How to email an invoice from your iPhone
The invoice is finished. What you write in the email around it decides whether it gets paid this week or next month.
Attach it properly
Send the invoice as a PDF attachment. Not pasted into the email body, not as a screenshot, not as a spreadsheet.
This isn't fussiness. Accounts payable departments file attachments, forward attachments, and in many cases feed attachments straight into a system that reads them. An invoice living in an email body can't be filed and often can't be processed at all — so it gets manually retyped, or it gets ignored.
A screenshot is worse: it's low resolution, it can't be printed properly, and it looks like you don't do this often.
Name the file usefully
Invoice-INV-2026-007.pdf tells the recipient what it is and stays findable in
a folder of hundreds. document.pdf or IMG_4821.pdf is a file
nobody will ever locate again.
The subject line
The subject is what determines whether the email gets routed correctly. Put the essentials in it, because it may be all the finance team ever reads:
- Good: Invoice INV-2026-007 — Acme Consulting — €1,426.39 due 20 Aug
- Bad: Invoice
- Worse: Following up on our chat!
Include the invoice number, your business name, the amount and the due date. Anyone can act on that without opening anything.
What to write
Short. Three or four lines. The invoice contains the detail; the email just has to make paying it effortless.
A template that works
Hi [name],
Attached is invoice INV-2026-007 for [brief description of the work],
for €1,426.39, due 20 August 2026.
Payment details are on the invoice, and there's a QR code if that's easier. If it needs to
go to someone else in accounts, just let me know and I'll send it over directly.
Thanks,
[you]
That last line does more work than it looks like it does. It's a low-friction way of finding out who actually pays invoices at that company, and it converts a silent delay into a name you can email next time.
Sending it from the app
In Quick Invoice Generator PDF
- Press and hold the invoice in the list to open its actions.
- Tap View PDF first and read it as your client will. Ten seconds, and it catches the wrong date or a missing PO reference before the client does.
- Choose Share PDF — or Share e-invoice (Factur-X (ZUGFeRD)) if the client needs a structured invoice.
- Pick Mail from the share sheet. The PDF attaches itself; you write the covering note in Mail.
- Set the status to Sent. This is the step everyone skips, and it's what makes the invoice list and the monthly reports mean anything.
Messages, Files, AirDrop and any other share destination work identically — some clients genuinely prefer WhatsApp, and the PDF is the same either way.
If your client isn't in your own language, set the invoice language before exporting. It's independent of your phone's language, so you can send a French or German client a properly labelled invoice without changing anything about your own device.
The follow-up rhythm
Most late payments aren't refusals. They're an invoice that reached one person's inbox and stopped there. A predictable rhythm fixes most of it without any awkwardness:
| When | What to send | Aim |
|---|---|---|
| Day after due | Short, friendly, PDF reattached | Assume oversight — usually it is |
| 1 week past | Ask who handles payments and whether it reached them | Find the actual blocker |
| 2 weeks past | Firmer note referencing agreed terms | Establish that you're tracking it |
| 3+ weeks | Phone call, not email | Email has already failed by this point |
Always reattach the PDF in a follow-up. "As per my previous email" makes the recipient go hunting; a fresh attachment lets them act immediately.
Keeping invoice statuses up to date is what makes this possible at all — the Reports tab shows paid versus unpaid for the month, so chasing becomes a five-minute job rather than an archaeology project through your sent folder.
Create it, attach it, send it
Straight from the iOS share sheet into Mail, Messages or Files. Free to download, no account.
Free plan: 10 invoices, 3 shares a month · No account · No ads
Frequently asked questions
How do I email an invoice from an iPhone?
Create the invoice, export it as a PDF, and share it to Mail through the iOS share sheet — the PDF attaches automatically and you write the covering note in Mail as normal. In Quick Invoice Generator PDF, press and hold the invoice, choose Share PDF, then pick Mail.
Should I paste the invoice into the email body instead of attaching it?
No. Attach the PDF. Finance teams file and forward attachments; an invoice pasted into an email body can't be filed, can't be forwarded cleanly, and often can't be accepted by their system at all. Summarise the key details in the body and attach the real document.
Who should I send the invoice to?
Both your day-to-day contact and the client's accounts payable address, if they have one. Sending only to your contact relies on them forwarding it — which is one of the most common reasons an invoice sits unpaid for weeks without anyone doing anything wrong.