Is it possible to generate an invoice, download the PDF, and not send it to the customer through QuickBooks email client?

Allow me to step in and provide additional information about creating and sending invoices in QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE), jeremybatesfilm.

If you want to manually print it, you'll want to open each invoice or export it to PDF to have a hard copy of the form.

To do, the steps outlined below will guide you through:

1. Select Invoices from the left navigation bar.
2. Choose an invoice, click the arrow down under Action, and click Export as PDF and save it to your local drive.

Read and learn more about setting up your invoice preferences through this help article: Create invoices in QuickBooks Self-Employed
 

Let me know if you have other questions managing your invoices. I'm always around ready to help you.

The issue is, I have to generate the invoice which requires me to send the invoice to the client before I’m able to download it as a PDF. 

I want to be able to generate a PDF invoice and download it without having to send it through Quickbooks email software. 

Easy breezy, @jeremybatesfilm. I can definitely help you with that.

Yes, we have the option to download a PDF for your invoice without having to send it to your client. I'll show you how.
 

1. Go to the Invoices menu.
2. Select the Create invoice tab.
3. Choose a customer and enter all the needed information.
4. Click the Email dropdown and select Print.
5. On the preview page, tap the Download icon.  
6. Once downloaded, you can now Save it and close.
   
   

For additional insights, please check this article: Create invoices in QBSE.

I've also added this article in case you want to learn some details on how sales tax works: Manually track sales tax in QuickBooks Self-Employed.
 

I'll be around if you have any other concerns or clarifications about the process. Have a good one!

Thank you for the reply.

The only drop down menu I have is "Send Invoice" and the options it gives me are "preview" (which just takes me to the email preview page) and "save as draft"

It looks like on my end the only work around I've found is to create the invoice, save it as a draft, then download the draft.

The draft method seems to work well so far. Let's see what the client thinks!