InvoiceForge Help

A complete guide to the invoice generator, from the first field to a restored backup.

Last Updated: October 6, 2026

1. Getting Started

1.1 What you need

• A modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) with JavaScript enabled
• Site data allowed for zerodataupload.com, because saved invoices, clients and profiles are stored in the browser
• A normal window rather than a private one, so the records survive closing the tab

1.2 The layout

The tool is one page in two halves. On the left, the Invoice Details form in six sections: Your Business, Bill To, Invoice Details, Line Items, Discount & Tax, and Notes & Terms. On the right, the Live Preview: the invoice as the client will see it, redrawn with every keystroke. On tablets and phones the preview sits above the form. The toolbar above both holds the template choice and the buttons that act on the whole invoice: History, Shortcuts, Export, Import, Print and Download PDF. Clear and Save Invoice sit in the form's header.

2. Your Business and Your Logo

The first section holds your side of the invoice: company name (required to save), email, phone, website and a multi-line address. The company name is printed large at the top of the invoice; the other details appear beneath it, and the lines of the address are joined with commas.

Logo: click the dashed box, or drop an image onto it, to add your logo. It replaces the coloured tile with your initials at the top left of the invoice and is printed at up to 150 by 60 pixels, so a wide, simple logo works best. Remove takes it off again. Any image format the browser can show is accepted; a few hundred pixels wide is enough, and very large images slow the PDF down.

Save Profile keeps everything in this section, logo included, as a business profile. Load Saved opens the list of profiles; Load fills the section in, the bin button deletes one. Up to ten profiles are kept, newest first, which suits people who invoice under more than one name.

3. Bill To: the Client and the Tax Preset

The second section is the client: name (required to save), company, email, phone, country, tax or VAT number and address. The client's name is printed in bold under "Bill To", followed by the other details and, if given, "Tax ID:" and the number.

Country does two things. It is recorded with the client, and choosing it fills the Tax Name and Tax Rate fields in the Discount & Tax section with the standard tax of that country: VAT 20% for the United Kingdom, GST 18% for India, MwSt 19% for Germany, TVA 20% for France, IVA for Italy, Spain and Mexico, BTW for the Netherlands, Moms for Sweden, GST for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, Consumption Tax for Japan, ICMS for Brazil, VAT for the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, and Sales Tax at 0% for the United States, where the rate depends on the state. Hong Kong has no sales tax. "Other" leaves both fields blank. Whatever the preset, both fields can be edited afterwards.

Save Client keeps the section as a client; Load Client opens the list, where Load fills the section in (and applies the country's tax preset) and the bin button deletes an entry. Up to 100 clients are kept, newest first.

4. Invoice Details, Payment Terms and Currency

• Invoice Prefix and Invoice Number: the number on the invoice is the two joined, for example INV-042. The number starts one above the last saved invoice, padded to three digits; type over it if you number differently. Saving records the number as the last one used.
• PO Number: the client's purchase order reference, printed under the dates when given.
• Invoice Date and Due Date: today and thirty days on when the page opens. The due date follows the payment terms.
• Payment Terms: Due on Receipt, Net 15, Net 30, Net 45 or Net 60 set the due date that many days after the invoice date, and the term is printed on the invoice. Changing the invoice date moves the due date with it. Custom shows a text field; what you type there is printed as the terms, and the due date is yours to set.
• Currency: one of 17. It sets the symbol, whether it goes before or after the amount, and the decimals (the yen has none). Amounts are never converted; enter them in the currency you are billing in.
• Also Show In: an approximate figure in a second currency, printed under the amount due as "≈ ...". It is worked out from fixed reference rates built into the tool, not from live rates, and is meant as a courtesy to a reader who thinks in another currency. Leave it at None for a plain invoice.

5. Line Items

Each line has a description, a quantity and a rate; the amount is quantity times rate and is shown at the end of the row and on the preview. Add Line Item (or Ctrl+N) adds a row and the bin button removes one. Negative quantities and rates are turned into zero. The page opens with one empty row.

Describe what was done rather than "services": clear descriptions make the invoice easier to approve and easier to defend. The table on the invoice lists the lines in the order you entered them.

6. Discount, Tax and Totals

• Discount Type: No Discount, Percentage (%) or Fixed Amount. With a type chosen, the Discount Value field becomes active. A percentage is taken off the subtotal; a fixed amount is deducted as typed. The discount is applied before the tax, and the invoice shows it as its own line, labelled with the percentage when that is the type.
• Tax Name and Tax Rate (%): filled by the client's country (section 3) and editable. The tax is calculated on the subtotal after the discount and printed as, for example, "VAT (20%)". Leave the rate at 0 for an invoice without tax; the line still prints as "Tax (0%)" so the client can see that none was charged.

