Contractor Invoice Template: Free, Fill In Online and Download PDF, Word or Excel

This contractor invoice template is built for jobs that cost real money and run for weeks. It handles the lines a generic invoice leaves out: permit and license numbers, materials at your cost with a markup, the deposit you already collected, progress billing by phase, retainage held back and a lien notice line. The live preview on the right is exactly what the client gets, as a PDF, a Word file or an Excel sheet. No account, no email step.

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How to Fill Out a Contractor Invoice

1. Add your business once. Logo, legal name, contact details and contractor license number. They stay saved in your browser for the next invoice.
2. Identify the job. Client name, billing address, the job site address if it differs, a job title and a reference to the signed estimate or contract. Add the permit number if the work needed one.
3. Bill the work. Enter labor as hours times a rate or a flat price. Enter materials at what you paid, then set one markup for all of them or one per line. Add fees such as disposal, equipment rental or a trip charge.
4. Subtract what is already paid. Enter the deposit received and any earlier progress payments. The invoice shows the balance due, not just the total.
5. Set the terms and send. Choose the due date, the late-payment wording, the payment methods you accept and the lien notice line if you use one. Then download the PDF and send it.

Choose General contractor in the Trade menu to load phase, percent complete and retainage fields, with demolition, framing and finish lines. No preset fills in prices, because only you know your numbers.

Fields Generic Invoice Templates Miss

Search results for this keyword are full of general invoice layouts from design and accounting tools. They work for a freelancer billing hours. They do not fit a contractor who buys materials, pulls permits and gets paid in stages. These are the fields to look for in any template, ours included.

Permit and License

Put your contractor license number in the header and the permit number in the job details. Clients, lenders and inspectors often ask for both, and an invoice that carries them saves a phone call. If the permit fee was passed through to the client, bill it on its own line, so it reads as a pass-through and not as part of your labor.

Materials Markup

You pay for the trip to the supplier, the loading, the returns and the risk of a bad part. Markup covers that. In the template you enter your cost and a markup percentage, and the client only sees the final price per unit. Your cost never prints. The right markup depends on your trade and your market, so we do not suggest a number. If your contract says materials are billed at cost plus a stated percentage, the invoice should follow the contract exactly.

Deposits and Balance

The deposit you collected up front belongs on the invoice as a credit. Without it, the client sees the full price and wonders whether the deposit was counted. The template shows the total, the deposit received, any earlier payments and the balance due, in that order. Some states limit how large a deposit a contractor can take for certain work, so check your state’s rules.

Lien and Late-Payment Wording

Many states let a contractor or supplier file a mechanics lien on a property when a bill goes unpaid, and many require a preliminary or pre-lien notice, with deadlines that vary by state. The template includes an optional notice line, written as sample wording you can edit, along with a late-payment line such as a monthly finance charge. Whether a notice is required, what it must say and what interest you may charge are state questions. This is not legal advice, so check your state’s rules or ask a construction attorney before you rely on either line.

Construction Invoice Template: Progress Billing

A short repair gets one invoice at the end. A remodel, an addition or a re-pipe does not: you bill in stages, and the client expects to see how far along the job is. This is what people usually mean by a construction invoice template, and it needs a few more lines than a basic bill.

• Phase or draw. Name the stage being billed, for example “Draw 2 of 4” or “Rough-in complete”.
• Percent complete. State how much of the contract is done at this billing. Many contracts tie each draw to a percentage or a milestone, so use the wording the contract uses.
• Retainage. If the contract holds back a percentage until final completion, show the amount held on every invoice so both sides can track it.
• Approved change orders. List each signed change order as its own line with its number, so extras never sit inside the original price.
• Previous billings. Show what has already been invoiced and paid, then what this invoice adds and what remains on the contract.

Pick the phase and percent complete fields in the form and each draw comes out looking the same, which keeps the paper trail clean if a dispute or an audit ever comes up.

Payment Terms That Get You Paid

An invoice with no due date is an invitation to wait. State the terms on the document, not only in the contract.

• Net 15 or Net 30. The number is the days the client has after the invoice date. Net 15 suits small jobs and repeat residential work. Net 30 is common with commercial clients and general contractors, who often run on their own payment cycles. Pick one, write it in the header and print the exact due date.
• Due on receipt. Best for service calls and small repairs where you are standing at the door.
• Deposit and balance. For larger jobs, name the deposit to start, the progress draws and the final balance due on completion.
• Payment methods. Say how you want to be paid: check, ACH transfer, card or a payment link. Each costs you something different in fees and speed, so list the ones you actually prefer.
• Late fees. If you charge one, write the rate and the start date on the invoice and in the contract, and check what your state allows.

Send the invoice the day the work or the draw is done. Late invoices get paid late.

Word, PDF, Excel or Google Docs?

The template gives you three files from one form, plus print.

• PDF is the one to send. It looks the same on every phone and cannot be edited by mistake.
• Word (.docx) is for when you want to rewrite parts of the terms or attach a page of photos. It also opens in Google Docs and Apple Pages.
• Excel (.xlsx) keeps every amount as a number, handy for tracking draws and balances across a project. It also opens in Google Sheets.
• Print gives you a paper copy at US Letter size for handing over at the walkthrough.

Invoice Templates by Trade

The Trade menu above the form changes the starting lines and job fields. If you work in one trade, these pages go deeper on its fields:

• Electrician invoice template, with panel and circuit fields.
• Plumbing invoice template, with fixture and pressure fields.
• HVAC invoice template, with equipment and refrigerant fields.
• Handyman invoice template, for mixed small jobs and flat-rate visits.
• Cleaning invoice template, for recurring visits and supplies.

Before the job starts, the contractor estimate template carries the same details, so the invoice only needs the final numbers. For any other kind of work, the free invoice generator keeps your business details too.

A note on the independent contractor angle: if you are a freelancer billing a company for hours under a 1099, you do not need the permit, markup or retainage fields. Use the generic layout, delete the material lines and keep labor and terms.

When to Move to Software

If you send more than a few invoices a week, or you lose track of which draws are paid, software saves the retyping: most tools turn an approved estimate into an invoice and take card or bank payments from the invoice itself. Joist is built around estimates and invoices for contractors, while Jobber’s plans cover the whole job from quote to payment.