How to write a small business owner invoice

What goes on a small business owner invoice

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

1. Put both parties on it in full. Your business and the customer, with addresses. It is the first thing an accounts department checks.
2. Number every invoice sequentially. Never reuse a number, never skip deliberately. It is the backbone of your records.
3. Show the invoice date and the due date. An actual date, not a period. A due date is what makes an invoice overdue.
4. Itemize what was supplied. Quantity, description, unit price, line total. One figure invites one question.
5. Show tax separately if you charge it. With your registration number where your rules require one.
6. State how to pay and what happens if it is late. Account details, reference to quote, and your late payment position.

The lines a small business owner invoice usually carries

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Other / general business. 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 $1,550 before tax.

How to write a small business invoice, step by step

1. Check who you are billing. Open the other / general business invoice and enter the client's legal business name and billing address, not the person you dealt with. An invoice to the wrong entity is not one they can pay.
2. Use the next invoice number. Invoice numbers run in sequence and are never reused, even for a cancelled invoice. It is the reference both sides use for years.
3. Date it and set a real due date. Invoice date today, due date a set number of days later. A date on the page gets paid; on receipt does not.
4. Itemize the work. Replace the placeholder service line with what you actually did, and keep materials and hours on separate lines with their counts.
5. Add tax and payment details, then send. Show tax on its own line if you charge it, and give your bank details or a payment link. Send it the day the work is done.

Small business invoice example, filled in

A small refit for a business client, billed with its purchase order, a service line, materials and labor by the hour. It is deliberately ordinary, because this is the shape almost every small business invoice takes.

Subtotal $1,550, tax $155, total $1,705. Every part of this invoice has a reason: the PO lets the client's accounts team match it, the separate materials line shows what was bought in, and five hours at $60 shows the time. Replace the service line with your own words.

The details every invoice needs, and why each one is there

An invoice is a commercial document, and in most places a business is required to keep and issue them with certain information on them. The list is short and each item exists for a reason.

Your business name, address and contact details identify who is owed. The customer name and address identify who owes it, and on business to business work it needs to be the legal entity rather than the person you dealt with. A unique sequential number lets both sides reference it. The invoice date fixes when it was issued and, in many tax systems, which period it falls into.

Then the substance: a description of the goods or services, the amount due, any tax shown separately with your registration number where one applies, and the payment terms. Anything beyond that is helpful rather than required, and anything missing from it is a reason for someone to delay paying you.

Itemizing, and the difference detail makes

The single biggest improvement most small business invoices need is more lines. Detail is the argument for the total.

Break the work into what the customer would recognize: quantity, description, unit price and line total. Where you charge by time, show the hours and the rate. Where you supply goods, show the quantity and the unit price. Where a discount applies, show the full price and the discount as separate lines so the customer sees what they were given.

The test is simple. If a customer had to explain your invoice to somebody else who was not there, could they? An invoice that passes that test is one that gets paid without a phone call.

Terms, deposits and getting paid faster

Most late payment is not refusal, it is drift, and drift is caused by invoices that do not create a deadline.

Set terms in a number of days and put the actual due date on the document. Ask for a deposit on anything with a material outlay or a new customer. Send the invoice the day the work finishes rather than at the end of the month, because the clock only starts when it arrives.

Make paying easy: bank details on the invoice, a payment link or a QR code where you can, and the invoice number as the payment reference. Then chase on a schedule rather than on feeling, with a polite reminder at the due date and a firmer one a week later. Almost all of getting paid on time is process rather than persuasion.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how small businesses price the work

Every business prices by time, by output or by outcome, and most use more than one. The model matters less than being consistent about it: quoting in one unit and invoicing in another is a common cause of a query, across every trade on this site.

Whichever you choose, put the unit on the quote and repeat it on the invoice with the count showing. A customer who can add up your invoice does not query it, and a customer who has to accept a single figure eventually will.

Working out what to charge

What you charge depends on your trade and your costs, so no single rate applies. The service price calculator builds a price from your own costs, the invoice calculator checks totals and tax, and the profit margin calculator shows what the job left.

Getting paid once it is sent

Ask new customers for a deposit on anything with an outlay, invoice the day the work is done, and chase on the day after the due date rather than the week after. 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 small business owner gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost small businesses money

• No due date. Nothing is ever overdue, so nothing is ever chased.
• Invoicing the person rather than the company. Accounts cannot process it against a supplier record.
• One line for the whole job. No detail means no argument for the total.
• Reusing or skipping invoice numbers. Your own records stop reconciling and so does anyone auditing them.
• Sending the invoice at month end. Weeks of terms given away for nothing.

Other / general business invoice questions

Free small business owner invoice template

The free small business owner 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 small businesses

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to small businesses rather than in general. The five marked links open with other / general business already selected.