Bills

A bill is the record of what one guest owes you for a stay: dives, courses, rentals, extras and fees. You do not type most of it. Each line comes from a booking, a course enrolment or a rental and follows it when it changes. Taking the money is described in Take payments. When the guest leaves, Settle & close turns the bill into a numbered invoice, see Invoices and credit notes.

What a bill is

There is one bill per guest and stay. It opens with the first charge or payment, or when you open it by hand, stays open while the guest keeps diving with you, and closes with Settle & close or by itself after the days you set without dives. The next stay of the same guest starts a new bill.

Open Bills in the sidebar. Three cards at the top sum up the bills you may see: Open bills, Owed to you (what bills owe, open or closed, and on how many) and Guests in credit (the credit open bills hold). Open bills opens the Open tab, Owed to you the Owing tab and Guests in credit the In credit tab. The tabs split the list into Open, Owing, In credit and Closed, the first three with the number of bills they hold, and the search finds a bill by its number or by the guest's name. Owing lists every bill that still owes money, open or closed.

On a computer the list is a table with Guest, Bill, Last service (Closed on the Closed tab), Charges, Paid and Balance; on a phone each bill is a card with the same figures. The balance reads "Owes 40.00", "In credit 10.00", "Paid", "Settled" on a closed bill, or "No charges yet". Under the guest, "+2 billed here" says that other guests' bills are billed to this one, "Billed to Anna Berg" that this one is billed to another guest, and notes such as "2 without price" or "Closed owing:" with the reason ask for a look. Credit brought from an earlier bill counts under Paid, not as a charge. Click a row to open the bill; Load more brings the next page. A user who sees only their own guests' bills sees the cards and counts of those bills only.

A bill has the guest's name as its title, with the bill number, its status, the day it opened and who else is billed here under it. The header also says how far the bill is invoiced: "Not invoiced", "Partly invoiced" or "Invoiced INV-2026-00042". Beside it, or right under it on a phone, the balance card shows in large figures what the guest Owes or has In credit, with Take payment, Issue invoice and Settle & close; a closed bill shows "Closed 10 Oct" with its total and what was paid instead. Under the title are Add charge and Bill discount, and the More actions menu with Bill to, Reprice all, Download PDF, Send by email, Send payment link, which sends the guest their My bill link (see Payment links and the My bill page), and History. Where neither button is offered, on a closed bill or for someone who may not add charges or discounts, Download PDF takes their place as a button. Notices, such as lines without a price or corrections of a closed bill, stand together under the header.

The lines are grouped by day ("Thu 15 Oct") and, when the bill holds several guests, by guest. Each line shows its name, how many at what price ("2 x 1,350") and the amount; a second line says only what matters, such as "until return", the season price (when you have more than one season) or a discount. The small arrow next to a line the bill posted itself opens its booking, rental or course. Each line has one Line actions menu with Discount, Change price, Remove, Move, Reprice, Void, Restore and History, showing only what the line and your permissions allow. Discount lines read as negative amounts. Voided lines are hidden; "Show 5 voided lines" at the end of the list shows them struck through. Discounts the bill works out again by itself, such as a volume discount after a price change, are not listed there. A line on an invoice shows a lock and the invoice number, and a reduction waiting for a credit note says "To be credited".

Beside the lines, or after them on a phone, the Summary works the bill out top to bottom: Charges before discounts and each discount on its own row (Volume discount, Standing discount, Bill discount) when the bill has discounts, the Total with the tax it holds, such as "Includes 1,582.15 tax" (or the amount before tax plus the tax when your prices are before tax), any credit carried in or out, Paid with how many payments, and at the end Left to pay, In credit or Nothing left to pay (Settled on a closed bill), the same figure as the balance at the top. Tax per rate opens a table with the net, tax and gross of each rate, their total when there are several, and the currency. Payments shows each payment with its method, day and amount, the change given on cash, and a Payment actions menu with Void payment (Reverse (chargeback) on a closed bill) and History; an online payment carries the mark Online and Open in Stripe in its menu, shows "Refund pending" while a refund to the card waits for Stripe and "Disputed" during a dispute, and offers Refund to card instead of Void payment, see Online refunds and disputes; Refund sits at the top of the card. A bill opened by hand and still empty offers Add charge and Take payment in the middle. Under the summary, Invoice to names the company or person the invoices go to, and the Documents card lists the bill's invoices, credit notes and receipts, see Invoices and credit notes. Every bill also opens from the guest's customer page, see Customer profile.

