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

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Carpenter / cabinetmaker. The figures are placeholders to type over, not a going rate.

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.

How to write a carpentry invoice, step by step

1. Pull out the quote before you open anything. Whatever unit you priced in is the unit the invoice uses. Open the carpenter / cabinetmaker invoice and check that the door count, the footage of trim and the days match what the customer signed, not what you remember.
2. Measure what you actually fitted. Run the tape along the baseboard you installed and count the doors you hung. If the job came to 64 linear feet against 60 quoted, the invoice shows 64 and a one-line note on why.
3. Enter lumber from the yard receipts, not the estimate. Price the sheet goods and hardwood at what they cost you this week plus your margin, and state the waste allowance on the line. If the price moved since the quote, say so on the document.
4. Mark who supplied what. A kitchen bought elsewhere and fitted by you is a labor-only line with the words customer-supplied units. That sentence decides who pays when a carcass arrives damaged.
5. Write the finish position, then send. Say whether the work is left sanded and ready for paint, primed, or finished. Set 14 days, add a payment link, and send it the day the last door closes cleanly.

Carpentry invoice example, filled in

A kitchen cabinetry job with three doors rehung and the hall trim replaced, written in the units it was quoted in. The trim shows its footage and the doors show their count, so the customer can check both with a tape and their own eyes.

Subtotal $2,517, tax $251.70, total $2,768.70. The trim line is what makes this invoice hard to argue with: 60 feet at $4.20 is a figure the customer can measure. The day rate covers bench and site time only, because the build and the doors are already priced by the unit.

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 percent 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

Carpentry prices move with the lumber yard and with how square the house is, so a rate from a web page is no help. The cost estimator builds a job price from your own lumber and hours, and the markup calculator sets the margin on the materials you pass on.

Getting paid once it is sent

On made-to-measure work, take a deposit that covers the lumber before you cut anything, because a customer who cancels after you have built the carcasses leaves you holding pieces nobody else can use. If the due date passes, the late fee calculator works out what your terms allow and the due date calculator sets the new date.

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 10 designs made for the trade, and exports a print-ready PDF with nothing saved to a server. Opening a design needs a free account.

Invoicing guides for related trades

Everything on this site, set up for carpenters

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