How to Make a PDF Invoice? Steps Explained

Invoicing is an essential process for all types of businesses, whether you run a restaurant chain or a small bakery. Sending invoices was a strictly paper-based process for many years, but modern technology has made the art of the business invoice quicker and simpler than ever before.

So how do you create an invoice as a PDF? Let’s go over everything you need to know.

Table of Contents

• What Is A PDF Invoice?
• How To Make A PDF Invoice
• How to Convert an Invoice to PDF
• Why Use PDF Invoice Files?
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Is A PDF Invoice?

An invoice is a formal document requesting customer payment after services or products have been delivered. As the modern standard, PDFs are the preferred way to invoice.

Though you can create your own from scratch, it’s much simpler to use one of the many premade templates available online. A good PDF invoice template should be almost ready to go, only requiring you to enter some essential information.

The basics of invoicing are straightforward. To fill out an invoice, you’ll just need to include the following:

• The client’s name, company name, address, phone number, and email
• Your name, business name, address, phone number, and email
• Invoice number
• Date
• Description of product or services, unit amount, unit cost, total (i.e., line items)
• Tax
• Grand total
• GST Number (if applicable)
• Payment terms (late fees and whether you’ll be paid by bank transfer, direct deposit, etc.)

With an electronic invoice template, you simply fill out the information, add personal branding touches like a wordmark or logo, save it, and email it to your clients—simple as that!

How To Make A PDF Invoice

The easiest way to make an invoice is to go online and find an invoice template you like, then simply use it for all invoices going forward. Many accounting software programs, like FreshBooks, offer a professional-looking invoicing template that allows you to add new information every time you issue a new invoice. This can be quickly and easily generated as a PDF file once completed. Some of the major benefits of utilizing a software accounting program like FreshBooks are:

• The ability to customize the invoice template with your own company’s logo
• Automatically generating invoice numbers with every new invoice
• Automatically generating client information for each repeating invoice
• Automatic reminders from the software when payments are due from the client
• The ability to categorize and track your expenses and income easily, making income tax filing easier
• Quick, easy, in-software invoice sending—no need to download and email

Accounting programs often come with an app version, which allows you to see your account’s details on the go.

When you use invoicing software, you can convert your document to several different formats. Although it’s sometimes useful to have an invoice in .doc (document) or .xlsx (spreadsheet) format, .pdf is the most common. 

FreshBooks offers a set of free-to-download invoice templates, with each one made for a different application in mind. These are a great way to practice your invoicing skills and get your financial system humming along smoothly!

Click here to Try FreshBooks for Free.

How to Convert an Invoice to PDF

We’ve looked at converting your invoices to .pdf format, but what if you’re on the receiving end of an invoice and it comes in a different file type? It can be frustrating to organize invoices in various file extensions when it comes time to pay, which is why most invoicing software has a built-in conversion feature. This allows you to create PDFs from other file types, such as:

1. Microsoft Excel 

Microsoft’s near-universal spreadsheet program is a handy tool in the business world, but it might not be the right choice for your invoices. Spreadsheets can be large files that are cumbersome to navigate, making them less than ideal for your personal finance organization. FreshBooks quickly and easily converts Microsoft Excel files to faster, smaller .pdfs with no loss of invoice data.

2. Google Sheets 

The Google Suite equivalent to Excel, Google Sheets is a powerful, cloud-based spreadsheet tool. Although it often comes in handy, it may not be your preferred standard invoice format. FreshBooks can convert both .gsheet (the standard Google Sheets format) and regular .xlsx spreadsheet files, ensuring that the standardization of each invoice is quick and easy.

3. Google Docs 

Lastly, many people still send invoices as .doc or .docx document files, often as a Google Doc (or the offline equivalent, a Microsoft Word document). If you receive an invoice from Google Docs, simply convert it to a PDF using FreshBooks’ invoice conversion software. 

FreshBooks’ invoicing software tool is your go-to option for quick, simple file conversion. Getting all your inbound invoices in .pdf format will help simplify organization, ensuring the bills are paid on time. Simply click on the ‘More Actions’ button (three dots) in the FreshBooks software, click ‘Print to PDF,’ and voilà! A completed invoice that’s ready to send.

Why Use PDF Invoice Files?

PDFs, or portable document files, were originally built to allow users to open and review documents without acquiring the software the documents were originally built with. All you need to open or convert a PDF file is Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free software, although more and more operating systems are offering their own tools to view PDFs.

With PDF files, you can view the document as it was meant to be seen—with the original fonts, spacing, images, and graphic design. Converting a document to PDF keeps all formatting intact.

It’s also a trusted format—although you can alter a PDF, changes can’t be made without leaving electronic evidence that there has been an alteration from the original file. Other advantages of PDFs include: 

• The ability to embed multimedia (images, graphs, tables, etc.) easily  
• Quick, easy conversion to other file types
• Cross-platform compatibility (can be viewed on almost all devices and operating systems)
• Ability to use security features (e.g., password protection)
• Smaller file size than other formats for faster sending
• Ability to search through text as you would on a document file
• The ability to add comments or mark up documents 

All of these features make PDFs the ideal format for digital invoicing. Of course, this can be an adjustment for those unfamiliar with digital invoices—but you’ll quickly find yourself creating, editing, and sending PDF invoices with ease. 

Conclusion

Clearly, there’s a reason that PDFs have become the norm for digital invoicing. And with this guide on how to create PDF invoices, along with our PDF document invoicing software and templates, you’ll be able to deal with your accounts and payments much faster.

Learn more about the FreshBooks PDF invoice template and get started for free!

FAQs on How To Make A Pdf Invoice

Still have questions about the ins and outs of PDF invoice creation? Here’s our list of frequently asked questions. 

Should I Send an Invoice as a PDF?

Although you’re certainly not required to send invoices as PDFs, it’s quickly become the standard for all digital invoicing. We recommend sending your invoice in portable document format (PDF) whenever possible. 

How Do You Send an Invoice by Email?

With modern technology, there’s no need to delay payments by sending invoices in the mail the old-fashioned way. Simply create or convert your invoice as a PDF file using invoicing software, download, drop in your PDF attachment with your message, and send. If you want to learn more about this process, follow our guide on How to Send Invoices, where we explain the step-by-step procedure.

Can Anyone Send an Invoice?

If you’ve provided a service or product to a customer as agreed upon in a statement of work, contract, or other agreement, you can and should send a professional invoice. This makes it easy for customers to keep track of your payment, ensuring you’re paid sooner.

How Do You Make Your Own Invoice?

Creating your own business invoice in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Google Suite is completely doable. However, it’s much faster to do it with an invoice template or invoice software. Along with many other useful tools, templates and software mean you won’t have to redo all the business information for each new invoice.

More Useful Resources

• How to Make an Invoice in Word
• How to Make an Invoice in OpenOffice
• How to Make an Invoice in Google Docs

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