Open a bill by hand

Most bills open by themselves, but you can open one first, for example to add a charge before the guest has booked anything. On Bills, press New bill, search for the guest and press Open bill. On a guest's customer page, the Bills tab says "No open bill" with the same New bill button and Take payment while the guest has no open bill.

A guest has one open bill at a time. If the guest already has one, DivePilot does not open a second: it takes you to the open bill and says "This guest already has an open bill". Otherwise it opens the new bill and says "Bill opened". An open bill with no lines closes by itself after the days set on the Closing bills card ("Close a settled bill once ... full days have passed since its last service"), counted from the day it was opened, see Take payments. You need the Add charges permission and a permission to see bills; on Bills you also need the permission to see customers.

What lands on the bill and when

• Fun dives: when the booking is confirmed or the guest is seated on a trip, and also while it is checked in or completed. A reserved or cancelled booking puts nothing on the bill. A trip priced as a whole shows as one line, "Boat trip, 2 dives".
• Courses: when the student is enrolled, at the course price of the run's start date, or at the price set for that student. See Enrol students.
• Rentals: when the rental is created. The line is updated when the gear comes back or the rental is edited, and reads "until return" while it is still out. A rental of a category without picked items is charged by size and quantity; a rental that picks items is charged per item, at the size of that item. See Create a rental.
• Included gear: a category set to Included in every fun dive, for example the tank, puts one line on each fun dive booking, named the way the estimate names it, such as "Tank 15L, included". It is charged at the Per trip rate of that size, once per trip when the category is charged Per trip, and once for every dive of the trip when it is charged Per dive; the line says which. A guest who Brings own and a size without a price get no line. The line changes by itself when the size, the choice or the dives of the trip change, and when you switch the category on or off. A switch between Per trip and Per dive reaches a booking's line the next time that booking changes. A line already on the bill keeps its price when its size later loses its price. A booking whose date has passed keeps its included lines through an ordinary edit. See Equipment categories.
• Nitrox: per dive, while your centre offers nitrox. A booking that already holds nitrox keeps its line when you switch nitrox off.
• Extras and fees of the price list: per dive, per trip or once per stay, as each item is set.
• A booking scheduled from a dive request carries the request's nitrox and gear. See Schedule requested dives.
• No-show fees, see No-shows, and discounts, see Discounts.

A fun dive booking that is not on a trip yet is billed as one dive and marked "1 dive until seated". Once the guest is seated, the line follows the dives of the trip.

Note: A line you add by hand with Add charge is yours: choose an item From the price list or Something else with a description, an amount and a Tax rate. A manual charge is never negative; use a discount to take money off.

Prices are fixed on the line

A line keeps the price it was posted at. Editing the price list or a season never changes lines already on a bill. A line also keeps its price while its date, slot and price inputs stay the same; when one of them changes, the line is replaced by a new one at the price of that moment.

• Reprice on a line brings it to today's price ("Line updated to today's price"). Reprice all prices the lines that have no price yet; a price changed by hand stays as it is (use Reprice on that line to go back to the list price).
• A line whose item has no price reads No price, is added at 0 and is flagged on the bill and in the list. Set the price in the Price list, then press Reprice all.
• A size price edited later leaves posted lines as they are, like any price change. Reprice brings an included gear line to the new price of its size, while a rental line keeps the rate its rental was written at.
• Fee, discount, credit, correction and free-text lines cannot be repriced.

Change the price of a line

Change price in a line's menu sets the price of that line by hand: for a regular guest, a deal agreed at the desk, or a line the price list has no price for. The window shows the List price for reference, the Quantity and the New line total as you type the New price each, with a Reason, optional on a line not yet invoiced and required on an invoiced line. The line then shows the new price with "Price changed from 1,500" under it; the guest's PDF shows only the price.

