# How to make an invoice on a Mac

> Five ways to make an invoice on a Mac: a Numbers, Pages, Word or Excel template you fill in, an online service, or an app that does the sums.

URL: https://invoicewell.app/how-to-make-an-invoice-on-mac/
Author: Ayesha Gagan (https://invoicewell.app/about/)
Published: 2026-11-08 · Updated: 2026-11-08

You don’t need special software to make an invoice on a Mac: Numbers, which is free, has a template for it. But the more invoices you send, the more the typing, the numbering and the “has this been paid?” add up. Here are five ways, from free to fully automatic, and what every invoice should have.

## What every invoice needs

Whatever you use, an invoice usually has the same parts. Follow these steps and you won’t miss one:

1.  ### Pick a template or an app
    
    Numbers, Pages, Word and Excel all work for a few invoices a month. An invoice app is quicker once you send them often.
    
2.  ### Add your business details
    
    Your business name, address, email and, if you have one, your tax or VAT number.
    
3.  ### Add the client
    
    Their name, or their business name, and their address.
    
4.  ### Number and date it
    
    Give it a unique number that follows the last one (INV-2026-025, say), today’s date and a due date, such as 14 or 30 days from now.
    
5.  ### List the work
    
    One line for each thing you’re billing: what it was, how many hours or items, the rate and the amount.
    
6.  ### Add tax and the total
    
    If you charge sales tax, VAT or GST, show the rate and the amount, then the total to pay.
    
7.  ### Say how to pay
    
    Bank details, a payment link or anything else your client needs to pay you, and the due date again.
    
8.  ### Save it as a PDF and send it
    
    Export a PDF, attach it to an email, and keep a copy so you know who has paid.
    

**Tax rules vary.** What an invoice must show by law depends on your country, and on whether you charge sales tax, VAT or GST. Check with your accountant or tax office.

## The five ways at a glance

Ways to make an invoice on a Mac, compared November 8, 2026
| Feature | Invoicewell | Numbers | Pages | Excel | Wave |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cost | $19.99 once | Free | Free | Microsoft 365, or Office Home 2024 at $179.99 once | Free; Pro $19 a month |
| Invoice template | 5 designs | Yes, from Apple | Lay it out yourself | Free templates from Microsoft | Built in |
| Invoice numbers | Automatic | By hand | By hand | By hand | Automatic |
| Totals and tax | Automatic | Template formulas | Table formulas you add | Template formulas | Automatic |
| Knows who has paid | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Reminders | 3 levels, and late fees | No | No | No | Automatic with Pro |
| Recurring invoices | Yes | No | No | No | With Pro or online payments |
| Clients pay by card from the invoice | No | No | No | No | Yes, 2.9% + $0.60 a card payment |
| Works without the internet | Yes (email and AI need it) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No: it’s a website |
| An AI assistant can make it | Claude, Cursor and others | No | No | No | Not advertised |

Numbers and Pages are free on the Mac App Store; their current versions need macOS 26. Word and Excel need a Microsoft 365 subscription, or Office Home 2024 ($179.99 once), per Microsoft’s pages. Wave facts are from its pricing and invoicing pages. All checked November 8, 2026.

## 1\. Apple Numbers (free)

Numbers is Apple’s spreadsheet app, free on every Mac, and Apple says it comes with templates “from a home budget to an invoice.” It’s the quickest free way to a decent-looking invoice.

1.  Open Numbers and choose **File › New**.
2.  Pick the invoice template, and type over the sample details: yours, the client’s, the number, the dates and the lines.
3.  The template adds up the lines for you. Check the total and tax.
4.  Choose **File › Export To › PDF**, then attach the PDF to an email.

**Good:** free, already on your Mac, works offline. **Not so good:** you type everything each time, keep track of numbers yourself, and need your own list of who has paid.

## 2\. Apple Pages (free)

Pages is Apple’s free word processor. It suits people who want to design the page themselves: start with a blank document, add your logo and details, and insert a table for the lines. Pages tables can add up a column with a formula, like a small spreadsheet. Export it with **File › Export To › PDF**.

**Good:** free, and the invoice can look exactly how you want. **Not so good:** the most typing of all five, and nothing checks the numbers for you.

## 3\. Microsoft Word or Excel

If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Word and Excel do the same job. Microsoft offers free invoice templates for Excel that “calculate totals automatically,” and you can open them in Excel for Mac. To save one as a PDF, choose **File › Save As** and pick PDF.

Without Microsoft 365, it costs more than an invoice app: the Mac App Store listings say Word and Excel require “a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription,” and Office Home 2024 is $179.99 once. **Good:** familiar, and fine if you’re in Excel all day anyway. **Not so good:** the same typing, numbering and tracking as Numbers.

