How I Built an AI Invoice Generator with Groq, AWS DynamoDB, and Vercel v0

#webdev #aws #vercel #hackathon

I built InvoiceAI an AI powered invoice generator that lets you describe
what you want to invoice in plain English and get a fully formatted invoice
in seconds, complete with PDF download and a real payment link.

Here's how I built it for the #H0Hackathon.

The Problem

Freelancers and small businesses waste time manually creating invoices.
You know what you did, who you did it for, and how much it costs
you shouldn't have to fill out a form to capture that.

The Stack

-Vercel v0 — scaffolded the entire UI in one prompt

Next.js 16 — framework
Groq (Llama 3.3 70B) — AI natural language to invoice fields
AWS DynamoDB — stores every generated invoice
Paystack — generates real payment links
jsPDF — client-side PDF generation
Vercel — deployment

How It Works

User types: "50 hours of mobile app development at $80/hr for TechLagos Ltd, 7.5% VAT"
Groq parses the text and extracts structured invoice data
Live preview updates instantly
User downloads PDF — invoice is saved to DynamoDB automatically
One click generates a real Paystack payment link to send to the client

Building the UI with v0

I used Vercel v0 to scaffold the entire UI in one prompt. It generated
a production-ready Next.js component with a split-panel layout
form on the left, live invoice preview on the right.
I just had to wire up the AI and database logic.

Connecting AWS DynamoDB

Using the AWS SDK v3, I connected DynamoDB directly from Next.js server actions.
Every time a user downloads an invoice, it's saved to DynamoDB with the client
details, line items, tax rate, and timestamp. This gives the app a real
data foundation that scales from day one.

await dynamo.send(new PutCommand({
  TableName: 'invoices',
  Item: {
    invoiceId: data.invoiceNumber,
    clientName: data.clientName,
    clientEmail: data.clientEmail,
    items: data.items,
    createdAt: new Date().toISOString(),
  },
}))