I Built a Tiny Tool to Track Unpaid Invoices (Because I Kept Forgetting)

Source: Dev.to

Freelancing is great… until you don’t know who hasn’t paid you

A few months ago I caught myself scrolling through old emails trying to answer a simple question:

“Did this client already pay me… or am I just assuming they did?”

Some clients pay on time, some pay late, some need reminders, and sometimes I just forget to follow up. Not because I’m careless, but because when you’re juggling multiple projects, invoices get buried fast.

The Real Problem Isn’t Late Payments

Late payments are annoying, but the bigger issue is the mental load of keeping track of:

• Who owes you money
• When it was due
• Whether you already followed up
• If you should send another reminder

I tried managing it with:

• A Google Sheet
• Calendar reminders
• Notion tables
• Full accounting tools

Spreadsheets get messy, calendar reminders get ignored, and full accounting tools felt like overkill. I didn’t need bookkeeping software—I just needed a clean list of unpaid invoices.

So I Built Something Simple

Instead of looking for the perfect tool, I built a small one for myself. The idea was intentionally minimal:

• Add an invoice
• See which ones are unpaid
• Send a polite reminder
• Mark it as paid

No dashboards, no complicated setup, no accounting features—just clarity.

PaidYet?
https://paidyet.netlify.app/

It’s basic on purpose.

I Didn’t Over‑Engineer It

I kept the tech stack simple:

• Plain HTML
• CSS
• Vanilla JavaScript
• localStorage for saving data
• Hosted on Netlify

No backend, no authentication. I wanted to validate the idea before building something complex. It’s easy to overbuild; it’s harder to ship.

What I Learned From This

• Simplicity is powerful – Most freelancer tools try to do everything. Sometimes you just need one thing done well.
• The problem is real – If you freelance long enough, you will forget to follow up at least once.
• Building is the easy part – Getting feedback and distribution is the real challenge.

I’m Curious

If you freelance, how do you track unpaid invoices?

• Spreadsheets?
• Accounting software?
• Reminders?
• Something custom?

I’m genuinely interested in how others handle this. If you check out PaidYet?, I’d love honest feedback—even if it’s “this is unnecessary” or “you’re missing X”.

Appreciate you reading this.