A recurring invoice is an invoice set up once and then issued again on a fixed schedule (weekly, monthly or yearly) for work that repeats, such as a retainer, a maintenance contract or a subscription. Each issue is a separate invoice in its own right: it gets a new invoice number, a new issue date and, where relevant, the service period it covers. The lines and amount stay the same until you change the template. Example: a monthly hosting fee of €50 excluding VAT, issued on the 1st: INV-0201 covers 1–31 October, INV-0215 covers 1–30 November. Common mistakes: letting a schedule run after the agreement has ended or the price has changed, and leaving out the service period, so two invoices look identical. In the EU each one must carry a unique sequential number (Article 226, point 2 of the VAT Directive) and, where it differs from the issue date, the date on which the supply was made or completed (Article 226, point 7).
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