The customer didn't receive my invoice — what to check

When a customer says they didn't get the invoice, the Activity panel on the document tells you what actually happened. Open the invoice and check there first — the steps below walk through each case.

Read the Activity panel

Open the invoice and find the Activity panel. Look for the most recent send-related entry. You'll see one of these:

• Delivered — the recipient's mail server accepted the message. The invoice reached them; if they don't see it, it's almost always in their spam or promotions folder.
• Viewed — the customer opened the email or clicked the public link. The invoice reached them and was read.
• Bounced — delivery failed. The recipient address is wrong or no longer exists. The entry includes the reason.
• Sent with no follow-up event after a few minutes — the message left Sliptree but the recipient's server hasn't reported back yet. Most often this means it landed in spam silently.
• Sending failed — Sliptree itself couldn't dispatch the message after retrying. Try sending again; if it fails repeatedly, contact support.

For background on what each event means, see Document activity.

If the activity says Bounced

The recipient address is wrong. Common causes:

• A typo in the email entered when sending (@gnail.com instead of @gmail.com).
• The customer's address has been retired or their company domain has changed.
• The customer-record email is stale.

What to do:

1. Open the invoice's Send invoice panel again.
2. Correct the recipient address.
3. Click Send again — sending after a bounce is fine and will produce a new attempt.
4. If the email on the customer record was wrong, also update it under Customers so the next document goes to the right place.

If the activity says Delivered (or shows nothing after a few minutes)

The message reached the recipient's mail server. If they still don't see it, it's almost certainly in their spam, promotions, or junk folder. Ask them to:

1. Search their inbox for notifications@sliptree.com or for your business name.
2. Check spam, junk, and promotions folders.
3. If they find it in spam, mark it as "not spam" and add notifications@sliptree.com to their address book — that helps future sends land in the inbox.

Sliptree sends through its own provider, signing each message so most spam filters trust it. But individual mail servers vary, especially in corporate setups, and there's no way to guarantee inbox placement.

If the activity says Sending failed

Click Send again. The first attempt hit a temporary issue and Sliptree gave up after a few retries. A second attempt usually works. If it keeps failing, contact support — include the invoice number so we can look at the underlying error.

Send the public link instead

If email isn't getting through (or the customer just prefers a link), every invoice has a public view link you can paste anywhere — chat, your own email, an SMS. Open the invoice, choose Copy link from More actions, and send the link directly. The customer can open it without a Sliptree account and download the PDF themselves. See The public view link.

When to check the customer's address book entry

If the same customer keeps not receiving invoices, the email on their customer record is probably wrong or has changed. Update it under Customers so every future document goes to the right place — the per-send recipient is just a one-off override.