I also created an invoice form early on and modified it a bit for receipts. (I always keep blanks of those on hand for GNW.) It gets the job done, costs me nothing, and they're easy to generate - but not the best for tracking. At this stage of my business, though, I don't really care. 
In retrospect, I might have done something different, knowing what I do now (like invest in Quick Books, which can handle both...), but since I'm a sole proprietor, this has worked well enough for me. My invoice number system is a combination of a code for type of client, a sequential number by client name (sometimes location), and another sequential number for orders from each client.
When I created that system, I'd had some experience setting up databases and had ambitions of creating a searchable one. I never managed to carve out the time to do that, though. I did invest in Quicken for an accounting system, but I'd have been much better off with Quick Books.)
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