How can I add emails to cc on invoice emails?

Last updated: August 21, 2026

Summary: Ascen can copy additional people on the emails it sends — invoices, timesheets, payroll invoices — at several levels. Most of it, you set yourself on the client under Clients → Edit Client; some (account-wide and assignment-level lists) we set for you. The key thing to understand first is the difference between a user/recipient and a cc.

"User" vs. "cc" — the distinction that trips people up

Two different kinds of email fields exist, and they behave differently:

  • A User (e.g. Billing User Email, Timesheet User Emails) is the primary recipient. That address becomes an actual login user of the client, so it must be unique to that client — you can't reuse the same billing-user email across several clients.

  • A cc (e.g. Billing cc emails, Timesheet CC Emails) is just copied on the email. A cc can be any address, doesn't create a login, and can be reused across as many clients as you like.

Rule of thumb: if you need the same person to receive documents for multiple clients, use a cc field, not a user field.

Copying people on a client's invoices

On the client (Clients → select the client → Edit Client):

  • Billing User Email — the primary person who receives that client's invoices (a login user, unique to the client).

  • Billing cc emails (cc'ed on invoices) — anyone else who should always be copied on that client's invoices. Any address, reusable across clients. This is the field to use for the common "please also cc our AP inbox" request.

Add the address(es), then Save. Changes apply to invoices sent going forward.

Copying people on timesheets

Same screen, timesheet section:

  • Timesheet User Emails — the primary timesheet recipients (login users, unique to the client).

  • Timesheet CC Emails — anyone else who should always get this client's timesheets. Any address, reusable.

Copying people on payroll invoices

For self-funded partners, payroll invoices are a separate email from client billing invoices, with their own copy list:

  • Payroll Billing cc emails on the client — copies those addresses on the client's payroll invoices.

  • If your account combines payroll invoices into a single email across clients, the per-client payroll cc is intentionally disabled (a cc there would receive every client's invoices). Instead, recipients go on the account-wide Combined Payroll Invoice CC Emails, or you can ask us to exclude a specific client from the combined email so it can have its own cc. Email support@ascen.com to set either up.

Account-wide copies (all clients at once)

Some copy lists live at the partner/account level and apply across all of your clients — handy when one inbox (AP, operations, a manager) should be on everything without editing each client. These are set by Ascen; email support@ascen.com with what you need:

  • Account-wide billing cc — copied on invoices for every client.

  • Combined Payroll Invoice CC Emails — copied on the combined payroll-invoice email.

  • Client invitation cc / Contractor invitation cc — copied when invitations go out to new clients or contractors.

  • Account report recipients (weekly/monthly) and payroll-status notification recipients — for teammates who should receive recurring reports and payroll run notifications.

More specific targeting (work location & assignment)

Copies can also be scoped more narrowly than a whole client:

  • Work location — a client with multiple sites can have per-site billing and timesheet cc lists, so each location's contacts are copied only on their own work.

  • Assignment — an individual assignment can carry its own billing/timesheet cc list. One nuance worth knowing: an assignment's timesheet cc adds to the client/location lists, but an assignment's billing cc, if set, replaces the client/partner lists for that assignment's invoices (so it can also be used to isolate who's copied). These are usually configured with our help — email support@ascen.com if you need copies scoped to a single site or assignment.

How the lists combine

When Ascen sends an email, it copies the union of the applicable cc lists (client + account-wide + work location, plus assignment for timesheets), de-duplicated — so a person listed in more than one place is only copied once. The one exception is a per-assignment billing cc override, which narrows the list for that assignment as described above.

Questions, or want an account-wide or per-site copy set up? Email support@ascen.com.