Invoice Docs (v1.1)

Generate professional invoices, track payments, and draft overdue reminders — an alternative to FreshBooks for freelancers and SMBs.

Installation

1. Download the pf-invoice-docs.plugin file
2. Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings > Plugins
3. Click Install Plugin and select the downloaded .plugin file
4. The plugin will be installed and available immediately

Note: All data stays local on your machine. No external API calls or cloud storage required.

Why This Exists

Freelancers and small businesses pay $228-840/yr for FreshBooks primarily to create invoice PDFs, track payment status, and send overdue reminders. These are core document-generation tasks that Claude can handle locally included with your subscription — no subscription, no client-count limits, all processing happens within the Cowork environment.

Quick Start

1. Run /invoice:invoice-setup to initialize your workspace and configure your business profile
2. Run /invoice:invoice-generate with your client info and line items to create your first PDF invoice
3. Run /invoice:invoice-track to update the invoice register and flag overdue invoices
4. Run /invoice:invoice-remind to generate overdue reminder letters
5. Run /invoice:invoice-summary for a revenue report with monthly trends

Commands

Command	Description
/invoice:invoice-setup	Initialize workspace, check dependencies, configure business profile
/invoice:invoice-generate	Generate a professional PDF invoice from client info and line items
/invoice:invoice-track	Update invoice register, flag overdue invoices, generate aging report
/invoice:invoice-remind	Generate overdue reminder letters with escalating tone
/invoice:invoice-summary	Generate revenue summary report (by client, month, status)
/invoice:invoice-full-pipeline	Run generate → track → remind → summary in sequence
/invoice:invoice-kb	Look up invoicing domain knowledge, legal requirements, and tax rules
/invoice:invoice-status	Quick dashboard: config, invoice count, overdue, outstanding

How It Works

Invoice Docs uses a hub-and-spoke architecture. After setup creates your config, each skill operates independently by reading from a shared invoice register (.invoice/register.json). Generate invoices as PDFs, track their status in the register, generate overdue reminders as DOCX files, and pull revenue summaries as XLSX reports. All outputs are saved to your persistent local folder for access after the session ends.

What It's an Alternative To

SaaS Tool	Annual Cost	Key Overlap
FreshBooks	$228-840/yr	Invoice PDF generation, payment tracking, overdue reminders
QuickBooks Online	$420-2,400/yr	Invoicing, aging reports, revenue summaries
Zoho Invoice	included with your subscription-1,296/yr	Invoice creation, tracking, reminders
Wave	Included (ads)	Invoicing, basic reporting (US/Canada only)
Xero	$348-780/yr	Invoicing, AR management, reporting

Key Differentiators

Beyond Included with your subscription, Invoice Docs offers advantages over paid SaaS tools: no client-count limits (FreshBooks Lite caps at 5 clients, Plus at 50), all data stays local on your machine (no client financial data on vendor servers), fully customizable through config (tax rates, payment terms, branding), and standard file formats (PDF, DOCX, XLSX) with no proprietary data lock-in.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Invoice Docs	FreshBooks	QuickBooks	Wave
Invoice PDF generation	✅	✅	✅	✅
Auto-numbering	✅	✅	✅	✅
Tax calculation	✅	✅	✅	✅
Payment tracking	⚠️ Manual	✅	✅	✅
Overdue reminders	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
Aging reports	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
Revenue summaries	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
Online payments	❌	✅	✅	✅
Recurring invoices	⚠️ Manual	✅	✅	✅
Client portal	❌	✅	✅	❌
Data privacy (local)	✅	❌	❌	❌
No subscription cost	✅	❌	❌	✅
Unlimited clients	✅	⚠️	✅	✅
Customizable templates	✅	⚠️	⚠️	⚠️
Domain knowledge base	✅	❌	❌	❌
Jurisdiction-aware validation	✅	⚠️	✅	❌
informed by FDCPA guidelines reminders	✅	❌	❌	❌
AR health metrics (DSO/CEI)	✅	⚠️	✅	❌

Estimated Cost per Use

Disclaimer: Token estimates are approximate and based on typical usage patterns measured from skill prompt sizes. Actual costs vary with input data size, conversation length, and complexity. Estimates use Claude Sonnet 4.6 pricing ($3/1M input, $15/1M output). Cowork and Claude Desktop subscription users (Pro/Max/Team) are not charged per-token — these estimates apply only to direct Anthropic API usage. Running stages individually in fresh sessions uses fewer input tokens than running the full pipeline sequentially, because pipeline mode accumulates conversation history across stages.

