Contractor invoice template for US freelancers

What a contractor invoice should show, and why

"Contractor" on this page means a way of working, not a trade: you do work for clients on your own account rather than as their employee, so a web developer, a copywriter and a management consultant all send the same kind of invoice. What that invoice shows is shaped more by custom than by law. The person who processes it is usually not the client you worked with but someone in accounts payable, who has to match it to work the company approved and then schedule the payment. Each detail below answers a question they would otherwise have to ask you, and an invoice that leaves one out tends to sit in a queue until someone does.

These are the details clients expect, and you can check your invoice against them before you send it:

• A unique invoice number (apart from invoices to federal agencies, no federal law prescribes what a business invoice must contain: the items in this list are customary)
• Invoice date
• Your business name and address
• Your customer's name and address
• A description of the goods or services and when they were supplied
• Quantity and price of each item
• Total amount due
• Sales tax, where the sale is taxable in that state
• Payment terms (when and how to pay)
• Invoices to federal agencies (a 'proper invoice') must also show the contract or order number, your Taxpayer Identification Number, banking details and a contact name and phone number

Most of these do a specific job at the client's end. The invoice number lets accounts payable spot a duplicate and gives you both one reference if a payment goes astray, while the invoice date is usually where the payment clock starts. The description should tell someone who never met you what they're paying for and when it happened, so a line such as "Website copy for spring campaign, October 2026: 12 hours at $85.00, $1,020.00" works far better than "Services rendered". Use the client's name and address the way their company writes it, and if they gave you a purchase order (PO) number, put that on the invoice too, because some companies won't approve a payment without one.

The last item on the list only matters if your client is a federal agency. Those invoices go in through the agency's own system, as the table at the top of this page explains, and the maker doesn't connect to those systems, so for an agency client you would enter the details there. For private clients, a clear PDF with the details above is what they expect to receive.

Sales tax on services

It's easy to assume sales tax is only about goods sold in shops, and for a lot of service work that's how it turns out, but it isn't a safe assumption. As the table at the top of this page shows, sales tax is a state matter, so the answer depends on the state whose rules apply to your sale, and the reliable source is that state's tax department. If you bill a mix of work, such as design time plus printed materials, check each part separately, because the answer can differ within a single invoice.

Be careful in the other direction too, because adding sales tax just in case isn't a harmless precaution. As a rule, sales tax you charge by mistake, or charge too much of, is not yours to keep: in California it must be returned to the customer or else paid to the state, and in Texas the state will not refund a seller until the seller has refunded or credited the customer. The details differ by state, so check with each state where you collect sales tax. In practice, a tax line you weren't required to charge leaves you holding money that belongs to your client or to the state, and putting that right means refunds, credits and awkward conversations. So charge sales tax only once you know the sale is taxable and you are registered to collect it.

Whether you have to register to collect sales tax in a state, and from when, is also set by that state, so ask its tax department before you add tax to an invoice. When a sale is taxable, show the tax as its own amount below the subtotal, so the client can see which part of the total is tax and you can see what you collected. In the maker you enter the rate and switch tax on only for the lines that are taxable, and it adds the tax to the total as a separate amount. It doesn't look up rates for you, so take the rate from the state's own guidance.

Getting paid: payment methods, net 30 and late fees

An invoice that says what is owed but not how to pay it costs you another email before any money arrives, so put your payment details on every invoice. Business clients usually pay by bank transfer, for which they need your bank's routing number, which identifies the bank, and your account number. If you accept checks, say who the check should be made out to and where to mail it. Venmo, Zelle and Cash App suit smaller clients and individuals who would rather pay from their phone, but give the exact username, email address or phone number linked to your account, so the money doesn't go to someone with a similar name. The maker can show any of these on the invoice, as well as a PayPal link.

When the client pays is set by your payment terms. Net 30 means the full amount is due 30 days after the invoice date, and "due on receipt" means straight away, so writing the actual due date next to the term removes any doubt about where the count starts. The guide to net 30 and other payment terms covers the common terms and how to word them. The law only steps in at the edges: Federal executive agencies must pay your invoice by the date in the contract or, if none is set, 30 days after receiving a proper invoice; if they pay late they must add interest automatically, at a rate Treasury publishes every six months (Prompt Payment Act). The Act does not set payment terms between private businesses, although on federal construction contracts the prime contractor must, through required contract clauses, pay its subcontractors within 7 days of being paid and owe them interest if late (31 U.S.C. 3905). Some states and cities have their own rules: in New York City, for example, a client must pay a freelancer within 30 days of the work being completed if no date was agreed.

Outside those cases, the due date is generally what you and your client agreed, which is why it pays to settle terms in your contract or engagement letter before you start and repeat them on every invoice. Late fees work the same way. If you want to charge one, put it in your agreement and in the terms on each invoice, saying how much it is, as a fixed amount or a percentage of the overdue balance, and from when it applies, because a fee that first appears on an overdue invoice is hard to justify to a client who never agreed to it. The maker doesn't send reminders or add fees by itself, so following up is up to you, and if you do charge the fee, a separate invoice that refers to the original number keeps both easy to trace.

Invoice numbers and keeping records

Numbering is another place where custom does the work. 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. A unique number is how a payment, a question or a dispute gets tied to one specific invoice, so the one thing that matters is never using a number twice. A running sequence such as 2026-001, 2026-002 is enough, and the guide to invoice numbers covers other schemes. The maker counts up by itself, keeps a separate series for quotes and never reuses the number of an invoice you delete.

Keep a copy of every invoice you send along with what backs it up: the contract, any purchase order, and a record of when and how you were paid. The table at the top of this page shows the general period for keeping invoices. If you collect sales tax, the rule of each state where you collect it applies as well and can be longer, so check with each of those states and keep your records for whichever period is longer. These records are what you rely on when a client says they've already paid, when someone questions the sales tax on an invoice, or when your accountant puts your year together, and filing them by invoice number lets you answer in minutes instead of searching your email.

The maker gives you the overview: it lists all your invoices with filters, tracks each one as draft, sent or paid, and exports a CSV file for your accountant. It isn't a bookkeeping system, though. It does lock an invoice once you send it from the maker or mark it as sent or paid, so the invoice in your list stays the one your client has, and a mistake is corrected with a credit memo rather than by editing. Download the PDF of each invoice when you send it and file it with your records, which matters even more if you use the maker without an account, because the browser keeps only three invoices or quotes.

Making a US invoice in the maker

The button on this page opens the maker set up for a US invoice, with amounts in USD, US Letter paper, the invoice in US English and the US payment methods ready to choose. Your business details and clients are saved for reuse, so every invoice after the first is much quicker. For a first invoice, the steps are these:

1. Enter your business details: your name or business name, your address and, if you want to be paid by bank transfer, your routing and account numbers. Add a logo if you have one.
2. Add the client with their name and address as their company writes them, and save the client for next time. If they gave you a PO number, add it as a custom field.
3. Add a line for each piece of work, with a description that says what you did and when, the quantity, a unit such as hours or days, and the price. Switch sales tax on only for lines that are taxable.
4. Set the invoice date and due date, write your payment terms and any late-fee wording in the terms, and choose which payment methods to show.
5. Download the PDF or print it, mark the invoice as sent, and mark it as paid when the money arrives.

If some of your clients prefer Spanish, the whole invoice and PDF can switch language, and the guide to invoicing in Spanish explains the terms that appear on it. For an invoice that isn't tied to US rules, use the general free invoice template. Either way you can change the font and accent color and add your logo, but the layout itself is one clean design rather than a template per trade.