How to use the Invoice Maker
- Enter your business details and the customer's, an invoice number and the date.
- Add line items with quantity and unit price. Set the currency symbol and tax rate in the side panel; subtotal, tax and total are calculated for you.
- Add payment terms or bank details in the notes, then Download PDF Invoice and send it.
When to use it
Freelancers, tradespeople and small shops send a few invoices a month, not hundreds, and often do not want accounting software to do it. This tool produces a standard, numbered PDF invoice that any customer's accounts department will accept, and it works the same on a phone at the end of a job as it does on a laptop.
What a valid invoice must carry
The tool gives you fields for all of them, but it will not stop you leaving one blank: your business name and address, the customer's, a unique sequential invoice number, the invoice date, a description of each item with quantity and unit price, the subtotal, the tax rate and tax amount, the total, and the payment terms with a due date and how to pay. Most tax authorities also require your tax registration number on the invoice once you are registered. The full checklist, with the reason for each field, is on what to include in an invoice.
Worked example
A web designer bills a café for a site rebuild: one line "Website redesign, 5 pages" at 1 × $1,800, one line "Stock photography licence" at 12 × $15. Subtotal $1,980; at a 20% tax rate the tax is $396 and the total $2,376. Invoice number INV-2026-041, dated 23 September, terms "Net 14: due 7 October, bank transfer to the account below". The notes field carries the account details and the sentence "Please quote INV-2026-041 on your payment", which is what makes the money findable when it arrives.
Common mistakes
- Reusing or skipping numbers. Auditors read gaps as missing invoices. One sequence, no repeats, no going back.
- No due date. "Payment on receipt" is not a date. Write the day the money is late.
- Sending an invoice before the order was agreed. If the customer has not confirmed the price, send a quotation first; an invoice creates a debt and cannot be quietly withdrawn.
- Editing a sent invoice. Corrections are made with a credit note and a new invoice, not by overwriting the PDF.
When this tool is the wrong one
It makes one invoice at a time and keeps only the last one in this browser. If you send more than a dozen a month, need recurring invoices, or need to know at a glance who has not paid, that is accounting software. Before the sale is agreed, use the Quotation Maker; when you are the buyer, the Purchase Order Generator. How these three documents relate is set out on the business documents pages.
Good to know
Your details and the last invoice stay in this browser's local storage, so repeat invoices are quick; nothing is uploaded. Number invoices sequentially and never reuse a number. Local tax rules decide what must appear on an invoice, such as a tax ID or registration number; put those in your business details block.