How to write a driving instructor invoice

What goes on a driving instructor invoice

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

1. Show hours bought, taken and remaining. The running balance is the entire point of the document.
2. Date each lesson with its duration. Two hour lessons and one hour lessons on the same block need dates.
3. Show the block discount as its own line. A discount the pupil can see is a reason to buy the next block.
4. Bill test day separately. The vehicle for the test, and the time around it, is not a normal lesson.
5. State the cancellation notice period. A late cancellation is an hour that cannot be resold.
6. Put an expiry on blocks. It protects your rate and it prompts pupils to keep booking.

The lines a driving instructor invoice usually carries

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Driving instructor. 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 $980 before tax.

How to write a driving instructor invoice, step by step

1. Open the diary and list the lessons. Open the driving instructor invoice and enter each lesson with its date and length, so the learner and whoever is paying can see which lessons this covers.
2. Show the block and the balance. If the learner bought a block of 10, add it as one line and write hours taken and hours left underneath. The invoice becomes the running balance.
3. Price test day on its own. Use of the car, the warm-up lesson and the drive to the test center are one package line, priced as agreed when the test was booked.
4. Add any late cancellation. A lesson cancelled inside your notice period goes on as a dated line at the rate your terms state. Not charging it once makes it harder the second time.
5. Address it to the payer and send. If a parent pays, their name goes in Bill to and the learner's name in the reference. Set 7 days, add a payment link and send it after the lesson.

Driving instructor invoice example, filled in

A learner nearing test day: ten hourly lessons already taken, a block of ten bought for the run-up, and the test package booked. The payer and the learner are named separately, because they are often different people.

Subtotal $980, tax $98, total $1,078. The block balance in the notes is the line that matters here: a learner who can see 10 hours left on the block does not phone to ask. Test day is its own package, so nobody mistakes it for an ordinary lesson.

Block bookings, and the invoice as a running balance

Almost every instructor sells blocks, and almost every dispute is a disagreement about how many hours are left in one.

Make the invoice the record. Hours purchased, the date purchased, hours taken with their dates, and hours remaining. Issue an updated version when a new block is bought and there is nothing left to argue about.

Show the block discount explicitly rather than only charging a lower total. A pupil reading ten hours at your standard rate, less a block discount, understands what they saved and why buying the next block is worth doing.

Test day, intensive courses and the lessons that are not lessons

Test day is not a lesson. It is the use of your vehicle for the test, the time before it, and a slot you cannot fill with anybody else.

Charge it as its own line at a stated test day rate, and say what it includes: the pre-test lesson, the test itself and the vehicle. Pupils accept this readily when they hear it at the start of their course and resent it when it appears the week before their test.

Intensive courses need a different document again: the course length, the daily hours, the dates, the test booking if you arranged it, and the payment schedule. Intensives are large sums paid in advance and the invoice should read like a course booking rather than a lot of lessons.

Cancellations, no-shows and protecting an hourly diary

An instructor sells time in a diary and cannot recover an hour that was canceled at eight in the morning for a nine oclock lesson.

State the notice period and the charge for short notice cancellations at the start of the course, on the first invoice and on every block. It is standard practice and it is only ever contentious when it appears for the first time on the invoice that charges it.

When you do charge it, show it as a dated line naming the canceled lesson rather than adjusting the hours quietly. A pupil who can see exactly which lesson was charged and why usually accepts it. A pupil whose block balance mysteriously dropped by one does not.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how driving instructors price the work

Driving instruction is priced by the hour and sold in blocks, which makes the block the real product and the invoice a running balance. Every instructor eventually has the same argument about how many hours are left, and it is entirely preventable on paper.

Test day is not a lesson and should not be priced as one. It is the use of your car for the test, the lesson before it, and a slot you cannot fill with anybody else, and pupils accept that readily when they hear it at the start of their course.

Working out what to charge

Lesson prices depend on your area, your car and how many hours you can teach, so a web page cannot give you a rate. The service price calculator builds a lesson price from your car costs and teaching hours, and the break-even calculator shows how many lessons a week cover the car.

Getting paid once it is sent

Blocks are paid in advance by definition, so the invoice for a block goes out before the first lesson of it; hourly learners pay on the day through the payment link. 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 driving instructor gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost driving instructors money

• Blocks with no running balance. An argument waiting to happen.
• Lessons undated. Nobody can reconcile a block against a diary.
• Test day charged as a normal lesson. A slot you cannot fill, priced as if you could.
• No cancellation policy stated upfront. Charged for the first time on the invoice that charges it.
• Blocks that never expire. Hours redeemed years later at last year rate.

Driving instructor invoice questions

Free driving instructor invoice template

The free driving instructor invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 10 designs, 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 driving instructors

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to driving instructors rather than in general. The five marked links open with driving instructor already selected.