How to write a carpenter invoice

What goes on a carpenter invoice

Six things, in the order they belong on the page. The invoice generator opens a carpenter / cabinetmaker document with the lines already in place, so most of this is checking rather than typing.

1. Invoice in the unit you quoted. Per door, per linear foot, per day or per job. Switching units between quote and invoice is the fastest way to get a bill questioned.
2. Show the count. Four doors reads as four doors. A single figure invites the customer to test it against a rate they half remember.
3. Price lumber and materials separately. Timber prices move constantly. Priced apart, a rise is a rate edit rather than a renegotiation of your labor.
4. Allow for waste and say so. Cutting loss on trim and boards is real. A stated allowance is honest; a padded quantity is discovered.
5. Separate supply from fit. Supplying a kitchen and fitting it are different commitments with different risk.
6. Note the finish position. Whether painting, staining or sealing is included, because customers assume it is.

The lines a carpenter invoice usually carries

These are the lines the generator opens with when you pick Carpenter / cabinetmaker. The figures are a starting point to type over rather than a going rate: this site runs no pricing survey, and the number on your invoice should be the one you charge.

Add, rename, reorder or delete any line, and set tax per line where it applies. Priced as they open, that comes to $2,517 before tax.

A worked carpenter invoice, filled in

This is the same job as the table above, written out the way it would leave your phone. Every figure on it is a starting point rather than a going rate, and the tax line is shown at ten per cent purely so the arithmetic is visible: set your own rate, or none, per line.

Subtotal $2,517, tax $251.70, total $2,768.70. The parts worth copying are the structure rather than the numbers: the job reference next to the client, every line separately priced with its count showing, the tax on its own line, and terms that name a number of days instead of saying on receipt.

Per unit or per day, and which one protects you

A day rate bills the time you actually spend and protects you when a job turns out harder than it looked. A per unit price is easier to sell and better when you are fast, and it punishes you when the walls are not square.

Old properties are the deciding factor. Nothing is plumb, nothing is standard, and a per-door price agreed for a new build will lose money in a Victorian terrace. Quote day rate where the substrate is unknown, per unit where it is not.

Whichever you choose, the invoice repeats the quote. A customer who agreed a per-door price and receives a day rate cannot reconcile it, and reconciling it is what they will spend the next week asking you to do.

Timber, waste and the price that moved since you quoted

Timber pricing is volatile in a way that most trades do not have to manage, and a quote given six weeks before a job can be materially wrong by the time you buy.

Two protections, both on paper. Price materials as a separate line so a movement is visibly a materials issue rather than an inflated labor charge. And put a validity period on the quote so the price has a stated shelf life.

On waste, state the allowance rather than hiding it in the quantity. A customer reading ten per cent cutting allowance understands it. A customer who counts the boards and finds more than the room needed does not.

Supply and fit, and the kitchen the customer bought elsewhere

Supply and fit is one job with one point of responsibility. Fitting something the customer bought is a different job with the responsibility split, and the invoice should show that.

Where you supply, the materials line is yours and so is the warranty on them. Where the customer supplies, say on the invoice that goods were fitted as provided and that damage or shortage in customer-supplied items is not your liability.

That single sentence is what stops a missing bracket or a damaged door becoming your problem at your cost, on a job where you never had control of the purchase.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how carpenters price the work

Carpentry prices in more units than any other trade, and the unit is usually decided by what the customer is buying rather than by what you prefer. A door is a unit. A staircase is a job. A week of trim-out for a builder is a day rate. All three are correct.

Repeat the unit you quoted on the invoice, with the count showing. Nearly every carpentry billing dispute is a customer who was quoted per door and invoiced per day, or the reverse, and it costs more in goodwill than the difference was ever worth.

Working out what to charge

This guide is about what goes on the document, not what the number should be, and nobody should hand you a rate for your own market. What the site can do is the arithmetic: the freelance rate calculator works back from what you need to earn, the service price calculator prices a service against your costs, and the profit margin calculator checks what is left once the job is done.

Writing it on your phone, in five steps

Most carpenters write the invoice standing next to the work rather than at a desk a week later, and the week later version is the one that gets details wrong. The generator is built for the first case.

1. Open it with your trade already chosen. The carpenter / cabinetmaker invoice loads with custom cabinetry build and the rest of the lines already on the page.
2. Put the client and the job reference in first. It is the part you will not remember accurately in three days, and on agent, landlord or contractor work it is the reason the invoice gets paid at all.
3. Edit the lines rather than starting from empty. Change the quantities and the rates, delete what you did not do, add what you did. Keeping the descriptions means the wording stays consistent from one job to the next.
4. Set the terms to 14 days and add a payment link. A due date that is an actual date gets chased. A link and a QR code means it can be settled before you have packed up.
5. Send it before you leave. The clock on your terms starts when the invoice arrives, not when the work finished, so every day it sits unsent is a day added to getting paid.

Getting paid once it is sent

Put a due date and your terms on the document, because an invoice without them is hard to chase. Add a payment link and a QR so settling up is a tap rather than a transfer somebody has to set up. When part of it lands, the receipt maker records it as a part payment and prints the balance still due. If the due date passes, the late fee calculator works out what your own terms allow and writes the chasing letter to go with it.

Five dates decide whether a carpenter gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost carpenters money

• Changing units between quote and invoice. The customer cannot reconcile it, so they query it.
• Timber inside the labor figure. A price rise looks like you increased your rate.
• Waste hidden in quantities. Stated it is normal, discovered it looks like padding.
• No note on customer-supplied goods. Their damaged door becomes your problem at your cost.
• Finish assumed. Customers assume painting is included unless the invoice says otherwise.

Carpenter / cabinetmaker invoice questions

Free carpenter invoice template

The free carpenter invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 200 designs, and exports a print-ready PDF with no signup and nothing saved to a server. If you would rather edit a file offline, there are 72 Word templates, 72 Excel templates with the totals already calculating, and 72 fillable PDFs.

Invoicing guides for related trades

The same billing questions come up next door. These four guides cover the trades closest to carpenters, and each one sits alongside its own free template.

Every trade has one: see all 46 invoicing guides, or go straight to the 46 free invoice templates they describe.

Everything on this site, set up for carpenters

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to carpenters rather than in general. The five marked links open with carpenter / cabinetmaker already selected.

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