the amount and the client don't change. It's the "bill while you sleep" mode.

How to set up a recurring invoice, step by step

Here's the exact process as it works inside the app. The five steps are summarised visually below.

Step 1: start from an existing invoice

Open an invoice you've already created for the relevant client. If it's a new client, first create a regular invoice with the correct amount, the correct VAT (if you're VAT-registered) and the right service lines.

Step 2: enable recurrence

Click "Edit invoice". You'll see a recurrence option appear. Choose the frequency that matches your contract:

• Monthly: for subscriptions, retainers, monthly mandates
• Quarterly: for coaching packages, light accounting mandates
• Annual: for licences, maintenance contracts, annual memberships

At this point, the invoice will be automatically generated at each due date. It will appear in your dashboard, ready to be sent manually.

Step 3: enable automatic sending (optional)

If you want to switch to fully automatic mode, check the "Send invoices automatically" option. Magic Heidi will then send the email directly to the client each time a new invoice is generated.

Step 4: set an end date (recommended)

Below the automatic sending option, there's a field called "Stop automatic sending on a specific date". Use it if your contract has a defined duration.

For example, imagine a 12-month contract signed in January 2026: set the end date to 31 December 2026. Otherwise, you risk continuing to invoice a client who has already cancelled — which makes for an awkward conversation.

Step 5: save and verify

Click "Save". The invoice is now tagged with a recurrence indicator. You can find it at any time in your invoice list, with the label "recurrence: monthly" (or quarterly, or annual).

What actually happens at each billing cycle

Magic Heidi checks once a day whether a recurring invoice needs to be generated. As soon as a due date is reached — one month after the previous one for a monthly recurrence, for example — the system automatically triggers:

1. The creation of a new invoice with a new number
2. The calculation of the new issue date and due date
3. If enabled: immediate email delivery to the client
4. Marking the invoice as "sent" in your dashboard

Take Marc, a fictional developer in Zurich who manages five SaaS subscriptions for his clients. He set up five monthly recurring invoices in January. Every first day of the month, early in the morning, his five invoices are generated and sent automatically. Marc gets a notification, checks everything looks good and gets back to coding. Over a year, that's 60 invoices he never had to create manually.

When a client pays, Marc just clicks "Mark as paid" in the app. Everything else — bookkeeping, VAT if applicable, annual reports — updates automatically.

Ready to get your time back? The more recurring clients you bill, the more time automation saves you. Explore all Magic Heidi features →

Pitfalls to avoid with recurring invoices

Automation is great. But it can also cause problems if you're not paying attention to a few key details. The three most common pitfalls are summarised below.

When to use (and when not to use) recurring invoices

Take Sofia, a fictional communications consultant in Geneva. She has three types of clients:

• Type A clients: three companies on a fixed monthly retainer at CHF 2,500 → perfect for automatic recurrence
• Type B clients: five SMEs who hire her on an ad hoc basis with variable amounts → no recurrence, manual invoices
• Type C clients: two clients on annual website maintenance contracts at CHF 3,600/year → automatic annual recurrence

Sofia spent 15 minutes setting up her five recurring invoices (three monthly + two annual). Since then, she no longer has to create those invoices by hand.

The simple rule: as soon as a client pays you the same amount at regular intervals for at least 3 months, recurring invoices are worth setting up.

Recurring invoices and VAT: what you need to know

If you're VAT-registered (annual turnover above CHF 100,000), recurring invoices automatically carry the correct VAT rate defined in your original invoice. Every new generated invoice will have VAT correctly calculated.

One important note: if the VAT rate changes (as it did when it moved to 8.1% in 2024), you need to manually update your recurring invoices. Magic Heidi doesn't retroactively modify the settings on your existing invoices.

For more on managing VAT as a freelancer, check out our VAT guide for freelancers.

For freelancers who aren't VAT-registered, there's nothing to worry about — the recurring invoice simply replicates the format of your original invoice.

Recurring invoice vs. recurring payment link: what's the difference?

A question that comes up often: does a recurring invoice automatically charge the client's account?

No. A recurring invoice just sends an invoice — exactly as if you'd done it manually. The client receives the invoice by email with a Swiss QR payment code, and they pay through their own e-banking.

This is not a direct debit (LSV/direct debit) — it's simply the automation of sending. For your clients, the experience is the same as always: they receive an invoice, they pay when they're ready (ideally before the due date).

That's an important distinction, because it keeps your client responsible for their payments and leaves you in control of your follow-ups if a payment is late.

Ready to automate your recurring billing?

Setting up recurring invoices in Magic Heidi literally takes 2 minutes per invoice. If you have 5 recurring clients, you can have everything up and running in a quarter of an hour and never think about it again.

The time you get back, you can invest in what actually matters: finding new clients, improving your offer, or simply having more breathing room. Invoicing should be invisible, not a time sink.

Happy automated billing! 🚀