How to make an invoice

• your business name, phone and email
• the customer's name and the address of the job
• what you did, piece by piece, and what you used
• your prices: an hourly rate, flat prices, or both
• how you want to be paid and by when

1. Put your business details at the top. Name, phone and email, and an address if you use one. The customer should be able to reach you from the invoice alone.
2. Add the customer and the address of the job. If the bill goes to one address and the work was at another, show both.
3. Give it a number and a date. Numbers in a row, such as 1001, 1002, 1003, make an invoice easy to find later, for you and for the customer.
4. List the work, one line for each piece. Each service and each part gets its own line, with a quantity and a rate. Hours go in the quantity column.
5. Add what changes the total. A discount, a deposit the customer already paid, and sales tax if you charge it. The rate and what it applies to depend on where you work, so check with your state or an accountant.
6. Check the total. Add it up twice, or let a tool do it. A wrong total is the fastest way to a slow payment.
7. Say how and by when to pay. Due on receipt, or a date. Name the ways you take payment.

The free invoice maker follows the same order. Fill in the form, check the preview and download the PDF. It needs no sign-up.

The lines are the part customers read. Write them so that someone who was not there can follow what happened.

• Use plain words: "replaced the fill valve in the hall bathroom", not a part number.
• Keep labor and parts apart, so both prices can be seen.
• One piece of work per line. Three small jobs are three lines.
• Give hours with one decimal: 1.5, not "about an hour and a half".
• If something was free, show it at zero. It still counts in the customer's eyes.

To see how this looks on paper, read the invoice example, line by line, or open a filled-in sample for your trade from the invoice templates. If your work does not fit one trade, start from the service invoice template or the contractor invoice template.

• No invoice number or no date.
• One line that says "work done" with one large number.
• No word on when the money is due.
• A deposit that was paid but is not shown, so the balance looks wrong.
• Sending it a week after the job, when the details have faded.

Send it while the job is fresh. How to send an invoice to a customer covers the ways to do it and what to write. If you priced the job before you started, estimate vs invoice explains how the two fit together.