Invoice Generator

The three documents look alike but do different jobs, and sending the wrong one confuses the client's bookkeeping as much as yours.

Price the job first with the estimate template or a fixed-price quote template. A proforma invoice sits between the two: it looks like an invoice but goes out before delivery, often for international orders, and is not a demand for payment.

Payment terms tell the client when the money is due. Due on receipt suits one-off jobs and consumer work; Net 15 and Net 30 are common between businesses, and large companies often ask for Net 45 or Net 60. Agree on the terms in your proposal or contract and repeat them on every invoice.

• Due on receipt: payment is expected when the invoice arrives.
• Net 7, 15, 30, 45 or 60: the full amount is due that many calendar days after the invoice date. The generator prints the exact date.
• 2/10 Net 30: the client may deduct 2% by paying within 10 days; otherwise the full amount is due in 30. Offer it only if faster cash is worth more to you than the 2%.
• Deposits and milestones: bill part of the price up front and the rest on delivery or at agreed stages. Enter what was already paid so the invoice shows the correct balance.

A late fee is easiest to collect when the client agreed to it before the work started, in the proposal, estimate or contract, and the invoice repeats it in the payment terms. The usual forms are a monthly percentage of the overdue balance or a flat fee. There is no single federal rule for business-to-business late fees: states limit interest and late charges through usury and consumer-credit laws, and the limits often differ for consumer and commercial accounts, so check your state's rule before choosing a rate.

When an invoice goes overdue, send a reminder, then a second notice with the fee you agreed to, then call. Bill the fee as its own line on a new invoice instead of editing the original, so your records show what was billed and when.

Whether an invoice carries sales tax depends on what you sell and the state where the customer receives it. Goods are generally taxable in the 45 states (plus DC) that have a statewide sales tax, unless an exemption applies. Services are a patchwork: Hawaii, New Mexico and South Dakota tax most services (the first two through a general excise or gross receipts tax), other states tax listed services such as repairs, cleaning or digital products, and many tax few services at all.

That is why every line in the generator has its own Taxable box. The rate applies only to taxable lines, after the discount, and shipping is added after tax. Find your combined state and local rate with the sales tax calculator. If your state taxes delivery charges, enter shipping as a taxable line instead of using the Shipping field.

If you invoice businesses as a freelancer or independent contractor, expect a Form W-9 request before the first payment. For payments made in 2026, a business generally must send you Form 1099-NEC once it pays you $2,000 or more for services during the year, up from $600 for 2025 payments. Payments by card or through payment apps are reported by the payment company on Form 1099-K instead, and only when they exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions in the year.

Your invoices, not the 1099s, are your record of income. All business income is taxable whether or not a form arrives, so total your paid invoices when you estimate quarterly taxes. The 1099 tax calculator turns that income into self-employment tax and income tax.

IRS Publication 583 lists invoices among the supporting documents for gross receipts, next to bank deposit slips and receipt books. Keep the invoices you send and the bills you pay for as long as the return they support can be examined: generally three years after you file, six years if income is underreported by more than 25%, and at least four years for employment tax records.

Number invoices in sequence and never reuse a number, keep a PDF of each, and note the date and method of each payment when it arrives. That is enough to show where every deposit in your bank account came from.

The prefilled invoice is a design studio billing a coffee shop for a website redesign, a half-day photo shoot and 200 printed menus, with a $1,200 deposit paid at signing. Only the menus are taxable goods.

Tax is 8.25% of $370.00, which is $30.525. Every line and every total is rounded to the cent, with half a cent rounding up, so the tax is $30.53 and the total is $3,450.53. After the deposit, the balance due is $2,250.53. The 8.25% rate is only an example; use your own combined rate.

Freelancers and consultants billing hours or projects, trades and home-service businesses billing labor and materials, and small shops billing goods with sales tax. Switch the currency at the top of the form if you bill in CAD, EUR, GBP or AUD. For a version prefilled with the line items and terms of your trade, start from one of the industry templates below.