Invoice Simple: Invoice Maker

Review by eFreeware

You finish a job, the customer is standing there, and the paperwork is the last thing you want to think about. Getting a bill written and sent before you drive away is the appeal of doing invoicing on a phone rather than at a desk later that evening, and it is the problem this category of app exists to solve.

Invoice Simple is one of the better-known names in that space. It sits in the Business category on Google Play and has been around since early 2013, which makes it an unusually long-lived entry in a field full of short-lived tools. The install count reflects that history: more than 5 million downloads and a 4.8 average across 171,911 ratings.

What the developer promises is a way to produce invoices, estimates, bills and receipts on the spot, with enough customization that the result looks like it came from a real business rather than a phone. That is a modest claim compared with what some billing suites advertise, and for a lot of small operators it is exactly the right scope.

Built for trades, side gigs and one-person operations

The clearest fit is someone who bills customers in person or shortly after leaving them. A landscaper quoting a yard, a cleaner finishing a weekly visit, a photographer wrapping up a shoot, a market stall holder writing up a wholesale order: these are the situations a phone-based invoice maker is built for. The developer describes the app as being for individuals and growing businesses, and the examples in its own material lean toward service work and side projects rather than corporate finance departments.

It also suits people who have been getting by with handwritten receipts, a word processor template or nothing at all. If billing currently means a shoebox of paper and a scramble at tax time, an app that keeps documents in one place and produces a PDF is a step up without requiring any accounting knowledge.

Where I would expect it to sit less comfortably is in a business with complex needs: multiple staff issuing invoices, detailed inventory, or reporting that has to feed into a full accounting system. Nothing here suggests it is trying to be that, and the plan structure, which caps invoices per month on the lower tiers, points at smaller operations by design.

Creating a document and making it look right

The core workflow is building an invoice, estimate, bill or receipt and customizing it. You can add your logo and business details, enter banking information, set up taxes and apply discounts, list products with photos attached, and include a signature. Client details can be pulled in from your phone's contacts rather than typed out each time, which matters when you are standing in front of someone.

That set of options covers the things that make a document look legitimate: your branding at the top, a proper tax line, an itemized list, and a signature at the bottom. The developer's emphasis is on producing something professional-looking quickly, and the customization list is consistent with that goal.

Once a document exists, it can go out by email, text message, WhatsApp, or as a PDF download. The app also sends notifications, by mobile and email, when an invoice is opened, paid or overdue. For anyone who has waited weeks on a payment without knowing whether the invoice was even seen, that feedback loop is the most practically useful feature in the whole package.

Getting paid without chasing checks

Payment handling is the second half of the job, and the app supports more than one route. Cash and checks are accepted as always, and card payments can be taken through Invoice Simple Payments, which you enable from within an invoice and connect by following the setup steps. The developer describes the card fees as low and says they can be added to the invoice itself.

The paid tiers add payment options of their own. The Essentials plan includes QR code payments and online transactions, which is the kind of thing that helps when you want a customer to pay on the spot without handing over a card. Higher plans build on that foundation rather than replacing it.

I would treat the fee arrangement as the detail to check before committing. Adding card costs to an invoice is convenient, but it is also a visible line item that some customers will question.

Organizing records and expenses

Beyond the document itself, the app is positioned as a place to keep things straight. It works as a digital organizer for receipts and bills, with the aim of making records easy to find and tax preparation less painful. Estimates and invoices live together rather than in separate tools, which is useful when a quote later turns into a job and then into a bill.

Expense tracking appears on the Essentials plan and above, and business reporting is mentioned as part of the overall package. For a sole trader who currently reconstructs a year of income from bank statements, having documents and expenses in one app is a meaningful improvement over the alternative.

The limits of that organization are worth being realistic about. This is a record-keeping layer for a small operation, and the monthly invoice caps on the lower plans mean a busy month can push you toward a higher tier.

What it costs and what the plans allow

The app itself is free to download, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases. There is a free trial, so the sensible approach is to try it against a real job before deciding whether to pay for anything.

Paid access is split into three named plans. Essentials is aimed at entrepreneurs and allows up to three invoices a month, along with QR code payments, online transactions, expense tracking and real-time read receipts. Plus raises the ceiling to ten invoices a month and adds photos on documents, a personalized signature for the business owner, autofill for client and item details, and due date reminders. Premium removes the monthly invoice limit entirely and includes priority customer support.

The structure is straightforward: the more you bill, the more you pay. Three invoices a month will cover some occasional side work and nothing more, ten suits a steady small operation, and unlimited is for anyone whose volume is unpredictable. Because the tiers are defined by invoice count, the decision is easy to make once you know roughly how many documents you issue in a typical month.

Alternatives worth weighing against it

The most obvious comparison is with a full accounting platform. Those generally handle payroll, inventory, bank feeds and tax filing, and they cost accordingly in both money and setup time. If your needs run that deep, a dedicated invoicing app will feel thin, and the reverse is also true: accounting software tends to be heavier than someone billing a handful of customers a month wants to deal with.

A second option is a general document or PDF tool. You can build a template once and reuse it, which costs nothing beyond the software you already own. That trade is reasonable for very low volumes and increasingly annoying as the business grows.

The third is a payment processor's own invoicing feature. If you already take cards through a particular service, its built-in billing may be adequate. Invoice Simple's advantage in that comparison is the customization and the fact that it accommodates cash and checks alongside cards.

A dependable choice for billing on the move

Invoice Simple does one job and does it in a way that matches how small operators actually work: create the document where the work happened, make it look professional, send it immediately, and know when it has been seen or paid. The customization options are broad enough to produce something a customer will take seriously, and the payment routes cover cards, cash and checks without forcing a single method.

The caveats are the ones that come with the model rather than the app. The lower plans cap how many invoices you can issue each month, and the app is built for straightforward billing rather than full accounting. None of that is a flaw for the audience it targets, but it does mean the plan you choose should match your monthly volume rather than your ambitions.

If you bill customers in person or soon after finishing a job, and you want the paperwork handled before you move on to the next one, this is a well-established option with a large user base behind it. Start with the free trial on real work, count how many invoices a month you actually produce, and pick the tier from there.

What's new in version 6.15.1

Welcome to the new Invoice Simple experience! We've been working hard on improving our app's performance and stability while delivering the invoicing experience you expect with us. Let us know what you think and feel free to contact our 24/7 support team if you come across any issues