Every template below covers the same legal minimum. What differs is the handful of lines your clients actually query: the VAT number, the parts and labour split, the usage licence, the site and visit count. Pick the one that matches how you bill.
Pick the tool you already have open.
Editable in Word or Google Docs, best when you want to change wording often.
Best when quantities and rates vary, because the arithmetic is done for you.
The format to send, whatever you used to write it.
Good when you work across devices or want a colleague to see the same file.
What changes when you register for VAT.
The lines your industry gets asked about.
Recurring visits, multi-site schedules and materials handled properly.
Parts and labour split, vehicle identified, VAT handled correctly.
Shoot fee and usage licence separated, expenses and delivery covered.
Vehicle identification, deposit handling and VAT margin scheme.
Materials and labour split, with certificate and notification references.
Call-out, parts, labour and emergency rates, with Gas Safe references.
The middle ground is the free invoice generator, which fills in the structure and produces a PDF without a sign-up, and the invoicing guides if you want the reasoning behind any of these fields.
The word "Invoice", a unique sequential number, your name and address, the client's name and address, the date of issue, the date the work was supplied, a clear description of what is being charged, the amount due and how to pay. If you are VAT registered you also need your VAT number, the rate per line and the total VAT in sterling.
The legal minimum is the same for everyone, but the lines that prevent disputes differ. A mechanic needs the vehicle registration and a parts and labour split, a photographer needs the usage licence separated from the shoot fee, and a cleaning contract needs the site and visit count. Those are the fields customers query when they are missing.
A template is the right answer for a handful of invoices a month. It stops being the right answer when you need to know what is outstanding without opening files, when more than one person raises invoices, or when the same clients are billed repeatedly and you are retyping the same details. Those three problems are what software actually solves.
Yes, and most of them assume you are not. If you are not registered there is no VAT line and no VAT number on the invoice at all. Showing VAT when you are not registered is treated seriously by HMRC, so use the self-employed template rather than deleting rows from a VAT one.
If the same clients come round every month, the template is doing work software should be doing. Suitekore keeps recurring invoices moving on their own.
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