When I was a freelance contractor I used InvoiceNinja. It was pretty good and also has some apps for mobile. And it's on DockerHub too.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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UI it’s kinda hard to navigate and also docker setup never worked for me.
I agree, the UI is not really simple, but it is very functional. regarding the docker setup it also took me a couple of tries, but I succeeded in the end.
I have been researching this subject for a while as well and eventually settled on using Odoo with the full accounting features. It's more than just accounting but it works quite well and it's free. Can be run as a single python docker container.
Though look like most things are paywalled under enterprise 😅
Some things are, but the core functionality is easily extended through modules and you can find a lot of sites with them. Some of the best modules are going to cost you some money but it’s worth it.
That being said Odoo is overkill if you just need to send an invoice. Odoo is perfect for running a business though. It can and will do EVERYTHING and then some.
I know people who run their entire businesses on it. Website, HR, inventory, time clocks, billing, etc etc. it scales really well too. Largest business I know using it has 100s of employees. They even have a paid developer on staff that writes and maintains custom modules for them. Smallest business I know of using it has 5 employees, including the owners.
It’s seriously impressive software!
Depends on what sort of invoices. For my invoices for billable hours, I use Kimai
I will need to send invoices every two week in my case.
And in my case I’m an employee that will need send invoices to employer.
Employee/employer relationship is normally more formalised with contracts and wages. This is to ensure that the employer isn't taking advantage of loopholes.
Chances are you will get classed as a "disguised employee" if you are freelance and invoicing only 1 client.
But I don't know employment law where you are. I know the US and UK have laws about this, chances are EU does as well.
Ye though it's more complex when you are from EU and want to work for US company. Also for now it's more like part time job hope to get full contract one next year :)
Freelancers with only one client are fine. More about who controls how and when the tasks are accomplished.
TBH, if something like invoice ninja isn’t working for you, even the paid hosted version, then maybe just use PayPal?
Hmm I end up managed to install invoice ninja with dockerfile repo I used wrong env file and it was making error. For plus I like apps both for iOS and Windows :)
I use pancake, works pretty well. It's paid, but only a one-time payment and you get the code.
EDIT: here's the link: https://www.pancakeapp.com/
Well, openERP or openbravo were what I would have recommended ten years ago, but due to their commercialization aren't really relevant any longer. If I personally was setting this up for myself I would probably use redmine and a plugin that gives redmine the invoice functionality. However I wouldn't call it simple for a first timer to pull off, but if redmine is mastered you will find very extensible and customizable to any particular project's needs.
My friend and I have been building just such a program for a while now. We are both self employed software devs and we didn't have a clean way of tracking time, so we started building something that just did that at first, but it's evolved a lot since then. However, it's still very much in development so customisation is limited, but the core stuff all works. Now granted, it doesn't use docker, it's just a stand alone program and currently doesn't have cloud support (we are working on it), but I can absolutely send you a copy if you wanna try it out.
I currently manually create invoices in Excel, so I'm definitely interested in seeing what you find!