Free Contractor Invoice Template & PDF Generator

How to create a contractor invoice

1. Add your business details

   Enter your company name, address, phone, email and license number, and upload your logo. This block is saved in your browser and reused on every document you make here.

2. Enter the customer and the job address

   Type the customer's name and contact details. If the work was done somewhere other than their billing address, switch on "Job address is different" and enter the site.

3. Set the invoice number, date and terms

   The number is prefilled and increments after each download. Pick the payment terms; the due date fills itself in. Name the job so the customer knows which project this is.

4. Add line items for labor and materials

   One line per task or material group, with quantity, unit and rate. Mark each line Labor, Material or Other and untick Taxable on lines your state does not tax.

5. Set tax, discount and payments already received

   Enter your sales tax rate and label, any discount, and the deposit or progress payments you have already collected so the balance due is right.

6. Add payment instructions, late fee and notes

   Tick the payment methods you accept, say who to make checks out to, repeat the late-fee term from your contract, and add warranty or thank-you notes.

7. Download the PDF and send it

   Download the PDF and text or email it to the customer the same day the work finishes. Print it if they want paper.

What to include on a contractor invoice

What does a contractor invoice need to include?

At minimum: who you are (with your license number where your state calls for it), who the customer is and where the job was, a unique invoice number and date, itemized labor and materials, subtotal, tax and total, what has already been paid, the balance due, and exactly how and when to pay. Everything else on the list below is there because of an invoice that did not get paid.

The invoice is usually the only piece of paper the customer keeps. It gets forwarded to the spouse, the bookkeeper, the insurance adjuster and, when it goes wrong, the small-claims clerk, so it has to stand on its own.

Two of those rows deserve a warning. A late fee only exists if the customer agreed to it before the work; the invoice can repeat it but cannot create it. And lien rights are governed by state law with deadlines that often start the day you first show up on site (see what to do when it goes unpaid); a line on an invoice does not preserve rights you lost by missing a notice.

How do I fill out this invoice line by line?

The form on this page is arranged in the order a customer reads the finished document. Fill it top to bottom, watch the preview on the right (below the form on a phone), then download. If you want to see a finished one first, open Start from an example and load the general contractor sample: a hall-bath remodel with eight lines, a deposit already collected and a permit fee passed through.

1. Your business. Name, address (multi-line is fine), phone, email, license number, website and logo. Upload a PNG, JPG or WebP; it is shrunk, stored in your browser, and prints top-left on every document you make here from now on.
2. Customer. Name, address, phone, email. If the work was at a rental, a second property or a commercial site, switch on Job address is different and enter the site address; the PDF prints both.
3. Document details. The invoice number is prefilled (INV-0001 the first time, then one higher after each download; edit it if you already have a scheme). Set the invoice date, choose terms and the due date fills in; choose Custom due date to type one. Name the job in Job / project: "Hall bath remodel, 42 Elm St" beats "Services rendered".
4. Line items. One line per task or material group. Description on the first line, an optional details line under it (model numbers, square footage, hours). Quantity, unit (hours, sq ft, lin ft, each, lot) and rate; the amount calculates. Tag each row Labor, Material or Other, and untick Taxable on anything your state does not tax. Use the up/down buttons to reorder, and press Enter in the last rate field to add a row.
5. Totals. Discount as a percent or a flat amount. Sales tax rate and label (rename it "GST/HST" or "VAT" if that is what you collect). Tax labor too? flips the taxable flag on every labor line at once. Enter the deposit and any progress payments under Payments received; the balance due updates.
6. Payment & notes. Tick the methods you accept, then write the instructions: who to make the check out to, your Zelle or ACH details, or the link where they can pay by card. Put the late-fee term from your contract on the late fee line. Notes are for warranty, thank-you and anything job-specific; terms text is prefilled and editable.
7. Document options. Pick an accent color, the currency, and whether the small "Powered by TrustPro" line prints in the footer. One click turns it off.

Do I charge sales tax on labor, materials, or both?

It depends on your state, and within your state it can depend on whether the job is residential or commercial, repair or new construction, and whether you bill labor and materials as one lump sum or as separate lines. There is no national answer, and a template with one "tax" box applied to everything is quietly wrong somewhere.

