How to write a roofer invoice

What goes on a roofer invoice

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

1. Bill access separately. Scaffolding, towers and edge protection are a cost per week, not part of your labor rate.
2. Separate the strip and disposal. Taking a roof off and skipping it is a job in itself and it should be priced as one.
3. Price the covering by area with the rate showing. Square meters at a rate is checkable. A single figure for a roof is not.
4. Name the material and the specification. Tile, slate or membrane, and which. The guarantee depends on it and so does any future repair.
5. Put the guarantee on the invoice. Roofing is bought on the guarantee. If it is not written down, it does not exist.
6. State how weather delays are handled. Standing time on a scaffold you are paying for is a cost that has to fall somewhere.

The lines a roofer invoice usually carries

These are the lines the generator opens with when you pick Roofer. 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 $1,210 before tax.

A worked roofer 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 $1,210, tax $121, total $1,331. 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.

Access, scaffolding and the cost the customer cannot see

A customer comparing two roofing quotes is usually comparing one that includes scaffolding with one that does not, and they cannot tell which is which from the totals.

Put access on the invoice as its own line, with the rental period stated. If it is your scaffold, price it per week. If it is rented in, say so, because a longer job then visibly costs more in access and the customer understands why.

This is also the line that protects you when a job overruns for reasons outside your control. Extra weeks of scaffold are a stated unit cost rather than a renegotiation.

Repair against replacement, and being honest about which one this is

Roofing is the trade most exposed to a customer feeling they were talked into more work than they needed, and the invoice is where that impression forms.

On a repair, say what failed and what you did: the number of tiles, the length of flashing, the section of ridge. On a replacement, break the roof into strip, structure, membrane, battens, covering and detail, so the customer can see the difference between the two jobs rather than only the difference in price.

Where you found something worse once the covering was off, that is a variation with its own line and, ideally, a photograph. Nothing on a roofing invoice is verifiable by the person paying for it unless you make it so.

Insurance work and the invoice the insurer will actually accept

Storm damage work is paid by an insurer, and an insurer pays against a document written for them rather than for the homeowner.

That means the claim reference on the invoice, the property address, the date of damage where you know it, a description that separates storm damage from pre-existing wear, and the scope broken into items rather than a single repair figure.

Keep the wording factual. An insurer reading condition described as poor will look for a reason not to pay, while an insurer reading three ridge tiles displaced and bedding failed on the south elevation has something to settle against.

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

Roofing is priced by area for the covering and by the item for everything else, and the everything else is where the money is. Access, strip, disposal and detail work are all real costs a customer cannot see from the street, and none of them belong inside a rate per square foot.

Access is the line that decides whether your quote looks competitive or expensive, so state it separately with the rental period. A customer comparing two roofing prices is usually comparing one with scaffolding in it against one without, and only your invoice tells them which is which.

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 roofers 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 roofer invoice loads with roof inspection and report 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 roofer gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost roofers money

• Scaffolding inside the total. Your quote looks expensive against one that leaves access out.
• Strip and disposal unbilled. A skip and a day of labor absorbed on every reroof.
• Material specification missing. No guarantee trail and no way to match on a future repair.
• Guarantee mentioned but not written. The one thing the customer bought does not appear on the document.
• Insurance invoice written for the homeowner. No claim reference, so it sits in a queue.

Roofer invoice questions

Free roofer invoice template

The free roofer 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 roofers, 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 roofers

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

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