How to write a locksmith invoice

What goes on a locksmith invoice

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

1. Give the call-out its own line. It covers travel and attendance, and it is different money from the lock.
2. State the out-of-hours rate before you use it. A three in the morning price agreed at three in the morning is a bad conversation.
3. Separate entry from the hardware. Opening a door and supplying a new cylinder are two charges, and often the customer only needed one.
4. Name the lock standard you fitted. ANSI grade, insurance-rated or otherwise. Insurers and landlords need this on paper.
5. Record how many keys were handed over. Key counts become disputes on rental and commercial property.
6. Note whether entry was non-destructive. If you drilled, say why. If you did not, say so, because it is what the customer paid extra for.

The lines a locksmith invoice usually carries

These are the lines the generator opens with when you pick Locksmith. 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 $355 before tax.

A worked locksmith 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 $355, tax $35.50, total $390.50. 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.

Emergency pricing, and stating it before the emergency

The reputational risk in locksmithing sits almost entirely in emergency callouts, where the customer has no time to compare, no way to check and no ability to refuse.

The defense is a rate card that exists in advance. Publish the day rate, the evening rate and the night and weekend rate, quote from it on the phone, and then invoice the exact figures you quoted. The invoice matching the phone call is the whole of the trust in this trade.

Where the job turned out to be different from the description on the phone, say so on the invoice in a line of plain words. A customer who understands why the price moved does not leave a review about it.

Entry, hardware and the upgrade the customer did not ask for

A lockout and a lock replacement are separate jobs that frequently happen in the same visit, and the invoice should let a customer see they were charged for both rather than one inflated service.

Line one is attendance and entry, with a note on whether entry was non-destructive. Line two is the replacement cylinder or lock case with the product named and its standard stated. If you upgraded the hardware, the price difference belongs on its own line so it reads as a choice rather than a substitution.

This is also where you protect against the most common complaint in the trade, which is a customer feeling that a lock was destroyed unnecessarily. If drilling was the only route, write the reason on the invoice at the time, not later from memory.

Landlords, agents and insurance-rated work

A large part of steady locksmith income is not emergencies at all: it is landlords changing locks between tenancies, agents securing empty property and insurers requiring specific hardware.

Those invoices need the property address as the reference, the number of keys supplied and to whom, the lock standard fitted, and a works order number where the agent gave one. Insurance-rated work in particular is worthless to the customer if the invoice does not name the standard, because the invoice is what they send to the insurer.

Terms should be in days rather than on completion, and the same descriptions should be reused between properties so an agent can process a batch without reading each one.

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

Locksmithing is priced on a rate card rather than on a quote, because the work is bought on the phone by somebody standing outside their own house. The card is your entire defense against the reputation problem this trade has, and it needs to exist before the call.

Quote from the card on the phone and invoice the exact figures you quoted. In a trade where the customer cannot compare, cannot check and cannot refuse, an invoice that matches the phone call is the whole of the trust.

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 locksmiths 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 locksmith invoice loads with emergency call-out 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 7 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 locksmith gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost locksmiths money

• One figure for the whole visit. The customer cannot tell the entry from the lock.
• Out-of-hours rate never published. It gets negotiated at the worst possible time.
• Lock standard unnamed. The customer cannot satisfy their insurer with your invoice.
• Key count not recorded. Every tenancy change becomes a dispute.
• Drilling not explained. It reads as damage rather than as the only option.

Locksmith invoice questions

Free locksmith invoice template

The free locksmith 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 locksmiths, 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 locksmiths

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

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