InvoiceLoop user guide

What InvoiceLoop does

InvoiceLoop is invoicing software for freelancers. You create clients and invoices, send a public link the client opens without an account, and track each invoice from draft through paid.

On the free plan you get unlimited clients and invoices, multi-currency, optional sales tax, share links, and email send.

Premium removes the caps on recurring schedules, open quotes, and time tracking. Premium also enables automatic overdue reminders and auto-send when recurring invoices generate.

Get started

Create an account

1. Open /signup (or Start free on the home page).
2. Enter your email and a password.
3. Submit the form. InvoiceLoop emails an activation link. Signup does not open a session.
4. Open the link in the email. That confirms the address and routes you to login.
5. Sign in at /login with the same email and password.

Activation links expire after 24 hours. If the link fails, open the invalid-activation page and request a new one for that email.

Sign in

1. Open /login.
2. Enter email and password.
3. You land on Ledger (/dashboard).

A signed-in visit to the marketing home page redirects to the Ledger.

Forgot password

1. Open /forgot-password.
2. Enter the account email.
3. Use the reset link from the email (about 1 hour to use it).
4. Choose a new password, then sign in.

Try without an account

On the public site, open Try it. Edit a sample invoice and preview the layout. You can mint a temporary demo link (about 30 minutes). Demo links are not real bills and create no account data.

Around the app

After sign-in, the left nav (drawer on small screens) holds:

Theme (light / dark / system) lives in the nav and on the marketing header.

Business profile

Open Settings → Your business. This text and logo appear on invoices you send.

• Business name, email, phone
• Tax ID / VAT / EIN (optional)
• Home state (US): suggests a sales-tax rate when the client's state matches
• Default currency: USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, or AUD for new invoices
• Address lines, city, region, postal code, country
• Payment instructions (how the client pays you)

Logo: pick an image on the profile form. Upload saves on its own (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, AVIF; no SVG). The logo shows on invoices and public share pages.

Save the form after text edits. You can draft invoices before the profile is complete. The invoice view links you to Settings when sender details are missing.

Clients

Add a client

1. Create a client from the clients list (or when an invoice needs one).
2. Required: name and email.
3. Optional: phone, company name, website, address, US state, notes, VIP flag.
4. Optional: client logo (same formats as the business logo). Clients without a logo get a stable initials avatar.

Email is unique per account. One login cannot store two clients with the same email.

Edit or remove

Open a client to edit fields and logo. Deleting a client removes that client's invoices and related data under your account. Use search on the roster when the list grows.

Invoices

Create an invoice

1. Invoices → new invoice.
2. Choose a client and due date. Currency defaults from your business profile; you can override for that invoice.
3. Optional sales tax: turn on Include sales tax and set a rate. Matching client and home state can prefill a base state rate. The saved rate is yours; the prefill is not tax advice.
4. Save. The invoice starts as draft with a number like INV-0001 (per-account sequence).

Line items

Open the invoice. Add description, quantity, and unit price. Totals update from line items plus optional tax.

Status flow

Statuses move forward only:

Locked invoices (paid or archived) block new line items and deletion. Archive paid work to clear it from active lists. Ledger revenue treats archived paid invoices as paid.

Search and list

On Invoices, search by invoice number or client name. Open a row to work the document.

Share links and email

Public share link

Each invoice can expose a public page at /i/{token}. The client does not need an InvoiceLoop account.

1. Open the invoice.
2. Share link copies the URL to your clipboard.
3. Preview opens the public page in a new tab.
4. Rotate link issues a new token. The old URL stops working (404). Use this if a link leaked.

Share pages are blocked from search indexing. Print from the browser for a paper or PDF copy.

Email the invoice

1. Open the invoice.
2. Use the email control.
3. Confirm the recipient (defaults to the client email).
4. Send. The client gets a styled HTML message with invoice details.

Email send needs the service mail setup to succeed. If send fails, use the share link.

Ledger

Ledger (/dashboard) is the home screen after login. You see outstanding and paid amounts, paid-this-month figures, and recent activity. Open a row to reach the invoice or client.

Quotes

Quotes is a freemium module (see Free and Premium).

1. Create a quote with a client and line items. Numbers look like EST-0001.
2. Mark status as you work (draft → sent, or decline / accept paths in the UI).
3. Email estimate sends the quote by email.
4. Convert to invoice builds an invoice from the quote's line items, marks the quote accepted, and links the new invoice. Convert needs at least one line item. You cannot delete a converted quote.

Free plan: up to 3 open quotes (draft + sent). Premium: no open-quote cap.

Recurring invoices

Recurring stores templates. A scheduled job creates draft invoices when a template is due.

1. Open Recurring.
2. Create a schedule: client, frequency (weekly / monthly / yearly), interval, line items, and whether the template is active.
3. Free plan: 1 active template. Pause or delete one before adding another on Free.
4. Premium: unlimited active templates. Premium can enable auto-send so a generated invoice is marked sent and emailed when platform mode allows it.

Generated invoices appear under Invoices. Without auto-send they arrive as drafts.

Time tracking

Time logs hours against clients, then bills them into invoices.

1. Log time: client, duration or range, optional note.
2. Bill unbilled time: pick entries and create invoice line items from them.
3. Entries show Unbilled or Billed.

Free plan: up to 40 unbilled hours. Premium: no unbilled-hour cap, plus a running timer and client default rates where the UI exposes them.

Overdue reminders

Manual: open a sent invoice → send reminder. Automatic: configured for Premium accounts; the platform cron delivers on schedule when enabled.

Free plan and Premium

Open Settings. The plan card shows Free or Premium.

Upgrade from the plan card on Settings when checkout is available for your account. The product site lists Premium as a one-time purchase. When a module is locked or capped, the form states the limit. Caps run on the server, so the UI and the rules match.

Security and password

Settings → Security (/settings/security): change the account password.

Sign out from the nav when you leave a shared computer. Password change invalidates other open sessions.

Keep activation and reset emails private. Anyone with a live reset link can set a new password for that address until the link expires.

Common questions