1. Introduction

CloudInvoice Pro is a modern, lightweight Invoice & Billing System built with Laravel 11. It helps manage clients, invoices, payments, PDF downloads, and company settings with a clean Bootstrap UI and Light/Dark themes.

2. Key Features

• Web installer (requirements → database → admin → finish)
• Client management (CRUD)
• Invoice creation with items, taxes, discounts
• Server-side total calculation (UI shows estimated totals)
• Invoice PDF download
• Payment tracking
• Company settings (currency, timezone, invoice prefix/padding, footer text, logo)
• Dashboard analytics (stats + charts)
• Light & Dark theme toggle (light default)
• Bootstrap 5 via CDN (no Vite/Node required)

3. Server Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• MySQL 5.7+ / MariaDB 10.4+
• Apache / Nginx
• Composer enabled
• Writable: storage/ and bootstrap/cache/

4. Installation

Step 1: Upload files to your hosting root or subdirectory.

public_html/cloudinvoice/

Step 2: Create database and update .env.

APP_NAME=CloudInvoice Pro
APP_ENV=production
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_DATABASE=your_db
DB_USERNAME=your_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_pass

Step 3: Generate app key.

php artisan key:generate

Step 4: Run installer in browser.

https://yourdomain.com/install

5. Login

Login URL:

/login

Use the admin credentials created during installation.

6. Dashboard

• KPI cards (clients, invoices, billed, due)
• Charts (invoice status distribution, revenue trend, top clients)
• Recent invoices table

7. Client Management

• Add / Edit / Delete clients
• Active/Inactive status
• Inactive clients can be excluded from invoice selection (optional behavior)

8. Invoice Management

9. Payments

• Add payments to invoices
• Partial or full payments supported
• Dashboard revenue trend uses payment records

If your payments table uses created_at instead of payment_date, dashboard queries should use created_at.

10. Company Settings

• Company profile (name, email, phone, address, tax/VAT)
• Invoice settings (currency, timezone, prefix, padding, default tax)
• Invoice footer text
• Company logo upload (recommended PNG)

11. Theme (Light / Dark)

• Light theme is default
• Toggle saves preference in localStorage
• Bootstrap dark overrides included in public/assets/css/app.css

12. File Structure

app/
  Http/Controllers/
  Models/
resources/views/
  layouts/
  dashboard/
  clients/
  invoices/
  settings/
public/assets/
  css/app.css
  images/
database/migrations/

13. Customization

• Brand colors: edit public/assets/css/app.css
• Logo: upload in Company Settings (and/or replace public/assets/images/logo.png)
• Invoice PDF layout: update resources/views/invoices/pdf.blade.php

14. Security Notes

• Installer locked after installation
• CSRF enabled
• Form validation on all modules
• Server-side invoice calculations

15. Support & Troubleshooting

Log file

storage/logs/laravel.log

Clear cache

php artisan optimize:clear

16. Credits

• Laravel Framework
• Bootstrap 5
• Chart.js
• PDF Library (your implementation: DomPDF/TCPDF/etc.)

17. Changelog