Vue d'ensemble
Freelancer Invoicing Example — beancount.io
A Beancount ledger for running a freelance practice: invoicing on accrual, chasing what is owed, sales tax you collect on someone else's behalf, expenses rebilled to clients, and quarterly estimated tax.
Situation financière
Patrimoine net et comptes qui le composent
Mouvements d'argent
Revenus et dépenses mensuels par catégorie de compte
Activité récente
Activité du journal tenant compte des écritures
Revenus vs Dépenses
Bilan
Flux de trésorerie
Chargement des rôles des comptes…
Freelancer Invoicing Example — beancount.io
A Beancount ledger for running a freelance practice: invoicing on accrual, chasing what is owed, sales tax you collect on someone else's behalf, expenses rebilled to clients, and quarterly estimated tax.
The organising idea is that invoicing and getting paid are two different events. An invoice recognises the revenue and creates a receivable; the payment only settles it. Recording revenue when cash lands instead makes your income statement a description of your clients' payment habits rather than of your work.
Quick Start
make install # Install beancount + fava via uv
make check # Verify the ledger has zero errors
make serve # Open Fava at http://localhost:4739File Guide
| File | What it demonstrates |
|---|---|
main.bean | Entry point — options and include directives |
accounts.bean | Per-client receivables, the sales-tax liability, and the cost chart |
transactions/invoicing.bean | Issuing invoices with invoice: and due: metadata |
transactions/payments.bean | On-time, partial, late, and never — including a bad-debt write-off |
transactions/sales-tax.bean | Tax you collect is a liability, not revenue |
transactions/rebilled-expenses.bean | Passing project costs to a client, gross vs net |
transactions/estimated-taxes.bean | Reserving cash (not an expense) vs paying it (an expense) |
The one thing to copy
Put the invoice number on both the invoice and its payment:
2026-01-09 * "Northwind Traders" "January retainer"
invoice: "2026-001"
due: 2026-02-08
Assets:Receivable:Northwind 6,000.00 USD
Income:Consulting -6,000.00 USDA per-client receivable account plus due: turns "what is overdue, and by how long" into a balance report instead of a memory exercise.