Monzo Business invoicing: sending invoices and getting paid from the app

What Monzo Business invoicing does

Monzo Business has an invoicing tool inside the account. You write the invoice in the app or on the web, send it to the customer, and the customer pays it through a link. When the money arrives, Monzo matches it to the invoice and marks it paid. The whole loop, from invoice to reconciled payment, happens in the same place as your money.

That is the main advantage over a separate invoicing app. Monzo’s pitch is to create, send and track invoices without switching apps, and to see what is owed and what has come in. For a sole trader or a small limited company sending a few invoices a month, it removes a subscription and a reconciliation step.

Which Monzo Business plans include invoicing

Short answer: Pro and Team. The free Lite plan does not have the invoicing tool.

Monzo’s FAQ says invoicing comes with Pro and Team. Pro is £9 a month with the first month free; Team is from £25 a month. On those plans you can create unlimited invoices with a payment link. Both plans also include Tax Pots, invoicing, accounting integrations, virtual cards, connected accounts and custom categories, so invoicing is rarely the only reason to pay. Our Monzo Business plans compared page lists what each tier includes, and is Monzo Business Pro worth it? works out when the fee pays for itself.

Lite customers can still get paid by bank transfer, payment link, QR code or Tap to Pay. What they do not get is the formal invoice document, numbering, line items and automatic matching.

Creating an invoice or a quote

In the app or web app, go to Get paid, choose Create invoice, add the customer and the lines, and send it. Monzo says you can also save details and duplicate invoices, which helps if you bill the same client every month for similar work.

Not ready to invoice yet? You can send a quote instead. That suits trades and project work where the customer wants a price before agreeing to the job. Our guide to business bank accounts for tradespeople covers quoting and invoicing on the move in more depth.

Charging by item or by time

Monzo lets you set up invoices to charge by item or by time, with custom rates from flat to half-hourly. Item billing suits products and fixed-price services: one line per deliverable, with a quantity and price. Time billing suits consultants, designers and anyone selling hours: you enter the time and the rate, and the invoice does the arithmetic. You can mix rates for different services on the same invoice.

App or web

You can do all of this on your phone, which is handy for a quick invoice at the end of a job. The a web app for payments, pots, invoices, statements and team members makes longer invoices easier, especially if you are copying line items from a timesheet. It is the same account, so an invoice started on one shows up on the other.

Adding your logo, VAT number and discounts

Monzo says you can add your business logo, email address, VAT number, payment options and your own invoice terms, and apply discounts. That covers what most small businesses want on an invoice.

It is worth checking against the legal minimum. HMRC’s guidance on what an invoice must include lists a unique invoice number, your business name, address and contact details, the customer’s name and address, a description of what you are charging for, the supply date, the invoice date, the amounts, any VAT and the total owed. Limited companies must use the full company name as it appears on the certificate of incorporation, and if you list directors’ names you must list them all.

If you and your customer are both VAT registered, you need a full VAT invoice. HMRC’s guidance on charging VAT says invoices must include your VAT number and show VAT separately. Before you send the first one, check that your Monzo invoice shows everything your VAT scheme requires; your accountant can confirm in a minute.

How customers pay a Monzo invoice

Short answer: by easy bank transfer, which is free, or by card through Stripe if you turn card payments on.

Monzo puts a payment link on the invoice with the details pre-filled. When the customer taps Pay invoice, they see a summary and the option to Pay by easy bank transfer. If you have switched on Accept online cards, they also see Pay by card. The customer does not have to type your sort code, account number or reference, which removes the most common reason a payment goes astray.

Easy bank transfers are free for you. The customer authorises the payment in their own banking app and the money arrives as an ordinary UK transfer. For business customers who pay through their own bank’s payment run, the invoice still carries your account details, so they can pay the traditional way.

If you are paid in another currency, the invoice is not the issue: what matters is how the money arrives. Monzo charges 1% conversion fee on incoming euros and other currencies, capped at £1,000. Our page on Monzo Business international payments covers sending and receiving abroad.

Card payment fees on invoices

Card payments on invoices and payment links are processed by Stripe, and Stripe’s fees apply: £0.20 + 1.5% for standard UK cards on invoices and payment links. Premium UK cards, European cards and cards from elsewhere cost more. The fee comes out of what you receive, so a customer who pays by card costs you more than one who pays by bank transfer.