Per skill (run individually in a fresh session):

Stage	Skill Prompt	User Input	Total Input	Output	Est. Cost
invoice-track	~4.1K	~800	~7.9K	~4.1K	~$0.09
invoice-remind	~5.1K	~800	~8.7K	~5.1K	~$0.10
invoice-generate	~4.9K	~800	~8.6K	~6.0K	~$0.12
invoice-kb	~5.1K	~800	~8.8K	~5.1K	~$0.10
invoice-summary	~4.9K	~800	~8.6K	~6.0K	~$0.12
Standalone total			~42.6K	~26.4K	~$0.52

Full pipeline (all stages in one session — context accumulates):

Stage	Base Input	+ History	Total Input	Output	Est. Cost
invoice-track	~8.3K	0	~8.3K	~4.1K	~$0.09
invoice-remind	~9.3K	~4.9K	~14.2K	~5.1K	~$0.12
invoice-generate	~9.0K	~10.8K	~19.9K	~6.0K	~$0.15
invoice-kb	~9.3K	~17.6K	~27.0K	~5.1K	~$0.16
invoice-summary	~9.0K	~23.6K	~32.6K	~6.0K	~$0.19
Pipeline total			~102.0K	~26.4K	~$0.70

Running the full pipeline once typically costs $0.49–$0.91 in API tokens (Claude Sonnet 4.6).

AI-Powered Features

• Invoice Register Maintenance: Tracks payment status (draft/sent/paid/overdue) for all generated invoices
• Aging Analysis: Computes invoice aging buckets (0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 90+ days) and flags overdue amounts
• Overdue Detection: Automatically flags invoices past due date and computes days overdue
• Aging Report Generation: Produces XLSX aging reports showing accounts receivable summary by customer
• Centralized Domain Knowledge: Authoritative invoicing knowledge base with source-level regulatory citations (EU VAT Directive Art. 226, FDCPA §1692, FASB ASC 310-10)
• Jurisdiction-Aware Invoice Validation: Validates invoices against legal requirements for US, EU, and UK jurisdictions including mandatory fields and VAT compliance
• FASB ASC 310-10 Aging Methodology: Estimated uncollectible percentages per aging bucket with bad debt estimation following accounting standards
• informed by FDCPA guidelines Reminders: Collection reminders include debt validation information and comply with Fair Debt Collection Practices Act guardrails
• Late Payment Directive Awareness: Automatically references EU Directive 2011/7/EU recovery costs (€40 minimum) and UK Late Payment Act statutory interest rates
• AR Health Metrics: Calculates DSO, Collection Effectiveness Index, and Bad Debt Ratio with industry benchmarks
• Revenue Recognition Context: Revenue summaries reference FASB ASC 606 accrual basis concepts and tax period alignment (quarterly estimated payments per IRS Form 1040-ES)

Known Limitations & Workarounds

This is a Claude Cowork plugin, not a traditional SaaS application. It has architectural constraints you should know about before adopting it.

Limitation	Impact	Workaround
No payment processing	Cannot process credit card or ACH payments	Include payment links on invoices; track payment status manually via /invoice:invoice-track
No persistent scheduling	Reminders generated on-demand only, not auto-sent	Run /invoice:invoice-remind weekly; pair with a Cowork scheduled task
No persistent database	Invoice register is local JSON, no cloud sync	Store workspace in a cloud-synced folder (Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive)
No multi-user access	Single user at a time	Share workspace folder; use XLSX exports for bookkeeper collaboration
Session-based operation	Plugin runs only during active Cowork sessions	Batch operations work well in single sessions; outputs persist in local folder

Context & Performance Guide

Session management: Claude's context window (200K tokens) is shared across the entire session. For the full pipeline (4 stages), recommend starting a fresh session before running /invoice:invoice-full-pipeline. If you've been chatting extensively, a new session gives the plugin more room.

Data volume guidance: Tested with up to 200 invoices in the register. Each skill uses ~7-10K tokens per invocation. The hub-and-spoke architecture means skills run independently — no cumulative context pressure from previous stages.

Tips for best results: Provide invoice data as a JSON file in inbound/ rather than pasting into chat. Keep messages concise during pipeline runs. For highest quality, run each stage in a separate session — the plugin saves state between stages. If processing 100+ invoices, start a fresh session.

Degradation signals: If responses become shorter, less detailed, or skip sections that previously worked well, start a new session and re-run the current stage.

Requirements

• Claude Desktop with Cowork mode
• Python 3 (pre-installed in Cowork VM)
• reportlab (auto-installed for PDF generation)
• openpyxl (auto-installed for XLSX reports)
• python-docx (auto-installed for DOCX reminders)

Important Disclaimers

• AI-Generated Content: This plugin uses AI (LLM) technology which can produce inaccurate or incomplete outputs. All content should be treated as a starting point and reviewed for accuracy before use.
• Not Professional Advice: Outputs do not constitute legal, financial, tax, medical, or other professional advice. Consult qualified professionals before making decisions based on generated content.
• No Compliance Guarantee: References to industry standards, regulations, or guidelines are for informational purposes only. This plugin does not guarantee compliance with any law or regulation. Users are responsible for verifying all outputs meet their specific regulatory requirements.
• No Endorsement or Affiliation: Mention of third-party products, standards, or organizations does not imply endorsement, partnership, or certification by those entities.
• Not Financial or Tax Advice: Financial calculations, tax estimates, and related outputs are for informational purposes only. Consult a qualified CPA or financial advisor for tax and financial decisions.