Billing terms and invoices

Cadre builds each client’s invoice from two things: the billing terms you agreed for each worker group, and the client’s locked payroll run. A payroll admin generates a draft; a second person issues it. Once issued, an invoice is numbered and never changes.

Who can see billing terms and client invoices: Owner, Payroll admin, Payroll approver.

Billing terms

Billing terms say what one worker group at a client is billed. They are never edited: a change is a new version from a later date, and every earlier version stays on record for the invoices it governed.

Agree terms for a worker group

Who can agree billing terms: Owner, Payroll admin.

Go to Billing terms and choose the Client.
Select Agree new terms, or New version on a worker group’s latest terms.
Choose the Worker group and the Effective from date. It must be after the last period already invoiced.
Fill in the terms for the group’s service model (below).
Under Agency fees, select Add a fee for each fee: give it a name, choose how it is charged, and enter the amount.
Set the VAT rate (7.5% unless you change it) and choose what VAT is charged on.
Select Agree these terms.

Model A terms

For workers you employ, the salary cost is billed at cost, plus a margin by one of three methods, plus any fees.

Method:
- Cost plus a margin percentage: a Margin (% of cost) on each worker’s cost.
- Cost plus a fixed margin per unit: a Margin per unit (₦).
- One all-inclusive rate per unit: a Bill rate per unit (₦) that covers salary, statutory cost and margin in one line.
Basis, the unit for the last two methods:
- Per worker per month. A worker who was at the client for part of the month counts for the share of days they were there.
- Per hour worked: hours approved on timesheets at that client in the month.
- Per day worked: days approved on timesheets at that client in the month.
Cost plus a percentage is always per worker per month.
Pass employer pension, NSITF and the ITF share through to the client at cost: tick it to bill those employer costs to the client. Untick it and your agency absorbs them.
Conversion fee (Model A → D): what the client pays if it takes a worker onto its own payroll: none, a fixed amount, or a percentage of annual gross. See Seconded workers.

Model B and C terms

Model B: the client funds salaries, so only agency fees are billed, never salary cost or a margin on it.
Model C: there is no payroll, so only a per-worker or fixed monthly fee is billed.

Fees are charged Per payslip, Per worker or Fixed each month. A per-payslip fee does not apply to Model C.

Which VAT basis to choose

VAT is charged on	When to choose it
The whole invoice (the default)	The law as Cadre reads it (Nigeria Tax Act 2025 s.148–149). As the legal employer under Model A, everything you bill the client, salary and statutory cost included, is consideration for your supply.
Fees and margin only	Only if your tax adviser says so. Salary and statutory cost billed at cost carry no VAT; margin, all-inclusive rate and fee lines do.

An all-inclusive rate carries VAT on either basis. Model B and C invoices carry fees only, so both bases give the same VAT. Each invoice line records the basis it was charged on, and the invoice says which basis applied.

Generate a draft invoice

Who can generate and rebuild draft invoices: Owner, Payroll admin.

For Model A and B clients, the invoice is built from the client’s locked run. Do one of these:

On Clients this month, select the Generate invoice button (the receipt icon) on the client’s row. It appears once the run is locked and has no invoice.
On the locked run’s Cost allocation tab, select Generate client invoice.

For Model C clients, there is no run:

Go to Client invoices and select Administration invoice.
Choose the Client and the month and year.
Select Generate draft.

Cadre opens the draft. If a worker group has no billing terms in force for the month, the draft is not built, and Cadre names the groups that need terms.

Your own staff are never invoiced.

Check the draft

An issued client invoice: the client, period, service model and number, the figures, the VAT basis, the lines and the schedule of workers

The invoice screen shows:

the client, the period, the service model and how many workers it covers, with a link to the run it is built from;
the figures: Gross pay cost, Employer statutory cost, Cost billed, Margin, Agency fees, Before VAT, VAT and Total;
the VAT basis;
any warnings;
the Lines, each with its worker group, quantity, unit amount, VAT rate and VAT;
the Schedule of workers: each worker’s share, so the client can see what makes up the invoice.

A draft has no number. Until it is issued, a payroll admin can select Rebuild draft to build it again from the locked run and the billing terms in force, for example after correcting the terms.

Issue the invoice

Who can issue, mark paid, void and credit invoices: Owner, Payroll approver.

Open the draft and select Issue.
Read the confirmation. It names the client, the period and the total.
Check the Issue date (today unless the invoice is dated otherwise) and enter the Due date.
Select Issue to and the client’s name.

The invoice takes the next invoice number and can never be changed afterwards. A correction is a credit note.

After issuing

The invoice is	You can
Issued	Mark as paid, Raise credit note or Void
Paid	Raise credit note
Void	Nothing. A voided invoice cannot be reissued

Mark as paid: enter the Paid on date and, if you have one, a Payment reference.
Void: say why. The number stays used, so the sequence has no gap.
Raise credit note: enter the Amount before VAT (₦), the VAT credited (₦), the Credit note date and why the credit is given. VAT is entered, not calculated: credit only the VAT the invoice charged on the lines you are crediting. The credit note takes the next credit note number.

On Client invoices, filter by year, month, client and status. Select Excel to download the list.

The Client invoices list, with each invoice's client, number, period, status, due date and total

Invoice numbering

Invoices and credit notes are numbered PREFIX-YEAR-00001, from two gap-free sequences that restart each calendar year. A number is taken only when a document is issued, so drafts never use one. The prefixes are INV and CN until you change them.

Who can change the prefixes: Owner.

Go to Settings > Invoice numbering. It shows how many invoices and credit notes have been issued this year, and the next invoice number.
Enter the Invoice prefix and Credit note prefix: 1 to 10 letters or digits each, saved in capitals. The two must differ.
Select Save prefixes.

Numbers already issued keep theirs.

Why Cadre works this way

An issued invoice is a tax document your client may already have booked. Changing it afterwards would leave two versions of the truth. A credit note corrects it and leaves a record of both.