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

These are the lines the generator opens with when you pick Other / general business. 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 $1,550 before tax.

A worked small business owner 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 $1,550, tax $155, total $1,705. 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.

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 not bureaucracy, it 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 the single most 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

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 small businesses 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 other / general business invoice loads with services rendered 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 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 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 small businesses, 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 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.

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