Two real examples of how far apart states sit. In Texas, the Comptroller's guidance on real property repair and remodeling states that labor to repair, remodel or restore residential property is not taxable, while the total amount charged for repairing or remodeling nonresidential property is taxable. The same guide explains that under a lump-sum residential contract you pay tax on materials when you buy them and do not charge the customer tax, while under a separated contract you buy materials with a resale certificate and collect tax from the customer on the materials line. In Washington, the Department of Revenue's construction guide says gross receipts from prime contracting on a custom construction job are subject to retail sales tax unless a specific exemption applies, and the taxable selling price includes costs you itemize to the owner. So the same bathroom remodel is taxed on materials only in Houston and on the whole contract in Seattle.

The mechanism to understand is whether your state treats you as the consumer of the materials (you pay tax at the supply house and do not charge the customer) or as a retailer of them (you buy tax-free for resale and charge the customer), and separately whether it taxes construction labor at all. Your state's department of revenue publishes a contractor guide that answers both; read it, or have your accountant read it, before the first invoice. Collecting tax you are not registered to remit is its own problem.

On this template, tax is per line: every row has a Taxable checkbox, materials default on, and the Tax labor too? switch flips labor in one move. Set the rate and rename the label to whatever your jurisdiction calls it. The sample ships with the rate at 0% on purpose; it is your number, not ours.

Which payment terms actually get a contractor paid?

For residential work: due on receipt, invoiced on site the day you finish, with a way to pay that the customer can use while you are still standing there. For commercial and property-management work: net 30, because their accounts-payable cycle runs on it and refusing costs you the account. The expensive mistake is the habit of putting net 30 on a homeowner's invoice and handing over a month of cash flow for nothing. The full breakdown by customer type is in net 30 vs due on receipt.

Whatever terms you choose, write four things on the invoice: a specific due date (the template prints one), the accepted payment methods with the easiest first, what happens after the due date, and a name and number to call with questions. On commercial jobs that last item unsticks an invoice faster than three follow-up emails.

On late fees: they deter only when they were disclosed in the contract the customer signed before the work. Maximum rates, required notice and consumer-versus-commercial distinctions are set by state law, and some states treat an undisclosed or excessive fee as unenforceable. Put the term in the contract, repeat it on the invoice, and use the late fee calculator to see what a rate actually adds over a given number of days. Then decide whether you would rather have the fee or the relationship.

The term that matters more than any of these is the deposit: terms govern the last payment; the deposit governs whether you are exposed at all. Amounts by job type, the state caps that limit what you can ask, and the script for asking are in the contractor deposit guide.

How should I number invoices and keep records?

Number invoices sequentially and never reuse a number. The scheme does not matter; gaps and duplicates do, because they are what an auditor, a bookkeeper or an opposing lawyer notices first. This tool remembers the last number you used in your browser and offers the next one; type over it if you keep numbers elsewhere.

Keep the PDF you sent, not just the data. The IRS lists invoices, receipt books, deposit information for cash and credit sales, and cash register tapes among the supporting documents for gross receipts, and canceled checks, credit card statements and invoices among the documents that support expenses, because they back up the entries in your books and on your return. For the invoice you send, that means the invoice itself plus the proof it was paid, filed together.

How long to keep them: the IRS's general rule is three years, stretching to six years if you failed to report income that is more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return, seven years for a bad-debt deduction, and at least four years for employment tax records. Since disputes and warranty calls surface years later too, I keep the invoice, signed estimate, change orders and job photos in one folder per job and never throw one out.

How do deposit, progress and final invoices work?

On anything bigger than a service call you will send several invoices for the same job: a deposit invoice before you start, progress invoices at milestones, and a final invoice that reconciles everything. Each is built here the same way; only the line items and the payments-received box change.