Worked out from Stripe’s standard UK card rate as listed by Monzo; premium and non-UK cards cost more. On larger invoices the percentage adds up, so many businesses leave card payments switched off for big business-to-business invoices and switch them on where convenience wins the job, such as consumer work or small one-off sales.

Card payments in person are separate. Monzo’s Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, no card reader has its own Stripe pricing, £0.20 + 1.4% for UK and European cards.

Automatic matching and reconciliation

Monzo says there is no need to reconcile manually: it matches payments with reference numbers and marks invoices as paid. In practice that means the Get paid section shows each invoice as due, overdue or paid without you ticking anything off.

Matching depends on the reference. Payments through the invoice’s own link carry it automatically. A customer who pays by manual transfer and types a different reference, or combines two invoices into one payment, may not match. In that case you can change the invoice status yourself in the app.

If you also use accounting software, Monzo’s integration with Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and QuickBooks sends the bank transactions across, and you reconcile the payment against the invoice there. That is where the “two invoicing systems” problem comes in, which we cover below.

Chasing late payers

Short answer: plan to chase yourself. Monzo’s invoicing page does not advertise automatic reminder emails to customers.

Monzo’s pitch is that you can see what is owed and spend less time chasing, and overdue invoices are visible in the Get paid section. We could not confirm on Monzo’s current invoicing pages that it sends scheduled reminders to your customers, so we would not rely on it. Check the app on your plan; if the option is there, use it, and if not, resend the payment link by email or message when an invoice goes overdue.

UK law gives you some leverage. GOV.UK’s guidance on late commercial payments says that if you have not agreed a payment date, a business payment is late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice or you deliver, whichever is later, and agreed terms for business transactions should usually be within 60 days. You can claim interest and debt recovery costs on late business payments. Putting clear payment terms in your invoice terms field makes that conversation easier.

Monzo invoicing vs dedicated tools and accounting software

The real choice is not Monzo against another bank. It is whether you invoice from your bank or from your accounting software.

If your accountant works in Xero, FreeAgent, Sage or QuickBooks, invoicing in the same software keeps the sales ledger complete, so debtors, VAT and year-end accounts all come from one place. Invoices raised in Monzo arrive in the software as bank receipts rather than as invoices, which some accountants are happy with and some are not. Ask yours before you start.

Monzo Business also has a partner offer: 6 months' free Xero with Pro, 8 months with Team (new Xero customers, until 31 May 2027). If you were going to pay for Xero anyway, that changes the sums.

A simple invoicing routine in Monzo

Most late payment is a process problem rather than a customer problem. A routine that works well with Monzo’s tool:

1. Agree terms before the work. Send a quote first for anything new, and put your payment terms, such as 14 or 30 days, in the invoice terms field so they appear on every invoice.
2. Invoice on the day the work is delivered. The payment clock starts when the customer receives the invoice. Doing it from the phone at the end of the job removes the delay.
3. Leave the payment link on. Pre-filled details mean fewer mistyped references and more automatic matches.
4. Decide on cards per customer type. Card payments cost Stripe’s fee; easy bank transfer is free. Many businesses offer cards to consumers and small one-off buyers and leave them off for regular business clients.
5. Check Get paid weekly. Anything overdue gets a polite resend of the link the same day, then a phone call a week later.
6. Let tax take care of itself. With a Tax Pot running, each paid invoice tops up the tax money automatically, so you are not working out VAT or Income Tax every time.

If you also run accounting software, decide once where invoices are raised and stick to it. Raising some in Monzo and some in Xero is the fastest way to end up with a sales ledger that does not match the bank.

Who Monzo invoicing suits

It suits freelancers, consultants and small service businesses sending a handful of invoices a month in pounds, who want to stop paying for a separate invoicing app. Our guide to bank accounts for freelancers covers that group in more detail. Pair it with Tax Pots and each invoice that gets paid sets its own tax aside.

It suits less well businesses with many invoices, slow-paying corporate clients, multi-currency billing or an accountant who wants a full ledger. Those businesses are better invoicing from accounting software and using Monzo as the bank underneath. If you are comparing accounts with built-in invoicing, our Monzo Business vs Tide comparison looks at both side by side.

If Monzo fits and you have never had a Monzo account, the Monzo Business referral link explains the reward and the four steps to qualify within 30 days.