The highly customizable free PDF invoice generator lets us create professional looking invoices quickly, easily and for free. In the video below we show you how it works and beneath the video, you can read our step by step tutorial.
How to Create an invoice
- 1) Enter an invoice number into the "Invoice #" or leave as is. Note that this number auto increments by 1 each time an invoice is downloaded.
- 2) Enter the date of the invoice in the "Date" field. The date field is editable and makes it convenient for entering future dates for invoices that you plan to send at a later time. You can use the popup calendar for faster input.
- 3) Enter the due date in the "Due Date" field. Again, you can use the popup calendar for faster input.
- 4) If would like to add a company logo to the invoice, click the "Upload Your Logo" button and choose an image that is in .jpg, .gif or .png format. Note that images are scaled to 80px x 80px.
- 5) Enter your name or company name and address in the "Bill From:" fields. Note that non of the fields are required so if you are located outside the US, it is not necessary to enter a state.
- 6) Enter your client's or customer's address into the "Bill To:" fields. As with the "Bill From" section, non of the fields are required so if you are billing someone outside the US, it is not necessary to enter a state.
- 7) Describe the product, subscription or service that you are billing your customer for using the "Description" field.
- 8) Enter the quantity into the "Qty" field. Totals are automatically calculated based on the quantity that you enter in this field.
- 9) Enter the price of your products, subscriptions or services into the "Price" field. Enter only decimals and numeric values into this field. Keep in mind that the price you enter here, is multiplied by the quantity that you have entered into the "Qty" field. E.g., Price: 12.00 x Qty: 1 equals 12.00, Price: 12.00 x Qty: 2 equals 24.00.
- 10) If you'd like to offer a discount, you may do so by entering the amount into the "Discount %" field. This field is optional and accepts only numeric values. Keep in mind that discounts are subtracted from the subtotal as a percentage. E.g., Price: 12.00 x Qty: 1 - 10% equals 10.80, Price: 12.00 x Qty: 2 - 10% equals 21.60.
- 11) If would like to add more products, subscriptions or services to your invoice, simply click on the "+ new row" button or click on the green circle with the + sign in the middle. Once the new row appears, simply follow steps 7 through 10. If at a later time you decide to remove a product, subscription or service, simply click the red circle with the - sign in the middle located above the row that you'd like to delete.
- 12) Select your currency from the drop down menu. The default currency is in US dollars.
- 13) If you'd like to charge tax, you may enter the tax rate in the "Tax" field. This field accepts only numbers and decimals. The tax rate is added to the subtotal as a percentage. E.g., Row 1 price: 12.00 x Qty: 1 equals 12.00, Row 2 Price: 12.00 x Qty: 2 equals 24.00 + 1% tax, total equals 36.36 due to the 1% tax rate (0.36) being added.
- 14) If you are changing your customer a due balance, enter the amount that they paid prior to this invoice, in the amount paid field. Enter only decimals and numbers in this field. This amount will be subtracted from the grand total so if you are charging your customer tax, the amount paid will be subtracted after taxes.
- 15) If you'd like to add a note, you may do so using the "Notes" field. This field is optional and is limited to 188 characters.
- 16) Once you are finished filling out the form, you can preview the invoice by clicking on the "Preview" button, print the invoice on paper by clicking the "Print" button or you can download the invoice as a PDF by clicking on the "Download as PDF" button.
Configuration and settings
- You may change the text color of your invoice by entering the hex value into the "Main font color" box.
- You may change the background color of table headings by entering the hex value into the "Heading background color" box.
- You may change the font color of table headings by entering the hex value into the "Heading font color" box.
- All editable fields have a border around them. So if you'd like to change the text of a heading (say the "Bill to:" text), simply type the new text into the corresponding input box. Keep in mind that due to column size restrictions on the template, these fields only accept a limited number of characters.
- There are also some fields such as the invoice #, date and due date fields which are editable even though they do not have a border around them.
- You can change the date format using the select menu which is locate beneath the date and due date fields. Available formats are: mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy, mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy, yyyy/mm/dd. Note that typing in a date rather than using the popup calendar to select a date, will disable the date format select menu.
Saved configuration and settings
In order to make things more convenient, possibly static input values such as company logo, name, address, template colors, heading text, date format and currency are automatically saved when you click the "Preview", "Print" or "Download as PDF" buttons. If at some point you'd like to reset to default values, simply click the "Reset Form Values" button.