Free Invoice Template

What an invoice has to contain

An invoice is a demand for payment and it needs enough on it to be acted on without a phone call.

• The word invoice, so it is not mistaken for a quote or a statement.
• A unique invoice number, in a sequence with no gaps.
• The date it was issued, and the date the goods or services were supplied if that differs.
• Your business name, address and contact details, and your company registration number if you have one.
• The customer's name and address, billed to the legal entity rather than the person you deal with.
• A line for each item, with a description, quantity, unit price and line total.
• The total due, the currency, the payment terms and the date payment is due.
• How to pay: bank name, account number, sort code or routing number, IBAN where it applies.

If you are registered for VAT or GST, add your registration number, the rate applied to each line, and the tax total shown separately from the net.

Filling one in by hand

Print it, and write in ink that photocopies. A pencilled invoice is a document anyone can amend after the fact.

Number it before you write anything else. The commonest bookkeeping mess is two invoices sharing a number because one was started and abandoned.

Write the description as though the reader was not in the room when the work was agreed. Site address, dates, order number: whatever their accounts department needs to match it to something.

Keep the copy. In most countries you are required to keep invoice records for several years, and the copy is the thing an auditor asks for.

Payment terms that get you paid

Net 30 means the full amount is due thirty days from the invoice date. Due on receipt means immediately, and works for small jobs and new customers.

Put the actual due date on the invoice as a date, not just the terms. It removes the argument about which day the clock started.

State the due date and any agreed late-payment terms clearly. For a qualifying UK business-to-business debt, statutory interest and a fixed recovery sum may be available; check your contract and current GOV.UK guidance before claiming them.

Send it the day the work finishes. Invoices are paid in the order they arrive, not the order the work was done.

When to use something else

Before the work, send a quotation or an estimate. A quote is a fixed price you are offering to be held to; an estimate is your best guess and can move.

After payment, send a receipt. It proves money changed hands, which an invoice does not.

To ask for payment before you supply, use a proforma invoice. It looks like an invoice and is not one: it does not go into your sales ledger and does not carry a tax point.

To correct an invoice that has already been issued, raise a credit note. Do not edit or delete the original.