An invoice is a billing document that provides an itemized breakdown of the goods or services provided and their associated costs, summing up to the total billed amount. It also initiates the customer payment process with payment instructions and billing details.
In construction, some special considerations are the labor hours, raw materials, and reimbursable expenses that are passed on to the customer.
Invoicing can be a tedious process--especially if you run your construction business solo--but it’s essential for all construction companies. The good news is that with an invoice template, you’ll enjoy the following benefits.
Our construction invoice template is tailored to the construction industry. With special considerations for how construction-based businesses bill their customers, you’ll have an easy stepping off point to turn your services into an itemized bill that’s ready to send.
An invoice can only be processed by an accounts payable team once it’s been received. If it’s taking you days or even weeks to send an invoice, that’s additional time between completing the work and getting paid.
By using a construction template, you’ll speed up the invoicing process. And remember, timely invoices make for timely payments.
Small business owners wear many hats and often don’t have the time to sit in one place to grind out admin work.
Invoice templates are easily edited for each customer making it easy to create a professional invoice from anywhere, even on the go. Use our template in Google Sheets or store a version in the cloud and you can access it wherever you may be, potentially even on your phone.
No matter your level of financial know-how, there’s always the potential for human error when creating invoices from scratch. Since a template reduces the amount of information you need to input (such as a sales tax calculation), there’s a lower likelihood that a mistake gets made.
Writing a construction invoice can be done using one of our invoice templates. You simply need to download it and customize it according to your preferences.
Once you’ve downloaded the template and have it open in front of you, follow these steps to create a professional invoice that’s ready to send.
3a. The invoice number is a unique string of digits that you can identify the invoice by in your records and in conversations about the invoice.
3b. The date is when the sale is completed. It’s not necessarily when the invoice is sent, but you should aim to send invoices the same day to get prompt payments.
3c. Terms refers to payment terms, the timeline on which the payment must be paid by. This is typically Net 15, 30, 60, or 90 meaning 15 days, 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days after the invoice is completed, but you can define the timeline as you wish.
3d. The due date should reflect the invoice date and payment terms. For example, if the invoice date is the 15th and you have Net 15 payment terms, the due date should be the 30th of the month.
Your construction invoice template should contain this basic information:
You should also add payment instructions to either the invoice itself or add payment instructions separately when sending the invoice. The last thing you’d want is to miss out on a payment because someone didn’t know how to send it.
There are several types of invoices that depend on the construction project you are billing for. The main types of invoices are:
You don’t need to be an expert with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Excel. Nor do you need to be a graphic designer to create a Construction invoice template.
Download one of our pre-designed invoice templates and construction receipt templates and customize it to suit your business. Save a copy of this customized invoice template and use it as the template to generate invoices for all of your future construction work.
Whenever you’re using a construction invoice template, ensure it reflects your business’s style and suits your needs. Here are the steps on how to edit a construction invoice template:
The simple answer is you should start the billing process as soon as possible—the sooner you send an invoice, the sooner you get paid. As soon as a project is complete, the invoicing process should begin to prevent overdue payments.
But in construction, it can be more complicated than that. As outlined above, sometimes invoices are sent throughout long-term projects to help with cash flow. These are called interim invoices or milestone invoices.
These types of invoices are sent at major checkpoints throughout the project’s completion so the business isn’t stuck waiting for a project to be completed to get paid.
For example, for a major project you may want to consider sending an invoice after the materials have been procured to recoup the costs as soon as possible. Then you may want to invoice at other stages throughout the process.
Alternatively, you could set up a regular invoicing cadence to cover work over a specific period of time, just as bi-weekly or monthly. Each invoice would cover the materials and work provided in that timeframe.
An essential part of managing a business is managing cash flow. How you invoice helps you control when money is coming into the business to cover the costs you incur.
Simply include a labor line item on your invoice to bill for labor. When invoicing labor, ensure you detail the hourly rates and tasks completed.
Another special consideration for invoicing in the construction industry is invoicing for the materials used in the process. Whether they’re baked into your costs, being reimbursed, or being passed on to the customer at a markup, transparency is key.
Your invoices should clearly list the material, the price, and the quantity used with separate lines for each material. At a glance, the customer should have complete clarity of what they’re being billed for and why.
How you bill for materials should be discussed upfront so it isn’t a shock for customers when they receive the invoice. If there’s a long back-and-forth discussing the details of the invoice, it’ll add to the time it takes to get paid.
Select a subcontractor invoice from our templates, download it in your desired format, open it and personalize the invoice editing the information fields. Save it in whichever format you prefer and send it to your client via email.