The totals block on the invoice shows the subtotal, the discount (when there is one), the tax and the total, and the total also appears as the amount due at the top right.

7. Notes and Payment Instructions

Notes are printed in a shaded box under the totals: a thank-you, a project reference, a late-payment clause. Payment Instructions get a box of their own for bank details, account numbers and the like. Each box appears only when its field has text, and line breaks are kept.

8. Templates and the Live Preview

8.1 The four templates

• Modern: blue accents, a blue rule under the header and a blue table header. The default.
• Classic: slate accents, a serif title and company name, a double rule under the header and a pale table header.
• Minimal: grey accents, thin lines, a light title with wide letter spacing and no filled table header.
• Bold: a purple band across the top carrying the logo, company details and title in white.

Choose the template in the toolbar. The choice is saved with the invoice, so a loaded invoice comes back in the template it was saved with.

8.2 The preview

The preview is the invoice itself, not an approximation: the PDF is made from it. It keeps white paper and its own colours whichever page theme is on. On desktops it stays in view while the form scrolls; on tablets and phones it sits above the form.

9. PDF and Print

• Download PDF (Ctrl+D) draws the preview into an image at double resolution and places it on an A4 page, scaled to fit the width. The file is named after the invoice number (INV-042.pdf) and goes to your downloads folder. A "Generating PDF..." note shows while it is built; large logos make it slower.
• Print (Ctrl+P) opens the browser's print dialog with only the invoice on the page. Choose a printer for a paper copy, or "Save as PDF" for a text-based PDF that can be searched and copied and that paginates a long invoice.

9.1 Long invoices

The PDF button makes one page holding a picture of the preview. An invoice with dozens of lines or very long notes may run past the bottom of the page. Shorten the notes, split the invoice, or use Print and save as PDF from the browser, which paginates.

10. Saved Invoices, Clients and Business Profiles

Save Invoice (Ctrl+S) needs your company name and the client name; it adds the whole invoice, logo and template included, to the history. History (Ctrl+H) opens the list: each entry shows the number, the client, the total and the date saved. Load puts an invoice back into the form to change, reprint or use as the basis of the next one; change the number before you save it again, or you will have two entries with the same number. The bin button deletes one entry; Clear All deletes the whole history after a confirmation.

The history keeps the 50 most recent invoices, clients 100 and business profiles 10; when a list is full, the oldest entry drops off. Clients and profiles are described in sections 2 and 3.

11. Export, Import and Clearing Data

11.1 Export

Export (Ctrl+E) writes one file to your downloads folder, named invoice-generator-backup with the date, holding the invoice currently in the form, every saved invoice, every client, every business profile and the invoice counter, logos included. It is plain text that any editor can open.

11.2 Import

Import (in the toolbar and in the History window) reads a file written by Export. It replaces the saved invoices, clients and profiles with the file's, sets the counter from the file, and loads the invoice that was in the form when the backup was made. If the browser already holds records you want to keep, export first.

11.3 Moving to another computer

Export on the old computer, copy the file across, Import on the new one. Logos travel inside the file.

11.4 Clearing data

Clear in the form header (Ctrl+L) empties the form after a confirmation: fields, line items, logo and template go back to their defaults and the number moves on by one. It does not touch the saved lists. Clear All in the History window deletes the saved invoices; clients and profiles are deleted one at a time from their lists. Clearing the site's data in the browser removes everything at once.

12. Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac): print the invoice
• Ctrl+D: download the PDF
• Ctrl+S: save the invoice to the history
• Ctrl+N: add a line item
• Ctrl+H: open the history
• Ctrl+E: export a backup
• Ctrl+L: clear the form
• ?: show the shortcuts; Escape: close a window

Shortcuts do not fire while a field has the focus, so typing is never interrupted. The Shortcuts button in the toolbar shows the same list.

13. Troubleshooting

• "Please enter a company/business name before saving" or "... a client name": Save Invoice needs both names. Fill in the empty one and save again.
• "Please enter client name or company": Save Client needs at least one of the two.
• The logo is missing on the PDF: choose it again and check the preview shows it. Very large images slow the PDF down; a few hundred pixels wide is enough.
• The PDF is cut off: the invoice is longer than one A4 page. Shorten it, split it, or use Print and save as PDF.
• The tax rate is wrong for my case: the presets are standard rates. Type the rate and the name you need; the invoice uses what the fields say.
• Import says the file cannot be read: only files written by Export are accepted; a hand-edited file may be unreadable. Try the most recent backup.
• Records vanished: cleared browsing data, a new profile or a reset removes site storage. Import your latest backup; without one the records cannot be recovered.