How to write an accountant invoice

What goes on an accountant invoice

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

1. State the period the work covers. Which year, which quarter, which month. It is the first thing a client checks and the first thing missing on a queried invoice.
2. Put the filing reference on it. The return, the submission, the reference number. It is what connects your fee to a thing the client can verify.
3. Separate compliance from advisory. Year-end accounts and a tax return are compliance. Planning, restructuring and ad hoc advice are not, and pricing them together makes the compliance fee look inflated.
4. Show recurring work by unit. Monthly bookkeeping and payroll priced per run or per employee, with the count visible.
5. List filing fees and disbursements at cost. State filing fees, software licenses and third-party costs are not your fee.
6. Say what is not included. The scope you did not price is the scope the client believes they bought.

The lines an accountant invoice usually carries

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Accountant / bookkeeper. 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 $2,130 before tax.

How to write an accountant invoice, step by step

1. State the period. Open the accountant / bookkeeper invoice and write the tax year or the months covered. A client comparing this year's fee with last year's needs to see that the periods match.
2. Add the filing reference. The return or accounts reference, and the date it was filed. It is the proof the work was done.
3. Show recurring work by unit. Three months of bookkeeping and payroll for eight employees, each with the count. When the client hires a ninth, the invoice already shows the price.
4. Separate advice from compliance. An advisory call about a new vehicle is not part of the annual accounts. It goes on its own line, or it becomes free.
5. List what is excluded, then send. Filing fees at cost, and one sentence on what the fee does not cover. Set 14 days, or take it by debit if the engagement letter says so.

Accountant invoice example, filled in

Year-end accounts and the return, plus a quarter of bookkeeping and payroll for eight employees. The year end and the engagement letter date are at the top, because accountancy invoices are queried months later by clients comparing years.

Subtotal $2,130, tax $213, total $2,343. Payroll for eight employees at $15 each is the line that scales with the client, and showing the count means next year's fee explains itself. The scope note answers the question of what the fee includes before it is asked.

Fixed fee or hourly, and the year the work doubled

Most practices have moved to fixed fees because clients prefer them, and most have at least one client whose fixed fee stopped making sense two years ago.

Fixed pricing works when the scope is written down and the invoice repeats it. Name what the fee covers on the document, in the units the work actually happens in: one set of accounts, one return, twelve bookkeeping runs, payroll for a stated headcount.

Then when the headcount doubles or the transaction volume triples, you have a basis for repricing that is not a subjective conversation about how much harder the year felt. Work outside the fixed fee goes on as its own line when it happens rather than quietly enlarging next year's quote.

Out-of-scope work, and the phone call that was actually advice

Every practice gives away advisory work by phone. A client rings with a question, the answer takes forty minutes and some thinking, and it never reaches an invoice.

The remedy is not to bill every call. It is to have an advisory line that exists, priced, so that when a call becomes a piece of work it has somewhere to go. Work that has no line on your invoice template will never be billed.

Name it on the invoice when you use it, with what it was: a VAT registration question, a restructuring discussion, a review of a proposed purchase. Clients pay for named advice far more readily than for an unexplained increase.

Deadlines, penalties and the invoice that has to arrive first

Compliance work sits against statutory deadlines, and the client who pays late is often the same client whose records arrived late.

Two things help, both on the document. State your terms in days and the date, so the invoice enters a payment cycle rather than a pile. And where your engagement makes filing conditional on payment or on receiving records by a date, say so plainly on the invoice rather than in a letter from three years ago.

If a deadline is at risk because records are outstanding, that belongs in writing at the time, not in a discussion about a penalty afterwards. The late fee calculator · Invoice Due Date Calculator covers the payment side of the same problem.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how accountants and bookkeepers price the work

Accounting and bookkeeping have moved decisively from hourly to fixed monthly fees, and the reason is that clients hate phoning an adviser who is charging by the minute. A fixed fee makes the relationship usable.

Whichever model, itemize the services on the invoice and reference the period or the filing. A client reading bookkeeping, one month cannot see value. A client reading the bank reconciliations, the payroll runs, the return filed and the deadline met can see all of it.

Working out what to charge

Accounting fees depend on the client's records, the number of filings and your jurisdiction, so a figure from a web page means nothing. The billable hours calculator shows how many hours you can bill in a busy season, and the retainer calculator prices a fixed monthly fee.

Getting paid once it is sent

Monthly fixed fees collected by debit in advance remove most chasing; year-end work is invoiced when the accounts are approved, before they are filed. 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 an accountant gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost accountants and bookkeepers money

• No period on the invoice. It is the first thing queried and the first thing missing.
• Compliance and advisory in one figure. It makes the compliance fee look inflated and the advice look free.
• Disbursements inside the fee. Filing fees and licenses are not your revenue and should not read as though they are.
• No advisory line on the template. Work with nowhere to go on the invoice never gets billed.
• Scope not stated. What you did not price is what the client believes was included.

Accountant / bookkeeper invoice questions

Free accountant invoice template

The free accountant invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 40 designs made for the trade, 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 accountants and bookkeepers

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to accountants and bookkeepers rather than in general. The four marked links open with accountant / bookkeeper already selected.