Help Center: How to Use Pdfinvoicegen

Pdfinvoicegen is a free browser-based PDF invoice generator. To create an invoice, fill in the editor on the homepage, click Download, and the PDF is saved to your local machine — no signup, no upload, no email capture required. This help center covers the editor, the optional signed-in dashboard, the bulk invoice flow, and the privacy architecture that makes anonymous use possible.

How do I create my first invoice?

Open the invoice editor on the homepage. Fill in your business name, email, and address in the From section, then enter your client's name, email, and any tax ID in the Bill To section. Set the invoice number (auto-incremented) and the issue and due dates. Add line items with description, quantity, unit (hrs, day, project), and rate — the line totals calculate automatically. Apply tax, discount, or shipping if needed. Click Download PDF to save the invoice to your machine. The whole process takes 3–5 minutes the first time and under 2 minutes once your business profile is saved.

What fields are required before I can download?

Four fields must be filled in for the Download button to enable:

• Recipient name — the person or company being billed
• Recipient email — for delivery and follow-up
• Invoice date — defaults to today but can be changed
• At least one line item with a description and a quantity-rate that produces a non-zero line total

Every other field is optional. A bare-minimum invoice can be downloaded with just those four. The Compliance Checklist sidebar in the editor surfaces other recommended fields (Tax ID, PO number, payment instructions) as soft hints without blocking download.

What invoice templates are included?

Five professional A4 templates ship with every tier. All five share the same data fields so switching mid-edit never loses work.

To switch templates, use the template picker in the editor sidebar. The selection is saved in your browser, so the next invoice opens with the same template.

How do I add my business logo?

Click the logo upload square in the From section of the editor and pick an image (PNG, JPEG, or SVG). The image is resized in your browser and embedded directly into the invoice — no external image hosting, no broken-link risk on the PDF. For anonymous users, the logo persists only for the current session. For signed-in users, the logo is saved to your business profile and surfaces on every future invoice automatically.

What tax, discount, and shipping options are available?

The editor includes a universal tax model that works for any jurisdiction. Set your tax label (VAT for UK/EU, GST for India/Australia/Canada, EIN for US, NTN/STRN for Pakistan, IVA for Latin America, or any other label), the tax rate as a percentage, and choose auto mode (tax computed from subtotal × rate) or manual mode (you type the final tax amount directly). Discount works the same way with a custom label and a percentage or fixed-amount mode. Shipping is a flat-amount field. All three appear as separate lines on the rendered PDF and are summed into the grand total automatically.

What B2B compliance fields are supported?

Every tier includes the full set of B2B compliance fields required by most jurisdictions for valid invoices:

• Issuer Tax ID with custom label (VAT / GST / EIN / NTN-STRN / ABN)
• Business registration number — Companies House / SECP / Sec. of State number
• Recipient Tax ID — required for B2B in EU, UK, India, Australia, most of Latin America (for VAT/GST input credit)
• PO Number — the most important reference field for enterprise AP automation (QuickBooks, Xero, SAP 3-way matching)
• Project / cost-center code — for client-internal accounting
• Payment terms label — Net 30, Net 15, Due on Receipt (with automatic due-date computation)
• Late-fee clause in small print under totals — required to be on the invoice itself for enforceability in most jurisdictions
• Payment Instructions block — bank, account, IBAN, branch/routing, payment link, mobile/QR note

Read the invoicing basics guide for a detailed breakdown of when each field is legally required.

What does the PAID stamp do?

When an invoice's balance hits zero (the amount paid equals or exceeds the grand total), a diagonal green PAID stamp appears automatically next to the totals card. It's intended for record-keeping copies — a clearly stamped invoice signals to the AP team that the receivable has been settled. For users who prefer a clean unstamped invoice or who apply their own stamp downstream, signed-in users can toggle the stamp off in Settings → PDF Appearance. The toggle defaults to on.

What's the difference between anonymous use and signing in?

Anonymous use is fully functional — you can create and download unlimited professional PDF invoices with every template and every compliance field without an account. Signing in unlocks a persistent workspace: saved clients (with autofill on next invoice), saved line items (with sub-description and unit roundtrip), saved invoices with status tracking, a dashboard with search and notifications, and a business profile that prefills every new invoice. The Free signed-in tier has limits (25 saved invoices, 10 clients, 20 saved items). The Founding Member tier removes those limits and unlocks bulk invoice generation.

How does the dashboard work?

