Invoicing guides
Everything here is written to be useful on its own, whether or not you ever use Spoonbill. Each guide is kept current rather than published and left. What the app itself does is under Features.
- 01
You are writing your first invoice.
Start with the freelancer guide: what has to appear on the document, what changes if you are a sole trader or a contractor, and how to word the payment terms.
How to invoice as a freelancerWhat to put on a freelance invoice, what changes if you are a sole trader or contractor, and how to get paid on time. - 02
The numbering worries you.
The invoice numbering guide covers the gap-free sequence the law wants, what a valid number looks like, and how to run more than one series without breaking either.
Invoice numbering: the rules, the format, and the mistakesEvery invoice needs its own number and the sequence must have no gaps: what the law requires, what a valid number looks like, and how to run several series. - 03
You are doing it in a spreadsheet.
The Excel guide walks both routes, from a template and from scratch, with the formulas — and says plainly which part a spreadsheet cannot do for you.
How to make an invoice in ExcelBoth routes — from a template and from scratch — with the formulas, and why Excel cannot number invoices reliably. - 04
You are doing it in Word.
The Word guide walks both routes and the one check Word cannot do for you: whether the total matches the lines.
How to make an invoice in WordBoth routes — from a template and from a blank page — and how to keep the totals right when Word cannot add them up. - 05
You are tracking invoices in a spreadsheet.
The invoice-tracking guide gives you a ledger for invoices received and sent, with the formulas and a free .xlsx.
How to track invoices in ExcelAn invoice ledger in Excel for invoices received and sent: the columns, the status formula and a free .xlsx. - 06
You invoice into another country.
The country guides cover what that country requires on the document, which tax rules apply, and what its e-invoicing mandate changes.
Invoicing by countryWhat each country requires on an invoice: mandatory fields, tax exemptions and e-invoicing deadlines. One country at a time.
Who these guides are for
People who send their own invoices: freelancers, sole traders, contractors and small teams. No accounting background is assumed, and nothing here is written for a tax adviser.
Every legal claim names the paragraph it comes from — §14 UStG in Germany, §11 UStG 1994 in Austria, Article 226 of the EU VAT Directive across the union — so you can check it instead of taking our word for it. This is tooling, not tax advice; your accountant settles the edge cases.
Why none of these carries a date
Invoice rules move. Germany's e-invoicing dates, VAT rates and the small-business thresholds have all changed in the last few years, and they will change again.
So these are maintained references rather than posts. A guide is corrected in place when the law moves, which is why no entry above shows a publication date: the date would tell you when it was written, not whether it is still right.
Where a claim rests on a statute or a ministry page, the guide links the source at the foot so you can read it yourself.
Your next invoice:
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