On the SitePoint PHP blog today Denis Rendler introduces you to FusionInvoice, a self-hosted invoicing and tracking software based on the Laravel framework. One note, it has since been released commercially, but he focuses on the previous, freely available version instead.

As a freelancer or a small business your time is better spent creating that next big project or meeting the client’s requirements than keeping track of invoices. FusionInvoice is an open-source, self-hosted invoicing web application built for freelancers and small businesses. Although there are quite a few free online invoicing applications, none of them give you the privacy or the flexibility which FusionInvoice provides. Client management, dashboard and reports, recurring invoicing and invoice history are just few of its features.

He starts by listing out some of the other software requirements you'll need to run FusionInvoice and how to verify their settings. He helps you create the database for the app and points you to the installer (web-based) to help get you set up. Each step is documented with screenshots and any other commands you might need along the way. Finally, he shows you how to create a virtual host on your Apache server to handle the redirection to the front controller and set a domain name.