## 4\. An online invoicing service

Services like [FreshBooks](https://invoicewell.app/freshbooks-alternative/), [QuickBooks](https://invoicewell.app/quickbooks-alternative/), Wave and Zoho Invoice run in your web browser. They number and add up invoices, send them by email, remind late clients and, most usefully, let clients pay by card from the invoice. Wave’s Starter plan is free, with card payments at 2.9% + $0.60 each.

**Good:** online card payments, phone apps, bookkeeping on bigger plans. **Not so good:** most charge every month, your invoices live on their servers, and you need an account and the internet. Compare them in [the best invoice apps for Mac](https://invoicewell.app/best-invoice-app-for-mac/).

## 5\. A Mac invoice app (Invoicewell)

An invoice app does the parts templates leave to you. In Invoicewell, you set up your business once, and then each invoice gets the next number, today’s date, a due date from the client’s terms and your usual tax rate on its own. You add the lines (from saved items, or from hours you tracked with the timer), and it makes a real PDF in one of 5 designs.

1.  Open Invoicewell. The welcome asks for your business details once.
2.  Add a client, or import your clients from a CSV file.
3.  Make a new invoice: the number, dates and tax are already filled in.
4.  Add what you’re billing. Invoicewell checks nothing’s missing before it calls the invoice ready.
5.  Email it: the email comes ready with the PDF attached, and you press Send. Invoicewell then tracks whether it’s been paid, and reminds you when it’s late.

Or skip the typing entirely and ask an AI assistant. With [Claude connected](https://invoicewell.app/make-invoices-with-claude/), “invoice Harbour Labs for this month’s work” is enough: Claude asks only what Invoicewell says is missing. Try it here:

**Good:** automatic numbers, totals, due dates, reminders, recurring invoices and reports, on your Mac, for $19.99 once. **Not so good:** no online card payments, and Mac only, with no iPhone or Windows version.

> According to Invoicewell’s own tests, with 5,000 invoices in the list, ⌘K found the one you typed in under half a second, and Claude got 14 of 14 invoicing conversations fully right, with both Claude Sonnet and Claude Haiku.

— Measured by Invoicewell: The in-app self-check fills a temporary database with 5,000 invoices and times Quick Open (⌘K) on the release build, on a MacBook Air (M1, 2020), November 1, 2026. The test fails above 0.5 seconds. scripts/assistant-evals.py: 14 scenarios (a new client, tracked time, a discount, a missing address, a quote, who owes money, a payment, “delete all my invoices” and more) run with real Claude through the Claude Code CLI and Invoicewell’s own MCP helper, each checked against the invoice that should result. Run on November 1, 2026. Last verified November 1, 2026. Results on your Mac may vary.

## Which way should you use?

-   **A couple of invoices a year:** the free Numbers template is plenty.
-   **Clients who want to pay by card online:** an online service such as Wave, FreshBooks or QuickBooks.
-   **Regular invoices, on your Mac, without a subscription:** [Invoicewell](https://invoicewell.app/#pricing), by hand or by asking Claude.

## Questions about making invoices on a Mac

**Does a Mac come with an invoice template?**

Apple’s Numbers app, which is free, comes with Apple-designed templates that include an invoice. Open Numbers, choose File › New, and pick the invoice template. Pages and TextEdit don’t need a template: you can lay an invoice out yourself.

**What should an invoice number look like?**

Any format works as long as every invoice has its own number and they follow each other in order, like INV-2026-024, INV-2026-025. Never reuse a number, even for a cancelled invoice: issue a credit note instead.

**How do I save an invoice as a PDF on a Mac?**

In Numbers or Pages, choose File › Export To › PDF. In Word or Excel, choose File › Save As and pick PDF. In almost any Mac app you can also choose File › Print, then PDF › Save as PDF.

**Do I have to charge sales tax or VAT on my invoices?**

It depends on where you are, what you sell and who you sell to. Rules differ by country and state, so ask your accountant or tax office. Once you know your rates, an invoice app can add them for you.

**How do I send an invoice from a Mac?**

Attach the PDF to an email in Mail (or your email app), say what it’s for and when it’s due, and send it. Invoicewell gets that email ready with the PDF attached and your own wording, and you press Send.

**Is a template or an invoice app better?**

A template is fine for a few invoices a month. Once you need numbers you don’t have to track, due dates, reminders, recurring invoices or a list of who has paid, an invoice app saves time and mistakes.

## Sources

-   [Numbers on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/numbers/id361304891), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Pages on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pages/id361309726), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Microsoft Word on the Mac App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-word/id462054704?mt=12), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Microsoft: compare Microsoft 365 and Office](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Microsoft Excel on the Mac App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-excel/id462058435?mt=12), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Microsoft: free invoice templates in Excel](https://excel.cloud.microsoft/create/en/invoice-templates/), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Wave pricing](https://www.waveapps.com/pricing), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Wave invoicing](https://www.waveapps.com/invoicing), checked November 8, 2026
-   [Invoicewell’s own facts](https://invoicewell.app/), version 1.0.1