Free invoice template

The parts of an invoice template, and what goes in each

An invoice asks to be paid, but it is also a record that you, your client and perhaps the tax authority will come back to, so every part of the template has a job. At the top is the header: the word "Invoice", your business name and, if you have one, your logo. A clear header helps a client's accounts team, which may see dozens of documents a week, to tell at once that this one is a bill from you.

Under the header come two blocks of details. Yours gives your own name or your company's full registered name, plus any trading name you use, your address, an email or phone number and any registration numbers that apply to you, such as a VAT or company number. The UK invoice rules set out exactly which names and numbers a UK sole trader or limited company has to show. The client's block names the business or person you are billing, with their address. Use their full business name rather than your contact's first name, because that is the name their bookkeeping will file your invoice under.

Then come the invoice number and the dates. The number lets you and your client refer to one invoice without confusion, and the rules on it are looser in the US than in the UK. No federal law prescribes invoice numbering; giving each invoice a unique number is customary, and invoices to federal agencies must carry an invoice number, account number or other identifying number agreed in the contract. In the UK, by contrast, the rule is firm. Every invoice needs a unique identification number, and a VAT invoice needs a sequential number, from one or more series, that uniquely identifies it. Next to the number go the invoice date, which is the day you issue it, and the due date, which is the day by which you expect to be paid.

The item lines are the heart of the invoice. Each line describes one thing you charge for, with a quantity, a unit such as hours, days or pieces, a unit price and the line amount. Write the description so that someone who wasn't involved could follow it a year from now: "Website copy, five pages, October 2026" says what was done and when, while "Services" invites a phone call. If you charge by the hour, put the hours as the quantity and your rate as the price, so the client can check the sum.

Below the lines come the tax and the totals. The tax is where US and UK invoices differ most, as the sections below explain, but the totals work the same way on both: a subtotal before tax, the tax itself (split by rate if your lines carry different rates) and the total due. After the totals, the payment details tell the client how to pay you. The notes and terms carry the rest, such as when payment is due, a reference to quote and a purchase order number if the client gave you one, and the guide to payment terms such as Net 30 explains the usual options.

A worked example: one invoice from top to bottom

Fernhill Studio is the trading name of Maya Collins, a designer in Bristol. Maya Collins is registered for VAT and has just finished a rebrand for Larkspur Coffee Ltd, which runs two cafés in Leeds. Below the studio's logo come "Maya Collins trading as Fernhill Studio", the studio's address, email and VAT registration number (GB123456789), then Larkspur Coffee Ltd with its registered office address. The invoice is number 2026-042, dated 3 November 2026 and due on 3 December 2026, which gives the client 30 days, and its lines read as follows.

The three lines add up to a subtotal of £1,200.00 before VAT. The VAT at 20% comes to £240.00, so the total due is £1,440.00. Under the totals, the studio's bank details tell Larkspur where to send the money, and the note asks for payment within 30 days with 2026-042 as the reference. Every figure can be traced back to the lines above it, which is exactly what Larkspur's bookkeeper will check before approving the payment.

Change one fact and the invoice changes with it. If Fernhill Studio weren't registered for VAT, there would be no VAT column, no VAT number and no VAT line in the totals, and the total due would simply be £1,200.00. A US designer sending the same invoice would bill in dollars on US Letter paper. Instead of VAT, they would add sales tax only to lines that are taxable under the state's rules, as the next section explains.

A US or UK invoice template: sales tax or VAT, Letter or A4

The parts are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, but the tax, the paper and the currency are not. A US invoice is usually in USD on US Letter paper and a UK one in GBP on A4. A PDF made for the wrong size prints shrunk or with odd margins, so set the paper before you start. The tax line needs more thought, because the rules behind it differ completely between the two countries.

In the UK the tax is VAT, and it belongs on your invoice only if you are registered for it. The UK invoice rules explain when registration becomes compulsory and what a VAT invoice must show. If you are registered, each line carries a VAT rate: the standard rate is 20%, with reduced rates of 5% and 0% for some goods and services. If you are not registered, adding VAT just to be safe is a real risk rather than a precaution. Only a VAT-registered business may issue a VAT invoice: if you are not registered you must not show VAT, and if you do, HMRC can charge a penalty of up to 100% of the VAT shown and still collect that amount from you. If a VAT invoice shows more VAT than is due, you must pay HMRC the higher amount unless you correct the error with your customer by issuing a credit note.

In the US there is no VAT. Instead there is sales tax, which each state sets for itself, and whether a sale is taxable depends on the state and on what you sell. That is why the template adds sales tax line by line rather than to the whole invoice: you mark the lines that are taxable and enter the rate, and the rest stay untaxed. The guide for US contractors covers the rest of what a US invoice should show.

