Free carpenter invoice and estimate templatesFrom cut list
to a clear invoice.

Name the pieces you built and the counts you installed: doors hung, linear feet of trim, days on site. Add the wood and finish used, materials with any markup, and approved extras with their dates. Where your state licenses this kind of work, print the license number with the job address.

It comes down to the size of the run, the material (paint-grade plywood or solid hardwood), door style, drawer count, hardware and finish, and whether you spray in the shop or on site. Access and scribing to out-of-square walls add time too. The generator opens that line at $1,450 so the page is not empty; type your own figure from your estimate.

One figure for the build, because it is known work against drawings, and breaking it into hours invites a debate about how long each box took. Door hanging and trim sit on separate lines at their own units, per door and per linear foot, so if the count changes on site the total changes by arithmetic rather than by a new quote.

For custom work many carpenters do, because lumber, sheet goods and hardware are bought before the first cut and a built cabinet cannot be sold to anyone else. Size the deposit around the materials order, send it as its own invoice, and show it as paid on the final bill. Some states limit deposits on home improvement contracts, so check your state's rules.

Send a statement with the due date and agreed terms, then call. Cabinets and trim fixed to a house cannot be taken back, but carpenters who improve real property usually have mechanics lien rights, subject to notice steps and deadlines that vary by state. Some of those deadlines start before the job ends, so learn your state's rules at the start of a job rather than when the money is late.

It depends on the state. Some tax labor on repairs but not on capital improvements such as new built-in cabinets, some tax only the materials, and some treat you as the end user who pays tax when buying the lumber. Put materials and labor on separate lines so each can carry the right rate, and check with your state revenue department.

Write each extra up as a change order before you do it: what changed, the added material and time, and the new price, approved in writing, even by text or email. On the final invoice list it as its own dated line. A client who sees an unexplained higher total argues; one who sees the extra they approved last week usually pays.

Put each allowance on its own line with the amount allowed, for example hardware at $500, and note that choices above it are billed as a change. The client sees what is included before they pick.

Yes. Make a receipt for the deposit with the project name and the amount received, and show the deposit as paid on the final invoice so the balance is clear.