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

bash

make install   # Install beancount + fava via uv
make check     # Verify the ledger has zero errors
make serve     # Open Fava at http://localhost:4739

File 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:

beancount

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 USD

A per-client receivable account plus due: turns "what is overdue, and by how long" into a balance report instead of a memory exercise.

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Freelancer Invoicing Example — beancount.io

Quick Start

File Guide

The one thing to copy