Fill it in online, or download a Word, Excel or PDF file

If you would rather fill in an invoice in your own software, or by hand, you can download an invoice template as a file instead. There are two versions, because a UK or EU invoice and a US invoice differ in the tax and the paper. The UK and EU version is on A4 and has a VAT column, a line for your VAT number and payment by IBAN: Word, Excel or a blank PDF to print. The US version is on Letter paper and has a sales tax column and payment by bank transfer or check: Word, Excel or a blank PDF to print. If you work in Google Docs or Google Sheets, you can upload the Word or Excel file there.

Which one suits you depends on how much you want done for you. In the Word file you type in your own details and add a row for each item, but every amount is yours to work out and to check. The Excel file does the sums: each line multiplies the quantity by the price, and the subtotal, the tax and the total add themselves up from the lines. The blank PDF is for writing an invoice by hand, at a market stall or on a job site. What none of the files can do is remember anything: you still keep track of the last invoice number yourself, retype a client's details every time, and send the file from your own email.

That is where the online template goes further. The invoice number counts up by itself, and the number of a deleted invoice is not given out again. Line amounts, the subtotal, the tax for each rate and the total are calculated as you type, so a changed hour count can't leave an old total behind. You enter your business details, logo and payment details once, and the template saves your clients, so the next invoice to the same client mostly means adding new lines. With a free account your invoices are saved to your account and open on all your devices, and you can send up to 10 a month by email or as a link. The result is a PDF that looks the same on your client's laptop, phone and printer, and you still choose the look: a font, an accent colour and your logo, A4 or US Letter, one of 20 currencies, and one of 20 invoice languages, from US or UK English to German, Spanish or Japanese.

Whichever you choose, the PDF and the files are documents for people to read, not structured e-invoices. An e-invoice is a data file in a fixed format that your client's accounting software reads in directly, so nobody has to type the figures in again, and Peppol is a network that carries such files between businesses, much as email carries messages. In some EU countries, invoices between businesses must already be sent as e-invoices, so check the rules where you invoice from first; the invoice guides cover the countries we have written about so far. For US businesses, the position is this. There is no federal law requiring e-invoices between businesses, so paper and PDF invoices are fine; vendors to federal agencies invoice electronically through the agency's system, often Treasury's free Invoice Processing Platform (IPP). So a PDF from this template works for your private clients, but an invoice to a federal agency goes in through that agency's own system instead.

For UK businesses, what matters is the date. No e-invoicing obligation yet: paper and PDF invoices are allowed (electronic invoices need the customer's agreement); from 1 April 2029 VAT-registered businesses must issue and be able to receive VAT invoices as e-invoices, with Peppol as the network and the detailed rules due by April 2028. Until the requirement starts, PDF invoices from this template are fine, and the requirement itself is narrower than it first sounds. The April 2029 requirement covers only VAT invoices between VAT-registered persons in the UK: invoices from businesses that are not VAT-registered, invoices to consumers, sales that need no VAT invoice (exempt, zero-rated or out of scope) and cross-border sales are not covered, though e-invoices may be sent voluntarily. A narrow exemption for digitally excluded VAT-registered persons (for example because of age, disability, where they live or no internet access) is planned, with details due by April 2028. So if you aren't registered for VAT, or you invoice consumers or clients abroad, you can carry on sending PDFs after it starts. If you are VAT-registered and invoice other VAT-registered UK businesses, those invoices will have to be e-invoices from then on, and because this template doesn't produce them, you would need software that does.

Filling in the template and sending the PDF

The first invoice takes longest, because that is when you enter your own details. After that, most invoices come down to choosing a client and adding lines. For the first one, this order works well:

1. Enter your business details, including any registration numbers and your country (for a UK business, this also presets the VAT rate), then check the currency and paper size.
2. Add how you want to be paid: bank details or a PayPal link, and for a US business also routing and account number, check, Venmo, Zelle or Cash App.
3. Add the client or pick a saved one, check the invoice number that has been filled in for you, and set the invoice and due dates.
4. Add the item lines with quantity, unit and price, set the VAT rate or mark the lines that carry sales tax, and check the totals.
5. Add your logo, pick a font and an accent colour, write your notes and terms, and download the PDF once you have read it through.

Once you have the PDF, you can print it or attach it to an email from your own mailbox. If you print, choose actual size rather than "fit to page" so the layout comes out as designed. With a free account you can also send up to 10 invoices a month from the template. You can send by email with the PDF attached and replies coming to you, or as a link to a page where your client can view and download the invoice and you can see that it has been opened.

Mark each invoice as sent, and then as paid when the money arrives, so your overview shows who still owes you. If this is your first invoice, the guide on how to make and send an invoice covers the whole process step by step.