Invoicing for freelancers
You are not running an accounts department. You need a document that looks like it came from a business, goes out in five minutes, and tells you afterwards whether anybody opened it.
The three things that actually go wrong
- The invoice looks improvised. A spreadsheet printed to PDF is the first thing a new client sees of how you work.
- You lose track. Three invoices out, two paid, and the one you are annoyed about is the one you never sent.
- The fee. A tool that is free to make an invoice and 2.7% to be paid through it costs you a day's work on a €4,000 month.
What this does about them
The document. One sheet, set properly, with your logo and one accent colour. The same thing on screen, on paper and in the PDF — because it is literally one layout, rendered three times.
The state. Every document is draft, sent, paid, or overdue-because-the-date-has-passed. The list says which, the timeline on a document says when it went out and when the client opened it, and Telegram tells you the moment either happens.
The money. It goes from your client to you. Bank account, or a wallet address with its network and a QR code, printed on the sheet. Perly is not in the path and takes nothing.
Deposits, hourly work and expenses
- A deposit is a line like any other — half the project, billed and paid before it starts, then a second invoice with the deposit as a negative line.
- Hourly is a unit: hours at a rate, and the unit agrees with its number in the document's own language.
- Pass-through expenses belong on their own lines, at cost, described. A client who can see what the €90 was does not email you about it.
When you are the one paying
A subcontractor's invoice to you is the same document read from the other side: record it as a bill, and what you owe sits in the same list as what you are owed. See invoice or bill for which is which.
Getting paid across a border
Currency is per document, so invoicing a German client in euro while your books are in dollars is one field. If you would rather be paid in stablecoins — common, and much faster than a SWIFT transfer — crypto invoicing sets out what has to be on the sheet.
Common questions
- Do I need an account to send my first invoice?
- No. Make it on the front page and download the PDF. An account is what gives you the shareable link, the client list and the status of everything you have sent.
- Can I send it from here by email?
- Not from our servers, and that is a decision about who pays: invoicing here is free, and a letter costs money every time one goes. What you get instead costs nothing and arrives better. Copy the payment link and paste it into your own email — the page it opens is in the language you chose for the document, says what is owed and by when, and gives them the address or IBAN to pay with. Or download the PDF and attach it. Either way the letter comes from the address your client already knows and answers, rather than from a stranger's server. Remind writes the chasing letter and opens it in your own mail client, filled in.
- Can I set up a monthly retainer that invoices itself?
- Yes. Set an invoice to repeat every so many weeks or months and each turn writes a fresh draft, numbered for its day, with the dates moved. A draft, not a send — nothing here leaves without you looking at it.
- What about chasing a late payment?
- A document past its due date and unpaid shows as overdue on its own. With Telegram alerts on for that invoice, Perly nudges you three days before the date, on it, and a week after — and Remind opens a reminder draft in your mail client with the number, amount and date already in it.
- Is my client list private?
- Yes. Row-level security at the database, not a filter in the application — a query made from any other account returns nothing at all.
Make one now
The generator is the front page. No account, no sign-up, no watermark — fill the document in and the PDF is yours.
Open the invoice generator