• Deposit invoice. One line, "Deposit, 25% of contract total per signed estimate EST-0031". If you used the estimate generator, the deposit line is already on the estimate and many contractors collect against that instead. Watch your state's cap: California requires home improvement contracts to state that the down payment may not exceed $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less; other states have their own limits, listed in the deposit guide.
• Progress invoices. Bill by milestone (demo complete, rough-in passed inspection, drywall hung) or by percentage complete. Each draw lists the work covered by that draw, shows every payment received to date, and boxes the balance due for this draw only. Never let unbilled work pile up past the deposit.
• Change orders. Signed change orders go on the next progress invoice as their own lines, referencing the CO number, so the customer sees the original scope and the approved extras separately. Unsigned changes do not get invoiced; they get a change order first.
• Final invoice. The full contract total plus all signed change orders, minus every payment received, balance due. Attach the final lien waiver if your contract or your state's practice calls for one.

Commercial work often runs on the AIA pay-application format instead: G702 (Application and Certificate for Payment) and G703 (Continuation Sheet), which AIA describes as forms on which the contractor applies for payment and the architect certifies payment is due, showing work completed and stored to date, retainage, previous payments, a summary of change orders and the current amount requested, with G703 breaking the contract sum into a schedule of values. This template is not a pay app, but the logic (contract total, change orders, previous payments, this draw) is the same logic its totals block walks through.

Should I send an invoice by text or email?

Both, and text first. In my own restoration business the invoice that gets paid the same day is the one that lands on the customer's phone while they are still looking at the finished work, with the amount, the due date and a way to pay in the same message. Email is the archive copy the bookkeeper, the landlord and the insurance company want. Send the PDF both ways.

On whether a texted or emailed invoice "counts": the federal E-SIGN Act (15 U.S.C. §7001) says a signature, contract or other record relating to a transaction in interstate commerce may not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form. An invoice is a record of what is owed, not a contract by itself, but sending it as a PDF over text does not weaken it. Keep the sent message; the timestamp is your proof of delivery.

The rule to respect is about how you text, not whether. Under the FCC's rules implementing the TCPA (47 CFR §64.1200), texts sent with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice to a cell phone need the recipient's prior express consent, and messages that include or introduce an advertisement or constitute telemarketing need prior express written consent. A one-to-one text you type to a customer about their own job is a different animal from a marketing blast, but the safe habit is the same: keep invoice texts about the invoice, do not bolt a promotion onto them, and get written opt-in before any automated marketing. If you send at volume, have a lawyer look at your consent language.

What do I do when an invoice goes unpaid?

Follow a ladder, on a schedule, starting the day after the due date: a short friendly text, then a call, then a written demand with a deadline, then the lien or small-claims filing your state allows. The full playbook, with a demand-letter template and the small-claims limits we verified state by state, is in what to do when a customer refuses to pay. Most unpaid invoices are forgotten, not refused, and a text on day one recovers more of them than a stern letter on day 45.

The lien is the tool contractors reach for last and should think about first, because in many states the right to record one depends on notices sent near the start of the job. California is the clearest example: under Civil Code §8204 a preliminary notice must be given not later than 20 days after the claimant first furnishes work, and a claimant who serves it late can only lien for work performed within the 20 days before the notice and afterward. Under §8200 a claimant who contracts directly with the owner only has to give the notice to the construction lender, if there is one; subcontractors and suppliers have to notice the owner, the direct contractor and the lender. California also requires a "Mechanics Lien Warning" notice inside home improvement contracts under Business and Professions Code §7159. Other states have their own notice names, windows and waiver forms. Learn yours before the job, not after the invoice bounces.

And then screen the next one. Almost every invoice I have ever eaten was predictable from the first phone call. The screen in how to vet a customer before you quote is the filter, the deposit is the insurance, and this invoice is the paperwork that makes both enforceable.

FAQ

• IRS — What kind of records should I keep
• IRS — How long should I keep records
• Texas Comptroller — Real Property Repair and Remodeling (Pub. 94-116)
• Washington Department of Revenue — Construction guide: Custom construction
• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7030.5 — License number on contracts, bids and advertising
• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7159 — Home improvement contracts (down-payment statement, Mechanics Lien Warning, change orders)
• Cal. Civil Code §8200 — Who must give preliminary notice
• Cal. Civil Code §8204 — Preliminary notice within 20 days
• AIA Contract Documents — Summary: G702–1992 Application and Certificate for Payment
• 15 U.S.C. §7001 — E-SIGN Act, general rule of validity
• 47 CFR §64.1200 — FCC rules implementing the TCPA (Cornell LII)