• The bill keeps the changed price while the line charges for the same thing: the same date and departure, the same number of dives on a per-dive line, the same days on a rental. Confirming the booking, checking in or editing its note leave it. When one of these changes, the line goes back to the list price as any line does, and the change is gone. A flat trip price keeps the change when the trip gets more or fewer stops, since it is one price for the trip.
• A price set on a line the price list had no price for is replaced by the list price once the list has one and the line's booking, rental or course is updated, or when you press Reprice all.
• Reprice on a changed line asks first, in Back to the list price, and then charges the line at the list price again. Only someone with Change prices on a bill can do this, so a changed price is undone only by the people who may set one.
• The volume discount works from the changed price: a dive changed to 1,300 with a tier at 1,400 gets nothing more off.
• A lower price is not a discount. It does not count toward the discount cap, and the discounts report lists it under Price changes, see Discounts.
• It works on dives, nitrox, extras, fees, included gear, rental lines, once-per-stay items and lines added by hand. A course fee is changed on the student's enrolment instead; discounts, carried credit and corrections have no price of their own.
• It needs the permission Change prices on a bill, which Admin and Manager have and Staff does not. The line's History shows the old and the new price and the reason.

Void, move and add

• Void takes a line off the bill after you give a Reason. An automatic line you void is not added again unless its date, slot or price inputs change. "Show 2 voided lines" at the end of the lines shows them struck through, with who voided them and why. On an invoiced line, Void, Discount and Change price also issue a credit note and ask for a reason, see Invoices and credit notes.
• Restore in the menu of a voided line brings the line back as a new line that is not invoiced, with its price and discount, and with any change made to its booking meanwhile; show the voided lines first. It is offered only for a line someone voided by hand. A line the bill replaced itself (moved, repriced, a changed price or discount, a booking that changed) lives on as its new line, and a line whose booking no longer charges it, such as a cancelled booking, cannot come back. A restored automatic line stays on the bill from then on.
• Move puts a line on another open bill: search by bill number or guest, then confirm. Lines worked out by the bill itself, discounts, carried credit and corrections cannot be moved. An invoiced line offers only Void, Discount and Change price, and only with the permission Change invoiced lines; Move, Reprice and Remove are not offered on it, and it stays on the bill it was invoiced on.
• Staff cannot void the automatic discount lines (volume, standing and bill discounts), carried credit or corrections. Remove a discount with Remove in the line's menu; a wrong carried credit is put right with a manual line.

Who may do what is set in Permissions explained: Add charges, Void and correct charges (also Restore), Change prices on a bill, Give discounts.

Closed bills and corrections

Settle & close issues the invoice for the lines not invoiced yet and freezes every line. If a booking, rental or course changes afterwards, the bill does not change: a line "Correction of bill 12: dives" is posted on the guest's next bill, and that bill says which closed bill it corrects. A bill with corrections shows under Owing while it owes money. A closed bill that still owes keeps Take payment on its balance card: the payment takes at most what the bill owes, and the bill then reads Settled.

Bill to

Bill to sends a guest's charges to another guest's bill, for a family, a club or a company. Open the guest's bill, press Bill to and choose the Guest who pays; "Stop billing to Anna Berg" puts it back. The payer's bill then shows "Also on this bill:" with the names, and each line under its own person; the guest's own bill says "Billed to Anna Berg's bill 12".

• It is one hop: the payer's bill cannot itself be billed to a third guest, and a guest whose bill others are billed to cannot be billed to someone else.
• Saving it moves the open lines of the guest's bill to the payer's bill, each under its own person, and the guest's later charges go there too. What the guest already paid goes along as credit, so nobody pays twice. Corrections stay; the Volume discount and Standing discount are worked out again on both bills, and a Bill discount left with nothing to discount is removed. A message says what happened, such as "2 lines moved to Anna Berg's bill" and "500.00 already paid went to Anna Berg's bill as credit". The guest's bill then shows that credit as "Credit carried to Anna Berg's bill 12".
• Only lines that are not invoiced move. Invoiced lines stay on the bill they were invoiced on.
• Moving the lines needs the permission Void and correct charges, as Move does. Without it the lines stay on the guest's bill, the window says so, and only later charges go to the payer.
• Stopping it moves nothing back: lines stay where they are and only later charges land on the guest's own bill again. Use Move on a line to change that.
• A booking, enrolment or rental that lands on another bill shows "Charged to bill 12 (Anna Berg)" with a link.
• A user who sees only their own guests' bills can forward only to payers whose bill they can already see.
• A payer's bill closes only once the bills charged to it are settled.

For bookings made together, the person who booked can pay for everyone with one switch, see Bookings made together.

