How to write a jewelry invoice

Three kinds of job, three kinds of paper

A jeweler bills three different things from one counter. Retail is the simple one: the piece is in your case, the customer pays and the invoice works as a receipt with a careful description. Repairs carry the risk, because the item belongs to someone else, may be worth far more than the repair and sits in your safe until it is collected. Custom work is slow, expensive and unreturnable, so the deposit and the signed approval are the whole game.

One form for all three serves none of them. A repair ticket opened at the counter, a deposit invoice and a balance invoice for custom orders, and a plain sales invoice for the case is a lighter system than it sounds, and each one answers the question its customer is most likely to ask.

Describe the piece in words the FTC would accept

The description on a jewelry invoice is also a product claim, and the Federal Trade Commission's Jewelry Guides set out what those claims should say. Write the line so it would survive being read by an insurer, a later buyer or a regulator.

Summarized from 16 CFR Part 23 as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute. The FTC guides cover how you describe products in sales and advertising.

In practice: "14K yellow gold" and never "gold" alone when it is an alloy; "gold plated" only when it meets the plating rules; "laboratory-grown diamond" on every lab stone, including small side stones; and a treatment note on any stone where the guide's conditions apply. Then add what an appraiser would want: weight, dimensions, carat weight, and any grading report number.

Custom ring invoice, filled in

The balance invoice for a custom engagement ring. The customer paid a deposit when the design was approved and supplied the center stone, so the invoice charges setting labor and nothing for that diamond. Rates are samples.

Five lines come to $1,180, tax at a sample 7% is $82.60, the total is $1,262.60, and the $500 deposit comes off to leave $762.60 due at pickup. The side stones say laboratory-grown on the line, not in a footnote.

Deposits on custom work that hold up

Two details make a custom deposit hold. Say what makes it non-refundable: "non-refundable" on its own reads as a penalty, while "non-refundable once casting is scheduled" reads as a fact about your costs. And get a signature on the approved rendering, because the argument at pickup is rarely about price. It is about whether the ring is the one that was approved. Put the rendering reference on both the deposit invoice and the balance invoice.

If custom, engraved or resized pieces are final sale in your shop, print that on the order form and again on the invoice. Return rights depend on the state and on how the piece was sold, so have a lawyer read that wording once.

Repair tickets: open at intake, close at pickup

A repair invoice closes a ticket that was opened when the customer handed the piece over. At intake, write what you were given in neutral words ("white metal, stamped PLAT" rather than "platinum ring"), note its condition, photograph it and have the customer sign. Then list each operation and each part as its own line. When the bench finds more work, call, and record the date and who approved it before you start.

Four retipped prongs at $22, a $35 solder and a $65 replacement stone total $188. The stone is a part, shown separately from labor, and its treatment is stated on the line. No tax line is shown because repair tax depends on the state, below.

Sales tax on repairs depends on where the counter is

Three states with three answers. Check your own before you set a tax line.

California's rule about separating parts from labor is good practice anywhere. Even in a state that taxes both, a ticket that shows the stone apart from the setting labor is easier to read and easier to defend.

The piece nobody collects

Every jeweler has a drawer of repairs that were never picked up. Several states have specific rules, and they share a pattern. Arkansas Code 18-28-102 treats jewelry left for repair as abandoned if it is not claimed within one year, unless a later date is agreed in writing, and requires notice by certified mail at least 15 days before any sale; proceeds first cover a handling charge capped at $50 and unpaid repair fees, and any remainder goes to the Auditor of State as unclaimed property. Florida Statutes 715.065, as published in the 2026 Florida Statutes, gives a jewelry store one year, requires written notice when the item is received that it may be disposed of if not reclaimed, requires certified mail notice 15 days before disposal, and requires any amount above the store's costs to be paid to the customer within 15 days of the sale. The Arkansas text was read on FindLaw (current as of March 2024); Justia's 2015 copy gives the same one-year, certified-mail and Auditor of State terms. The official code is published through LexisNexis and could not be read for this guide, so confirm the current text, or ask the Arkansas Auditor of State, before you rely on it. Where your state has a rule like these, the notice belongs on the ticket the customer signs, and your record of every call and letter belongs in the file.

Cash over $10,000

Big sales bring one more document. The IRS says federal law requires reporting cash transactions of more than $10,000 on Form 8300, filed within 15 days after the cash is received, and names jewelry dealers among the businesses this applies to. Keep the invoice, the payment record and the form together, and record the payment method on the invoice so the paper trail is complete.

Appraisals are a separate service. Give them their own invoice, with the items listed and the purpose of the appraisal stated, rather than folding the fee into a repair or a sale.

Jewelry invoice questions

Free jewelry invoice and repair ticket template

There is no dedicated jewelry preset in the generator yet, so open Other / general business and type your own lines. For a printed repair counter, download the blank invoice as Word, Excel or PDF and add your intake and unclaimed-item wording to the notes. A receipt covers a case sale paid in full.

Other repair counters

Tools for the counter and the bench

For retail, repair and custom orders.