Send and get paid on a private invoice

A private sale invoice lets you bill a buyer directly for a sale you arranged yourself, off the marketplace, and collect the money through Creatures. You put one or more animals (or a group, or genetic material) on the invoice, send it, and your buyer pays by bank transfer, card, or their Creatures wallet. When the payment clears, ownership transfers to the buyer, a bill of sale is created, and the income posts to your books, so a handshake sale becomes clean records instead of a note on paper.

Sending invoices uses the same seller setup as selling on the marketplace: a verified identity, a verified phone, and payout (Stripe) set up. If any of those is missing, the invoices page walks you through finishing it before you can send.

Open your invoices

From your finance dashboard, select View invoices on the Invoices panel, or go straight to /finance/invoices. The page lists every private sale invoice for the selected business records, with columns for the invoice number, the sale (what is on it), the buyer, the status, the total, and the date. Select New invoice to start one.

An invoice moves through clear statuses: Draft (saved, not sent), Sent (the buyer has the link), Processing (a bank transfer is clearing), Paid, Void, and Refunded.

Create the invoice

New invoice opens the form at /finance/invoices/new.

• What you are selling: choose Individual animals, A group, or Genetic material. When you start the invoice from an animal, a group, or a genetic item, the subject is already filled in and this toggle is skipped.
• Animals: search your animals by name and add one or more. The helper reads "Select one or more animals owned by these business records. Multiple animals stay on this invoice; no group is created," so you can sell two or three animals on one invoice without turning them into a group. Only animals you own or co-own, and that are not private or deceased, can be added.
• Buyer: search for an existing Creatures user by name, or Invite by email (enter the buyer's email and name) or Invite by text (enter the phone and confirm you have consent to text them). Existing users are notified in Creatures and by email; a text goes out only if their settings and a verified phone allow it. You can also add one optional Also send a copy to email or phone.
• Optional: require a signed agreement: turn this on and pick one of your agreement templates to have the buyer add a legal digital signature (similar to DocuSign) before the payment button appears. If you have not built a template yet, the form links you out to create one.
• Sale amount: the price your buyer will see, in dollars and cents.
• Payment methods: choose Bank transfer (free, usually clears in about 1 to 3 business days, ownership transfers once it clears) and/or Card payment (settles right away and transfers ownership immediately, with processing taken out of your proceeds). At least one method must stay selected. If you are on Creatures Pro the panel shows that your Creatures seller fee is removed; otherwise it estimates the seller fee that comes out of your proceeds after payment clears.
• Notes: an internal note for your own records; the buyer does not see it.

Select Save as draft to keep it for later, or Send invoice to number it and deliver the link to your buyer. For how sale proceeds are released to you, see How seller payout works.

Sequential invoice numbers

The moment you send an invoice, Creatures assigns it a sequential number in the form YYYY-NNNN, for example 2026-0001: the tax year, then a counter that increases by one for each invoice you send from those business records. Numbers are unique to your records and never reused, so your invoices stay in order for your books and for your buyers. A draft that has not been sent yet is referred to by its link until it is numbered.

How your buyer pays

Your buyer opens the invoice from the link you sent; they do not need a Creatures account just to view it. They see who sent it (with a Verified seller badge when you are verified), a card for each animal on the sale, the amount, and what happens next. To pay, they can use:

• Bank transfer (handled by Stripe, usually 1 to 3 business days to clear) or card (instant), whichever you enabled.
• Their Creatures wallet: if their wallet balance covers the invoice, one tap pays it instantly and skips card and bank processing.

As soon as the payment clears, ownership of the animals transfers to the buyer's Creatures account, a bill of sale is created automatically, and the buyer gets links straight to their new records. A private invoice normally adds no buyer fee, so your buyer pays exactly the amount you set.

If your buyer is not on Creatures yet

You can invoice someone who does not have a Creatures account. When they pay, Creatures creates a free buyer account for the email (or phone) you invoiced and sends a secure claim link so they can open it on any device and pick up their records and bill of sale. If you invited by phone, they can also choose Text me a code to claim by SMS. If the email or phone already belongs to another account, the invoice points them to sign in with the buyer email instead, so records never attach to the wrong person.

Confirming pickup or delivery

For an animal sale, paying is not quite the end. Until the buyer takes the animal home, the animal stays in your care: you keep posting photos and records, and the sale shows as paid but awaiting pickup. The buyer confirms with a Confirm pickup or delivery button on their invoice once the animal is home, and you can set an optional go-home date when you create the invoice so both sides know the plan.

If the buyer has not confirmed, select Remind buyer on the invoice to nudge them (once every 24 hours). Once the buyer confirms, the sale is marked complete; if a handoff is ever disputed, Creatures support can review it while proceeds stay held. This care-period step applies to animal sales, not to genetic material.

Managing an invoice

Open any invoice to manage it:

• Send link or Resend link: deliver or re-deliver the buyer's payment link for a draft or sent invoice.
• Void: cancel a draft or sent invoice, with an optional internal reason the buyer never sees. A paid invoice cannot be voided.
• Bill of sale, ledger transaction, and documents: once paid, the invoice links to the generated bill of sale and the posted ledger transaction, so everything about the sale lives in one place.

Related information

• Understanding your finance dashboard
• Recording money in and out
• The accountant view and reports
• How buying works: payments, held funds, and protection

Updated on: 07/07/2026