Download a PDF or send it by email

Download PDF, in the More actions menu or as the button of a closed bill, saves the bill as a PDF named after its number, such as B-2026-00098.pdf; print it from there when the guest wants a paper copy. It is in the guest's language and holds your letterhead with your name, address, tax ID, phone, email, website and logo, the lines by day and guest, the summary down to the amount due, the credit or "Paid in full", the tax per rate, the payments and your receipt footer. The bill's PDF is a copy of the running tab, not a final document: every page says "This is not a fiscal receipt or tax invoice.". The numbered documents are the invoices, credit notes and receipts, see Invoices and credit notes and What your documents are in your country. Your dive centre chooses the design and which of these parts it shows, see "Choose how your bill PDF looks" below.

Send by email opens Send the bill by email. Email address starts with the guest's address on file, or the payer's when the guest has none and the bill is billed to someone. With the permission to edit customers you can type any address; without it you pick one of the addresses on file, and the dialog says so. When nobody has an address on file, someone who may edit customers can enter one. Add a Message if you like and choose Send. The guest receives an email in their own language from your dive centre, with the bill attached as a PDF, the balance ("Balance: THB 2,500 owed", "in credit" or "settled"), your message and your contact details, and a reply reaches your dive centre's email address. It is not a fiscal receipt either. The bill's History notes "Bill sent by email" with the address it went to and the PDF's fingerprint and size, so you can later prove which file was sent; DivePilot keeps no copy of the PDF. A dive centre can email up to 100 bills a day. Sending needs access to customers as well as to bills, and the bill of a guest whose details were erased cannot be sent.

Choose how your bills and documents look

Open Settings, then Bills & discounts. The PDF design card sets how every bill, invoice, credit note and receipt looks when you download it or send it by email; Preview of switches the sample between them. An issued document keeps the design it was issued in. Every design prints the same lines and figures, in the guest's language; only the layout changes.

• Classic: your letterhead, a ruled table and the totals on the right. Bills look like this until you choose another design.
• Modern: a band in your colour across the top with your logo and name, cards for the guest and the total, an airy table with light stripes, and the totals in a tinted box with the balance in your colour.
• Compact: a narrow receipt in small type that keeps a stay of about ten days on one page. It leaves your logo out until you switch Logo on.

Accent colour colours the rules, the headings and the balance. The first swatch, Brand, is your brand colour from Branding, used until you pick one of the colours offered or any colour of your own with the colour picker; choose Brand to go back to it. Every swatch shows "Aa" in the colour text takes on the Modern band: white or dark, whichever reads clearly on your colour.

Under What the PDF shows you can switch off the Logo, the Tax per rate, the Payments and Lines by day. With Lines by day off the lines form one table, each with its day, and a family bill still names each guest over their own lines. Switching a part off never changes a figure: the total charges and the balance stay on every bill.

Note at the bottom is printed above the footer of every bill, for example your bank details, in up to 500 characters of plain text. It prints as you type it, whatever the guest's language.

Preview sits beside the settings and stays in view while you scroll; on a phone it comes first, and Hide preview folds it away. It shows a sample bill with made-up lines in your letterhead and currency, follows each choice a moment later, turns its pages when the sample runs over one, and Open full preview shows it at full size. Choose Save changes to use the design for every bill from then on, or Discard. Changing the card needs the permission to edit bill settings, and every change is recorded in the Activity log. Every design keeps "This is not a fiscal receipt or tax invoice." on each page of the bill.

The same design is used for invoices, credit notes and receipts. A document keeps the design it was issued with.

Who sees bills

See every bill shows any guest's bill and its amounts, even without the permission to see the price list. See own guests' bills shows the bills of guests on your own trips and courses. Payments and cash-up have their own permissions. Invoices, credit notes and receipts have permissions of their own, see Invoices and credit notes.

Estimate and bill: what differs

The estimate on the booking page is a preview made before the guest books, and nothing is charged by it. The bill is the record. When a guest asks why the two differ:

• The estimate counts what the guest picked. The bill follows the booking: nothing while it is reserved, a no-show fee instead of the dive after a no-show.
• The estimate uses today's price list. The bill fixes each price when the line is posted.
• A course is priced at the start date of the run on both, and on the bill staff can set another price for one student.
• Volume discounts: the estimate counts the dives of the booking. The bill counts every dive of the guest on the bill, see Discounts. Standing, line and bill discounts exist only on the bill.
• Included gear is on the estimate and on the bill at the same amount, with the same name.
• Rental charges, automatic extras and no-show fees appear only on the bill.
• An item without a price reads "Some items are priced at the dive centre." on the estimate and No price on the bill.