Building an Invoice & Billing Management System with Laravel 12: A Beginner-Friendly Guide

💡 Imagine This...

You just landed your first freelance web project. You’re excited, ready to code, and then comes the client’s final request:
“Can you also add an invoicing and billing feature to the system?”

Wait—what? 😳
You nod confidently... but in your head, you're already Googling "how to build an invoice system in Laravel." Sound familiar?

If that scenario rings a bell, you’re in the right place.

In this post, we’ll break down how to build a simple yet powerful Invoice & Billing Management System using Laravel 12 — step by step, no experience required.

🔍 Why You Should Care About This

Whether you're building a SaaS app, running an e-commerce platform, or freelancing, billing is non-negotiable. And Laravel 12, with its latest features and enhancements, makes it easier than ever to handle invoices, track payments, and send professional billing documents — all without reinventing the wheel.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to:

✅ Set up an invoice system from scratch
✅ Manage customers and their bills
✅ Generate PDFs for invoices
✅ Send invoice emails like a pro

Let’s roll up our sleeves! 🛠️

🏗️ What We’re Building (Feature Overview)

Here’s what your Laravel Invoice System will include:

• 🧑 Customer Management
• 💼 Create & Manage Invoices
• 🧾 Add line items (products or services)
• 💸 Track invoice status (paid/unpaid/overdue)
• 📄 Downloadable PDF invoices
• 📧 Email invoices to customers

🛠️ Step 1: Setting Up Laravel 12

First things first — let’s install Laravel 12.

composer create-project laravel/laravel invoice-system
cd invoice-system
php artisan serve

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:8000
Boom! You’ve got Laravel up and running 🚀

📦 Step 2: Set Up Your Models and Migrations

You’ll need three main tables:

1. Customers
2. Invoices
3. Invoice Items

Let’s generate these:

php artisan make:model Customer -m
php artisan make:model Invoice -m
php artisan make:model InvoiceItem -m

Example: Customer Migration

Schema::create('customers', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('name');
    $table->string('email');
    $table->string('address')->nullable();
    $table->timestamps();
});

Run the migrations:

php artisan migrate

🧑‍💻 Step 3: Building the Backend Logic

We’ll now connect everything using Eloquent relationships.

Models Setup

Customer.php

public function invoices() {
    return $this->hasMany(Invoice::class);
}

Invoice.php

public function customer() {
    return $this->belongsTo(Customer::class);
}

public function items() {
    return $this->hasMany(InvoiceItem::class);
}

InvoiceItem.php

public function invoice() {
    return $this->belongsTo(Invoice::class);
}

Quick Tip 🧠

Eloquent makes relationship handling super intuitive — it’s like magic but with code!

🧾 Step 4: Creating Invoices

Let’s make a form to create a new invoice.

Your form might include:

• Customer dropdown
• Invoice date
• Item rows (description, quantity, price)

Here’s a simplified controller method:

public function store(Request $request)
{
    $invoice = Invoice::create([
        'customer_id' => $request->customer_id,
        'invoice_date' => $request->invoice_date,
        'status' => 'unpaid'
    ]);

    foreach ($request->items as $item) {
        InvoiceItem::create([
            'invoice_id' => $invoice->id,
            'description' => $item['description'],
            'quantity' => $item['quantity'],
            'price' => $item['price']
        ]);
    }

    return redirect()->route('invoices.index')->with('success', 'Invoice Created!');
}

✅ Easy to follow
✅ Keeps things modular
✅ Totally beginner-friendly

📄 Step 5: Generate PDF Invoices

Install barryvdh/laravel-dompdf — a fantastic PDF package.

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Then in your controller:

use PDF;

public function download($id) {
    $invoice = Invoice::with('items', 'customer')->findOrFail($id);
    $pdf = PDF::loadView('invoices.pdf', compact('invoice'));
    return $pdf->download('invoice-'.$invoice->id.'.pdf');
}

🎉 Now your users can download pro-looking invoices with one click.

📧 Step 6: Email the Invoice to Your Customer

Laravel makes email a breeze.

Mail::to($invoice->customer->email)->send(new InvoiceMail($invoice));

Make sure to create a Mailable:

php artisan make:mail InvoiceMail --markdown=emails.invoice

Then add the logic in your InvoiceMail class to attach the PDF.

💬 Bonus: Status Updates and Payment Tracking

You can use a simple dropdown or toggle in your UI to mark invoices as:

• ✅ Paid
• 🕐 Pending
• ❌ Overdue

In the invoices table, just add a status column and use Laravel’s forms to update it.

🔐 Pro Tip: Secure Your Routes

Don’t forget to wrap your invoice routes in auth middleware:

Route::middleware(['auth'])->group(function () {
    Route::resource('invoices', InvoiceController::class);
});

✅ Keeps data secure
✅ Prevents unauthorized access

✅ Wrapping Up: You Did It!

Let’s recap what you’ve just accomplished:

• 🎯 Installed Laravel 12
• 👤 Built customer and invoice models
• 🧾 Created dynamic invoices with line items
• 📄 Generated PDFs
• 📧 Sent invoices via email

That’s a full billing system right there. And it’s just the beginning.

Happy Coding! ❤️
You’re not just learning Laravel — you’re building real-world solutions.