Invoice is a free open-source command line tool by Maaslalani that can generate invoices. it takes all the information from you as command line arguments. You just have to execute a simple command and then it will quickly generate an invoice for you instantly. This is a cross-platform tool that you can easily use on Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems.
There are many invoice generator tools we have covered so far such as Frappe. But here being a command line tool gives it an advantage to generate bulk invoices. You just have to construct the invoice generation command for multiple invoices and then simply run them from a batch file or PowerShell script. It is extremely fast tool and generate a simple invoice in PDF format.
It supports customization and global configurations as well via environment variables. For example, you don’t have to specify company name and logo every time while running the invoice generation command. You can set the respective environment variables to set the desired configuration options.
Free fast Command Line tool to Generate Custom Invoices
You can download the binary release of this command line tool from here. Here I am using it for Windows so, download the EXE file and then save it somewhere else safe. Rename the EXE file to your convenience and then open the terminal or command prompt in the same folder where the EXE file is.
Now, you need to constrict the invoice generation command like this. See the example command below and you can replace the parameters with the ones you want to use.
invoice generate --from "Dream, Inc." --to "Imagine, Inc." \
--item "Rubber Duck" --quantity 2 --rate 25 \
--tax 0.13 --discount 0.15 \
--note "For debugging purposes."
So, run the command above command and a PDF file will be saved in the current directory. You can open that file and see the simple invoice.
You can customize your invoice by adding the logo. And you can also set the company name, logo, etc via env variables so that it will be easier to access them.
export INVOICE_LOGO=path_to_image.png
export INVOICE_FROM="Test, Inc."
export INVOICE_TO="Test, Inc."
export INVOICE_TAX=0.18
export INVOICE_RATE=15
In this way, you can use this simple and powerful command line tool to generate invoices with ease. All you have to do is just set a few environment variables and then you are all good to go.
Closing thoughts:
If you are looking for a free and open-source tool to generate invoices, then you are kind of at the right place. Just grab this command line tool mentioned here and then you are all good to go. I liked the fact that it is superfast and comes for all the major platforms. So, try it on your own and let me know what you think about it.
