Invoice generator for freelancers and 1099 workers

Build a clean PDF invoice from your logged time, mileage, and reimbursable expenses. Send it by email. Track paid and unpaid. Set up recurring monthly billing for retainer clients. Free to use, no install required.

Create your first invoice

Why freelancers need a real invoice generator

Most freelance invoicing happens in a Word document, a Google Doc, or a single-purpose tool that does not know what hours you worked, what miles you drove, or what expenses you incurred on the client's behalf. The result is the same every month: you copy numbers from one system into another, hope you did not miss anything, and remember on the 28th that you forgot to bill the trip to the client's office two weeks ago.

An invoice generator that already has your time entries, mileage log, and expense records can do the assembly for you. Click a client, pick a date range, and the line items appear with the correct hours, the correct rate, the correct mileage at 72.5 cents per mile, and any client-reimbursable expenses ready to add. The PDF goes to the client. The paid date posts to your income ledger when the check lands. The numbers feed your year-end Schedule C without a second pass.

One workflow
Hours, miles, and expenses flow into the same invoice and the same Schedule C

How the invoice generator works

The invoice form lives at Dashboard > Invoices > New invoice. Every invoice has the same three steps.

  1. Pick a client and date range. The form auto-numbers the invoice based on your sequence (default INV-0001) and pre-fills your address and logo from your company profile. Optionally tag the invoice to a specific engagement or purchase order so drawdown reports stay accurate.
  2. Import what you billed. One button imports billable time entries at the client's hourly rate. A second imports mileage trips at your default mileage rate. A third imports any reimbursable expenses logged to this client. Every imported line item stays linked to the underlying record, so the same hour, trip, or expense never lands on two invoices.
  3. Add manual line items if needed. Fixed-fee deliverables, milestones, products from your saved catalog, anything that did not flow from time or expenses. The total updates live as you edit.
  4. Save as a draft, mark as sent, or send by email. Three buttons. Saving as sent records the invoice without emailing it (for clients you invoice through their portal). Sending emails the PDF, with optional time-report attachment, mileage log, and receipt PDFs (up to 10MB combined). You can cc yourself.
  5. Mark paid when the money arrives. The paid date flows to your income ledger and the YTD revenue card on the Overview tab. Voiding or deleting a paid invoice reverses the income atomically, so your tax estimate never carries phantom dollars.

What the invoice generator includes

Clean PDF invoice with your logo and company info
Custom invoice number format (INV-0001, 2026-{####}, etc.)
One-click time entry import (billable hours only)
One-click mileage import at your default per-mile rate
One-click reimbursable expense import
Email delivery with optional time report and receipts attached
Recurring monthly invoices via daily cron
Auto-reminders at 7, 14, and 30 days past due
Engagements: PO and contract tracking with overdraw guard
Status workflow: draft, sent, paid, void
Activity log per invoice (sent, resent, paid, voided)
CSV export of all invoices for accounting

Recurring invoices for retainer clients

If you bill the same amount on the same day each month, set up a recurring invoice rule once. A daily Worker cron checks every morning at 9am UTC for rules whose next-due date has arrived and generates the invoice automatically. The rule supports monthly frequency with a day-of-month setting (day 31 clamps to the month's last day for shorter months) and an auto-send flag that emails the client immediately if you trust the cadence, or saves a draft you can review first.

Pause a rule when a client engagement ends. Skip the next run when the client is on vacation. Run a rule on demand if you forgot to enable it earlier. Soft-delete preserves the invoices already generated from the rule; hard-delete removes the rule when nothing references it.

Engagements: purchase orders, contracts, and funding sources

Government and enterprise clients rarely have one open contract. They have a purchase order for one statement of work, another PO for a renewal, a master services agreement that covers a third project, and a separate funding line for an emergency request. Each comes with its own cap amount, date range, and budget code.

An engagement in Self Employment Toolkit is a record of one of those relationships. A client can have many engagements active at once. Each invoice ties to one engagement, so the drawdown report for that PO stays accurate: how much was authorized, how much has been billed, how much is left. A server-side overdraw guard blocks invoices that would exceed the cap. The frontend confirms before resubmitting if you have a legitimate reason to overdraw.

Bill back client-reimbursable expenses

Expenses logged in the expense tracker and tagged to a client can be imported as invoice line items in one click. Voiding the invoice releases those expenses back to the unbilled pool. Pair the expense tracker and invoice generator to answer "which client expenses have I been reimbursed for" without spreadsheet math.

Calculate self-employment tax on the income you invoice

Paid invoices flow into your income ledger. The Self Employment Tax Estimator takes that income, subtracts your deductible expenses and mileage, and calculates the federal income tax and 15.3 percent SE tax you owe. The toolkit's quarterly tax page uses the same math to help you make the right estimated payment four times a year.

Frequently asked questions

Can I import billable time and mileage into an invoice?
Yes. The invoice form has an Import time entries button that pulls billable hours for the selected client over any date range, and an Import mileage button that adds trips at your default per-mile rate. Both buttons keep the underlying records linked, so you cannot accidentally bill the same hour or trip on two invoices. Time entries marked non-billable are excluded automatically.
Can I send invoices by email?
Yes. After saving a draft, click Send and the invoice PDF is delivered to the client's email. You can attach a monthly time report PDF, a mileage log, and any receipt files relevant to the invoice (up to 10MB combined). Cc yourself for your records. The Reply-To address can be your custom contact email, set in Settings.
Does it support recurring monthly invoices?
Yes. Set up a recurring invoice rule for any monthly retainer client. A daily Worker cron generates the invoice on your chosen day of month, applies your template, and either saves it as a draft or sends it automatically. Pause, skip-next, or run-now controls let you handle vacations, billing-cycle changes, and one-off catch-ups without editing the rule.
How do invoice payment reminders work?
Auto-reminders fire at 7, 14, and 30 days past due. You receive a copy of each reminder so you know exactly what the client received. Opt-in is three-tiered: turn reminders on globally in Settings to enroll all invoices, turn them on per client to enroll all of that client's invoices, or turn them on for one specific invoice. Any one level being on is enough.
What are engagements?
An engagement is a purchase order, statement of work, contract, or funding line that authorizes billing. Each client can have many active engagements at once, each with its own cap, date range, and funding source tag. Invoices link to one engagement so the drawdown report for that PO stays accurate. A server-side overdraw guard prevents accidental over-billing.
What happens to my income if I delete or void a paid invoice?
Both delete and void atomically remove the matching income row. YTD revenue, the quarterly tax estimate, and the income CSV update immediately. Voiding a draft or sent (never-paid) invoice has no income to remove and is a no-op for the income ledger.
Is the invoice generator free?
Yes. Self Employment Toolkit is free to use during beta. No credit card is required. Invoice generation, PDF email delivery, recurring invoices, engagements, auto-reminders, and CSV exports are all included.

Send your first invoice in under five minutes

Create a free account, add a client, and import your logged hours into a clean PDF invoice. Send it the same hour you decide to bill.

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