Cycle close turns each customer's billing period into a draft invoice (see Cycle Close & Invoicing for how the draft is built). This article is the other half: the Review cycle drafts window where you check those drafts, decide whether to send them now or on the cycle boundary, and then watch them go out with a live counter you can walk away from.
Since September 2026, sending runs on PortaPro's servers rather than inside your browser tab. Click Send now, and the window turns into a progress view that counts each invoice as it goes. You can close the window, keep working, or shut the laptop. The invoices keep sending, and the Invoices page shows the same counter and a summary when it finishes.
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RSD-1: Where the drafts wait
Open Financials → Invoices. When there are cycle drafts to review, a banner at the top reads Cycle drafts ready to review with the draft count and dollar total, and an overdue count in red if any billing period's review window has already passed.
Click Review Cycle Drafts. The Cycle Drafts picker has two tabs:
Picking a period opens the Review cycle drafts window for that period. Two other doors lead to the same window:
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RSD-2: Reviewing the list
Every draft starts checked. Uncheck anything you want to hold; the header reads N of N selected with the dollar total of what's checked. Drafts with review flags sort to the top, with the flag text in amber under the customer's name (see CYC-7 in Cycle Close & Invoicing for what each flag means).
Each row shows the customer, the invoice number, the amount, and Sends to, which is the real recipient list for that customer: the company email plus every contact subscribed to billing email (see Email recipients). The row's small icons let you fix things without leaving the review:
| Icon | What it does |
|---|---|
| People | Edit this customer's email recipients (add the AP clerk, drop the old owner) |
| Calendar-off | Skip this billing period for this customer: deletes the draft and records the skip so the daily run does not cut it again |
| Chevron | Show the draft's line items inline |
| Open (external link) | Open the invoice in a new tab |
A row that reads No recipients in amber has nobody to email. It can still be approved; on send it is saved as Not Sent (see RSD-6) so you can download and mail it.
Click Continue (N approved).
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RSD-3: Send now or Schedule
The send step summarizes what you approved (N invoices · $ total, and how many drafts are left for later). If any of the approved customers have cycle autopay on, it says so: N of N will auto-charge the customer's saved card on send. If any have nobody to email, an amber box lists them and explains they will be saved as Not Sent.
Then pick one of two options:
Click Send now or Schedule. Back returns to the list.
Schedule finishes instantly, because it only records the date on each draft. Send now is where the counter comes in.
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RSD-4: What you see after Send now
The window switches to the progress view right away. Nothing waits on the browser: PortaPro records the batch, answers, and starts sending on its servers.
The top of the view is a live count, 23 of 49 processed, with a progress bar and an estimate of the time left. The estimate starts as Estimating time left… and settles after the first couple of invoices into About 3 min left, then Less than a minute left, then Finishing up…. Under the bar, three counts update as each invoice completes: Sent, Not Sent, and Failed (in red once it is above zero).
Below the counter the window says exactly what is true:
Sending runs on our servers, not in this window. You can close it or keep working. The same counter stays on the Invoices page until it finishes, and you'll get a summary there.
The footer button reads Close and keep sending while the batch is running and Done once it finishes. Both close the window; neither changes anything about the send.
As invoices fail or get saved as Not Sent, they appear under the counter in two lists, N failed and N saved as Not Sent, each row naming the customer, the invoice number, the reason, and an Open link to the invoice.
How fast is it? Each invoice takes a few seconds on its own (the PDF is rendered, any account credit is applied, the payment link is built, the email is handed to your provider, autopay is charged if it is on, and the ledger entry is posted), and PortaPro works on several invoices at once, so a batch typically moves at one to two seconds per invoice. Fifty invoices is around a minute and a half. Two invoices for the same customer never send at the same moment, so account credit can never be handed to both.
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RSD-5: The banner on the Invoices page
The same numbers live on Financials → Invoices, above the cycle drafts banner, so nothing depends on the review window staying open.
While a batch is running the banner reads Sending cycle invoices · 23 of 49, with a thin progress bar, the time left, and the line *you can keep working; this finishes on its own*. If anything has failed so far, N failed shows in red.
When it finishes, the banner becomes the summary: Sent 46 of 49 invoices · 2 saved as Not Sent · 1 failed, with Finished 3 minutes ago and a Show details toggle that lists the failed and Not Sent invoices with their reasons and Open links. A toast announces the same summary the moment it finishes, wherever you are on the Invoices page. The finished banner stays until you dismiss it with the X, and for up to 24 hours otherwise, so a send you started before lunch still has its summary waiting after.
A batch started in another browser tab, or by a coworker, appears in the banner within a minute.
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RSD-6: The three outcomes
Every invoice in a batch ends in exactly one state:
Sent. The email went out. The invoice is open, its delivery badge reads Sent (Email), and on the PortaPro sending rails it upgrades to Delivered, Opened, or Clicked as the customer's mail server and the customer react. The invoice's Send history shows the send.
Not Sent (saved). The customer had no billing email, so nothing could be emailed. The invoice is still issued: status open, delivery badge Not Sent, account credit applied exactly as it would have been. Download the PDF and mail it, then use Mark as mailed on the invoice so it stops reading Not Sent. This is the same treatment a one-off invoice gets when you save it without sending.
Failed. The email provider refused the send, or something stopped the invoice before the email. The invoice stays a draft, unchanged, and the reason is shown in plain words:
| Reason shown | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Email provider rejected the send, or the provider's own message (for example a Gmail error) | Your connected mailbox or the sending service refused the message at send time | Read the message; fix the address or reconnect the mailbox under Settings → Company Sending, then resend |
| Customer is inactive / Customer is deleted | The customer was inactivated or deleted after the draft was cut | Reactivate the customer if that was a mistake, or delete the draft |
| Already sent before this batch started | Someone sent this draft between your review and your click | Nothing to do; check the invoice's Send history |
| Invoice not found | The draft was deleted while you were reviewing | Nothing to do |
To resend a failed draft, open Review Cycle Drafts again (the draft is still listed for its period) or open the invoice and send it from there.
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RSD-7: What cannot go wrong
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RSD-8: Failed is not the same as bounced
Failed means the send was refused up front. A bounce is different: the address was accepted at send time and rejected later by the customer's mail server (a closed mailbox, a misspelled domain).
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RSD-9: Common questions
"I clicked Send now and the Cycle drafts banner disappeared. Did it work?"
Yes. That banner lists drafts, and as each invoice sends it stops being a draft. Look one line up: the sending banner is the one with the counter.
"I closed my laptop halfway through."
Nothing changed. The send runs on our servers. Open Financials → Invoices whenever you like and the banner shows either the live count or the finished summary.
"Some drafts are still listed after the batch finished."
Those are drafts you unchecked, or drafts whose send failed (still drafts, with the reason in the summary). Review them again when you're ready.
"How long will a hundred invoices take?"
Usually two to four minutes. The estimate under the counter is measured from your own batch as it runs, so trust that over any rule of thumb.
"Can I do this from my phone?"
Yes. The review window is full-screen on a phone, with the same list, the same Send now / Schedule choice, and the same counter.
"Why did this used to take so long with no indication?"
Before September 2026, Send now emailed the invoices one after another inside the browser's own request, so the button simply spun until the last one finished, with no count. A batch of fifty took three or four minutes that way. Sending now runs in the background, several invoices at a time, with the counter above.
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