Invoice Crowd is invoicing and accounting software for freelancers: the proposal, the invoice, the chase for the late one and the books sit in one account. Quotes convert, deposits are taken up front, retainers bill themselves, and the ledger keeps up.
What is inside
A freelance month is a handful of quotes, a handful of invoices, and one client who has gone quiet. These are the parts that deal with each of them.
The unbillable hours before the job starts
Build the scope, the price and the terms into one document, then send a link the client signs without printing anything. There are 70+ proposal templates to start from, and the sections you rewrite for every job live in a content library, so a new quote is mostly assembly.
Most freelance work needs a price and a date, not fifteen pages. Send an estimate the client approves and signs from the email link, let them remove the lines they do not need, and let them set a quantity where the amount is genuinely theirs to decide. Add a deposit and the client accepts and pays it in one step, and the estimate becomes the invoice. An expiry date stops an old price being accepted months later, and a client who says no can decline with a reason.
Money before the work, and money on a cycle
Ask for part of the fee up front and bill the rest on delivery, both against the same invoice, or break a long project into installments. Each gateway you connected shows a Pay button on the invoice, and the amount still owed drops as each payment clears instead of living in your inbox.
A monthly retainer should not be a monthly chore. For a flat fee, set the amount, the cycle and the start date once and each period issues its own invoice on the same template and with the same payment options. When the retainer buys a set number of hours, the hours you log count against the month's allowance and any extra goes on the next invoice. Reminders handle the ones that drift.
The week you would otherwise pay someone for
Record software, hardware, travel and workspace costs under the right expense category, with the receipt kept on the entry. Add the tax you paid and any tax you can reclaim is tracked separately.
Every invoice sent and every cost recorded posts into a double-entry ledger, so the profit and loss, the balance sheet and the income report are current on the day someone asks for them. Export what your accountant wants rather than building a spreadsheet in the last week of the year.
One job, end to end
The same job passes through five screens and never gets retyped between them. Start on whichever document the client expects.
Scope, price and terms in one signable document, assembled from templates and the sections you keep in the content library.
A priced quote the client approves and signs, or adjusts where you allowed it, answered straight from the email.
Approval carries the same lines into an invoice, so the bill matches the version the client agreed to.
Deposit now and balance later if that is the deal, through a connected gateway. Reminders and late fees cover the slow ones.
Revenue, receivables and the payment post themselves, which is why the year-end figures need no assembly from you.
Also included
None of this is a separate app bolted onto the invoicing. It is in the same login, reading the same customer records.
Clients sign in to see everything you have sent them, download it and pay it.
Bundle the work you always sell together on a reusable payment link the client pays online.
Overdue invoices get chased on a schedule. Set a flat or percentage late fee when you send the invoice, and it is added automatically if the invoice is still unpaid after the due date.
Bill an overseas client in their own currency and still read one total in yours.
Log hours against a project, then bill the unbilled hours between the dates you choose, rounded to 6, 15 or 30 minutes if you like. Paid plans.
Add the fields your trade needs to a document and reuse them on the next one.
Send invoice, customer, item, expense and income events to a webhook URL you choose, or connect through Pabbly Connect using your Invoice Crowd sign-in.
The free Basic plan covers everyday invoicing with PayPal. Recurring invoices, retainers, timesheets and the accounting statements need a paid plan, so compare limits on the Pricing page.
Issue a credit note against an invoice you overcharged, leaving the original document and its history intact.
Every unpaid invoice grouped by days past due, from Current to 91+ Days, so chasing starts with the oldest.
Keep the rates you quote most often as items, then drop them onto an estimate or invoice.
Email notifications tell the client an invoice has arrived, and you see when it is opened and viewed.
A client cancels or pays twice? Refund an online payment through Stripe, PayPal, Square and five other gateways straight from the invoice, with the credit note made for you.
Money that arrives before the invoice is recorded as an advance with its own receipt, then applied when you bill. One payment can also settle several open invoices, oldest first.
Ask for this month's profit and loss, or type “log 3h on the Northwind logo yesterday”, in plain words. Nothing is saved until you confirm it. Paid plans, with AI credits.
Questions
Yes, that is what the ledger underneath is for. Invoices and expenses post themselves against a chart of 148 accounts, so profit and loss, the balance sheet and the income report stay current on their own. The statements export to spreadsheet or PDF when your accountant asks for the year.
Yes. Bill part of the fee up front and the rest on delivery against the same invoice, or split a long project into installments. Each payment is recorded against that document, so the amount still owed is always the difference rather than something you work out yourself.
For a flat monthly fee, create a recurring invoice with the amount, the cycle and the start date; every period raises its own invoice until you pause or stop it. If the retainer covers a set number of hours, use a retainer: logged hours count against the monthly allowance, unused hours carry over or expire, and extra hours go on the next invoice. Both need a paid plan.
Yes. The invoice goes out in the currency your client works in, while your reports total in the base currency you report in. GST-enabled invoices and custom tax rates cover the tax side, so an overseas job does not need a document built by hand.
The Basic plan is free forever: unlimited invoices, 5 customers, 1 business profile, 2 invoice templates and PayPal payments. Paid plans add recurring invoices, retainers, timesheets, the accounting statements and more, and each starts with a 30-day free trial with no card needed. Current prices are on the Pricing page.
No. Invoice Crowd runs in the browser at apps.invoicecrowd.com, so the laptop in a coffee shop and the desktop at home are the same account. Clients install nothing either: a proposal is signed and an invoice is paid from the link you send them.
Start with the proposal, take the deposit, and let the recurring invoices and the ledger run behind them. One login covers the whole month.
