Introducing KeenInvoice: a free, private invoice generator

Hello, and welcome to the KeenInvoice blog. This is our first post, so let’s start with why the site exists, what it can do today, and what you can expect to read here.

Why we built it

Sending an invoice should take a few minutes. Yet when we went looking for a simple online invoice generator, we kept running into the same problems:

• Clutter. Pages full of ads, upsells and pop-ups, with the actual form squeezed into the middle.
• Sign-up walls. You fill in every field, click download, and only then learn you need an account.
• Watermarks. The “free” PDF carries someone else’s logo across your invoice.
• Your data on their servers. Client names, addresses, rates and bank details uploaded to a service you know nothing about.

None of that is needed for what is, at heart, a well-formatted document. So we built KeenInvoice to do that one job properly.

What makes it different

KeenInvoice is free, has no sign-up and puts no watermark on your documents. More importantly, nothing you type is uploaded. The generator runs entirely in your browser: your documents are stored on your own device, in the browser’s built-in storage (IndexedDB), and they save automatically as you type. The PDF is generated on your device too. We never see your invoices, your clients or your numbers, and there is no account because there is nothing on our side to log in to. The privacy page explains exactly what is stored and how to remove it.

That design comes with one trade-off we want to state plainly. Because your documents live in your browser, they don’t sync between devices, and clearing your browser data removes them. That’s why My documents includes a backup export, and we recommend using it now and then.

What it can do

The invoice generator is the heart of the site, and the same editor also makes receipts, quotes, estimates, proforma invoices, purchase orders and credit notes. A few highlights:

• Your branding. Upload a logo, pick one of four designs (Classic, Modern, Minimal and Japanese), choose any accent color, and print on A4 or US Letter.
• Any currency, flexible tax. Use no tax, one rate on the total, or a rate per line with a breakdown by rate. Prices can include tax, and you can rename the tax to VAT, GST or whatever your country calls it.
• The totals you need. Discounts, shipping, amount paid and balance due are built in, and the amount can be written out in words in English (including lakh and crore), Spanish or German.
• Payment terms that do the math. Choose Due on receipt, Net 7 through Net 90, End of month or a custom term, and the due date fills itself in.
• Room for the details. Custom fields, a ship-to address, notes, payment details, terms and conditions, and labels you can edit to match your own wording.
• A real PDF. The download is a crisp vector PDF made in your browser, or you can simply print. Quotes, estimates and purchase orders get signature lines; receipts and fully paid invoices get a PAID stamp.

It works on phones, too.

Less retyping every time

Once you’ve made your first invoice, the next one is quicker. Click New and KeenInvoice carries over your business details, logo, currency, tax settings, payment details and design, and the number counts on, so INV-0009 is followed by INV-0010. Client names and line items autocomplete from your past documents.

My documents lists everything you’ve made, with search and a status for each one: draft, sent, paid or overdue. You can duplicate or delete documents, turn an accepted quote or estimate into an invoice in one click, back everything up as a JSON file (and import it again on another device), or export a CSV for your spreadsheet or bookkeeper.

Four languages

The site is available in English, Japanese, Spanish and German. The document language is a separate setting, so you can use the site in English and still send a client in Madrid an invoice in Spanish.

What it doesn’t do

To be clear, KeenInvoice does not email invoices, collect payments, create recurring invoices or sync to a cloud account. It also doesn’t produce e-invoicing XML. Some countries, such as Italy (SDI), Mexico (CFDI) and Brazil (NF-e), require business invoices to be issued through a government e-invoicing system, and a PDF does not replace that. If you work in one of those places, check what your tax authority requires.

What this blog will cover

We’ll use this space for three kinds of posts:

1. Practical guides. Plain answers to common questions, starting with what an invoice is, how to make one and what Net 30 means. More on receipts, proforma invoices and invoice numbering is already up.
2. What’s new. Larger releases get a short write-up here, and every change is listed in the changelog.
3. How it works. Notes on how the generator handles things like tax, totals and PDFs.

Invoicing rules differ by country, so where they vary we’ll say so, and we won’t pretend to be your accountant.

Who is behind it

KeenInvoice is made by AREALME, the team behind KeenCalculator and KeenTimer. The about page has the longer story.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to getting paid on time.