In this article you will learn how to write off uncollectible invoices as bad debt, to improve tracking and reporting.

Most jobs get paid without any trouble. But every field service business runs into the occasional invoice that just won't collect: a customer who stops responding, disputes the work, closes up shop, or files for bankruptcy. Marking an invoice as bad debt lets you write off these uncollectible invoices without losing their history, so your outstanding and overdue totals reflect the money you can actually expect to collect.

Why it matters

When an invoice becomes uncollectible, leaving it active can artificially inflate your outstanding balance and past-due totals. Writing it off as bad debt directly resolves this challenge by keeping your reporting accurate while preserving the complete transaction history.

• Your reporting stays accurate
  Uncollectible invoices no longer inflate your outstanding and overdue totals, so those numbers reflect what you can realistically expect to collect
• You keep the full record
  The invoice, its line items, and its history stay exactly where they are; nothing is deleted
• It's reversible
  If a customer pays after all, or you marked an invoice by mistake, the marking can be undone at any time

How to mark an invoice as bad debt

Follow these steps to classify an invoice as bad debt in your account.

Marking an individual invoice

1. Open the job or client record and go to the invoice you want to write off
2. Select Actions > Mark as Bad debt in the top right of the invoice
3. Select the write off reason:
   1. Customer unresponsive
   2. Customer refuses to pay
   3. Disputed / dissatisfied with service
   4. Customer bankruptcy / insolvency
   5. Customer out of business / closed
   6. Uncollectible after collection efforts
   7. Amount too small to pursue
   8. Chargeback / fraud
   9. None of the above
4. Confirm to mark the invoice as bad debt

Marking invoices as bad debt in bulk

If you have several uncollectible invoices to clean up at once, you don't need to open each one individually:

1. From the sidebar menu, select Invoices
2. Filter the list (for example, by Overdue) to narrow it down to the invoices you're reviewing
3. Select the checkboxes next to each invoice you want to write off
4. From the bulk actions menu, select Mark as Bad debt
5. Choose a reason to apply to all of the selected invoices, then confirm

How this impacts reporting

Once an invoice is marked as bad debt:

• It's removed from your outstanding balance and overdue totals on the invoices dashboard, client records, and any reports that pull from those totals
• The invoice keeps its full amount, line items, and payment history; it isn't deleted, deducted, or zeroed out. It's excluded from collections totals, not erased.
• The invoice still appears in your invoice list, now flagged with the bad debt indicator, so you can always find it and see why it was written off

This means marking an invoice as bad debt is the right move once you've determined it truly won't be collected. It's how you keep your outstanding/overdue numbers meaningful without losing the paper trail.

How to unmark an invoice as bad debt

Admins can reverse a bad debt marking at any time.

1. Open the invoice marked as bad debt
2. Select Actions > Unmark as bad debt
3. Confirm the change

How this impacts reporting

Reversing a bad debt marking puts the invoice back exactly where it would be if it had never been marked:

• It's added back into your outstanding balance and, if past its due date, your overdue totals. You can view this across your account, including the dashboard, invoice and client details, and reports.
• Its status reverts to whatever it would naturally be based on its due date (Due or Overdue)
• The Bad debt indicator and reason are removed from the invoice