The dashboard is the home for signed-in users. It shows the count of invoices by status (Draft, Sent, Partial, Paid, Overdue, Void), surfaces overdue invoices and stale drafts in the notifications panel, and provides a Cmd-K / Ctrl-K global search that finds any saved invoice, client, or item across the whole account. Each search pick lands on the relevant tab pre-filtered to that result. The dashboard also hosts the Business Profile editor (where you set default Terms, late-fee clause, and the PAID stamp toggle) and the Membership page (where you see your plan, usage, and upgrade options).

How do I track which invoices are paid, sent, or overdue?

Signed-in users see a status pill on every saved invoice in the dashboard. The six statuses are:

• Draft — invoice saved but not yet finalized; default when first created
• Sent — invoice finalized and delivered to the client (set automatically when you download)
• Partial — payment received but balance remains; computed from Amount Paid < Total
• Paid — balance hits zero; PAID stamp appears if the toggle is on
• Overdue — due date has passed without full payment; derived automatically from due date + balance
• Void — invoice cancelled; preserved for audit but excluded from active filters

The notifications panel surfaces overdue invoices, invoices due in the next 7 days, and stale drafts (drafts not touched in 14+ days). Clicking any alert lands on the Invoices tab pre-filtered to the matching status.

What does the bulk invoice feature do?

Bulk invoice generation is a Founding Member feature. Upload a CSV or JSON file with multiple invoice records and download a ZIP of PDFs in one batch — ideal for monthly retainer cycles, payroll-style billing, or year-end true-ups. The schema mirrors every per-invoice field (sender/recipient compliance, items with sub-description and unit, PO number, project code, payment instructions, late-fee clause), and profile defaults (showPaidStamp toggle, default Terms) flow through to bulk PDFs automatically. Bad rows are flagged before generation starts so you fix the source file once instead of dealing with 50 malformed PDFs.

How does pricing work?

Three tiers: Anonymous (free forever, no signup), Free Account (free with signup, includes the dashboard with caps of 25 invoices / 10 clients / 20 items), and Founding Member ($150 one-time lifetime payment, removes all caps, unlocks bulk import). There is no monthly subscription. After the 100 founding seats sell out, the paid tier will switch to a monthly subscription; existing founding members keep their lifetime access at the price they paid. See the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Is my invoice data uploaded anywhere?

For anonymous users: nothing is uploaded. PDF generation runs entirely in your browser using html2canvas + jsPDF. The invoice exists only in your browser memory while you're editing it and on your machine after you download. Closing the tab removes the in-memory copy. There is no record of your invoice on any pdfinvoicegen.com server.

For signed-in users: invoices, clients, and saved items are stored in your private Firebase Firestore record so the dashboard can show your history. This data is yours — you can delete the account (and every associated record) at any time from the Settings page. The PDF is still generated in your browser; only the structured invoice data is persisted.

What browsers are supported?

Pdfinvoicegen works on every modern desktop and mobile browser:

• Google Chrome (current and previous 2 major versions)
• Mozilla Firefox (current and previous 2 major versions)
• Safari (current and previous 1 major version)
• Microsoft Edge (current and previous 2 major versions)
• Mobile: Safari iOS 14+, Chrome Android 90+

JavaScript must be enabled. Local storage must be allowed for the auto-save / invoice-number-increment features to work for anonymous users. Internet Explorer is not supported.

Troubleshooting

The Download button is greyed out

One of the four required fields is missing. Hover over the button (desktop) for a tooltip explaining which field. The Compliance Checklist sidebar also indicates which required field is empty.

My logo appears blurry on the PDF

Use a higher-resolution source image (1000px+ on the longer edge) or upload an SVG. The PDF rasterizes at 2× scale, so a small PNG (< 400px) will look pixelated.

The PDF is cut off at the bottom

Long invoices (lots of line items + Payment Instructions + Terms + Notes) get scaled down proportionally to fit one A4 page. If the result is too small to read comfortably, reduce content (shorten Terms, consolidate line items) or split the invoice into two.

I'm signed in but my saved clients aren't appearing

Hard-refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+F5). If the issue persists, check that you're signed in with the correct account in the avatar menu top-right. Sign out and back in if needed.

Email password reset link doesn't work

The link is valid for 1 hour from when it's sent. If yours expired, request a fresh one from the sign-in page. If the link redirects to firebaseapp.com instead of pdfinvoicegen.com, that's normal — both URLs are owned by us; the reset still works.

Frequently asked questions