invoice-cli

A command-line invoice generator for freelancers and small businesses. Create professional PDF invoices, manage clients, and track payment status — all from your terminal.

No subscription. No signup. Fully open source.

$ invoice new --client "Acme Corp" \
    --item "Website redesign:1:3500" \
    --item "SEO setup:3:250" \
    --tax 0 --due-in 30

  ✔  Invoice created

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Number:    INV-2026-001
  Client:    Acme Corp
  Date:      2026-06-28   Due: 2026-07-28
  Currency:  USD

  Website redesign               1x  $3,500.00  =  $3,500.00
  SEO setup                      3x    $250.00  =    $750.00
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Subtotal:  $4,250.00
  Total:     $4,250.00
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  📄  PDF: ./invoices/INV-2026-001.pdf

Features

• PDF generation — clean, professional invoice template rendered via headless Chrome
• Client management — save clients and reuse them across invoices
• Auto-numbering — invoices automatically numbered (INV-2026-001, INV-2026-002, ...)
• VAT / Tax support — set tax rate per invoice, automatically calculated
• Multi-currency — USD, EUR, GBP, JPY and any ISO 4217 code with correct symbols
• Status tracking — draft → sent → paid / overdue
• Multiple databases — SQLite (zero config), PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL
• Zero config to start — works out of the box with SQLite

Supported databases

| Database | DB_CLIENT value | |-------------|-------------------| | SQLite | sqlite | | PostgreSQL | postgresql | | MySQL | mysql | | MSSQL | mssql |

Installation

npm install -g invoice-cli

Requirements: Node.js >= 18. Puppeteer (included) downloads Chromium on first install (~170MB).

Quick start

# 1. Configure your sender details (optional but recommended)
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your name, email, address

# 2. Add a client
invoice client add --name "Acme Corp" --email "[email protected]" --currency USD

# 3. Create an invoice
invoice new --client "Acme Corp" \
  --item "Consulting:10:150" \
  --item "Code review:2:200" \
  --tax 0 \
  --due-in 30

# 4. Mark as sent when you email it
invoice mark INV-2026-001 sent

# 5. Mark as paid when money arrives
invoice mark INV-2026-001 paid

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env:

DB_CLIENT=sqlite
DB_FILENAME=./invoice.db

SENDER_NAME=John Smith
[email protected]
SENDER_ADDRESS=456 Oak Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
SENDER_TAX_ID=                  # optional

DEFAULT_CURRENCY=USD
OUTPUT_DIR=./invoices

For PostgreSQL / MySQL / MSSQL:

DB_CLIENT=postgresql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_USER=invoice_user
DB_PASSWORD=secret
DB_NAME=invoice_cli

Commands

Clients

# Add a client
invoice client add --name "Client Name" --email "[email protected]" --address "..." --currency USD

# List all clients
invoice client list

Invoices

# Create invoice (--item can be repeated)
invoice new \
  --client "Client Name or ID" \
  --item "Description:quantity:unit_price" \
  --item "Another item:2:500" \
  --tax 23 \
  --currency EUR \
  --due-in 14 \
  --notes "Optional notes printed on invoice"

# List invoices
invoice list
invoice list --status paid
invoice list --client "Acme"

# Update status
invoice mark INV-2026-001 sent
invoice mark INV-2026-001 paid
invoice mark INV-2026-001 overdue

Other

# Show DB and sender configuration
invoice db-info

# Help
invoice --help
invoice new --help

Item format

Items use colon-separated format: "Description:quantity:unit_price"

--item "Logo design:1:800"          # 1 × $800 = $800
--item "Hourly consulting:8:120"    # 8 × $120 = $960
--item "Monthly retainer:1:2000"    # 1 × $2000 = $2000

License

MIT