Invoice generator

How to use it

1. Fill in your details and your customer’s.
2. Give the invoice a unique number, a date and a due date.
3. Add the line items, then a tax name and rate if you charge tax.
4. Press “Save as PDF” to open your browser’s print dialog, and choose Save as PDF there or print it.

What has to be on an invoice

An invoice is a request for payment, and the parts that make it one are unglamorous: who is charging, who is being charged, a unique number, the date, what the money is for, and the amount. The number is the one people skip and then regret — it is how you and your customer refer to the same piece of paper when one of you has a question about it three months later, and it is how your accounts stay reconcilable.

Everything else depends on where you are. Many countries require a tax registration number on the face of the invoice once you are registered, some require specific wording for a reverse charge or an exemption, and the period you must keep a copy for varies. This tool gives you the document; what your jurisdiction requires on it is worth ten minutes with your accountant once, and then it goes in the notes field every time.

The arithmetic, and where tax sits

Each line is quantity times unit price. The subtotal is the sum of those lines, tax is charged on the subtotal at the rate you type, and the total is both. The tax is worked out by the same function behind the sales tax and VAT calculator, so the two pages cannot disagree about what 20% of something is.

The rate field takes anything, including zero, because a zero-rated or exempt invoice is a real invoice. It is a rate you supply: this page does not know where you are, what you sell, or whether you are registered, and a generator that guessed would be wrong in exactly the cases where it mattered.

Nothing you type here is sent anywhere

The invoice is built in your browser and printed from your browser. Your customer’s name and address never reach Sellstamp, because there is nothing here to send them to. Print or save as PDF opens your own print dialog — on every desktop browser, “Save as PDF” is one of the destinations in it, and what you get is a real PDF with selectable text and no watermark.

Invoicing the same customers repeatedly for things you sell online? Sellstamp issues an invoice for every real order automatically, into your own payment account. This page is for the invoices that happen outside that.