Free Construction Invoice Template

This construction invoice template is an Excel sheet for billing a finished job or a stage of one: your header, the estimate or PO it refers to, 20 dated lines for work and materials, two tax lines, then holdback and payments already received, down to the amount due. In the Excel version, every total calculates itself. Free to download, no signup.

What a construction invoice has to do

A shop invoice lists what was sold. A construction invoice also has to show which job it belongs to, which estimate or purchase order it bills against, what period of work it covers, and what has already been paid or held back. When those lines are missing, the customer delays payment while someone sorts it out, and that someone is usually you.

What's in the template

• Your header. Company, address and phone, licence number and tax registration number on the left. Invoice number, invoice date, due date, the estimate or PO number, and the work period on the right.
• Bill to and job site. Two separate fields, because the person paying and the place you worked are often different.
• 20 dated lines. Date, description of the work or material, quantity or hours, unit, unit price or hourly rate. The date column is there for time-and-materials work, where each day is billed on its own line. In Excel, amounts calculate as quantity times price.
• Subtotal and two tax lines. Tax 1 is GST or HST, Tax 2 is PST or QST where a second tax applies. The rate cells are empty: type the rate that applies to you, with or without the % sign. Leave Tax 2 blank if you charge one tax.
• Holdback and payments. After the total with taxes, a line for holdback retained, if your contract or province calls for one, and a line for the deposit and payments already received. Both take an amount, not a rate.
• Amount due, then payment methods, who cheques are payable to, and notes.

How to fill it in so it gets paid

1. Quote the estimate or PO number. Larger customers match invoices to purchase orders before they pay. No number often means the invoice sits in a pile.
2. Set a due date, not just terms. "Net 30" leaves room to argue about when the 30 days started. A date does not.
3. Bill extras on their own lines. Anything added by a change order gets its own line that names the change order number. Mixing extras into the original lines is how a customer ends up disputing the whole invoice instead of one item.
4. Match hours to timesheets. On time-and-materials work, the hours you bill should be the hours on your timesheets, day by day. If a customer checks one against the other, they should agree.
5. Show the deposit. Subtract it on the invoice so the customer sees you counted it. Forgetting it is the fastest way to lose their trust.
6. Check holdback and tax rules for your province. Whether holdback applies, how much, when it is released and how tax is handled on it all vary by province and by contract. The sheet gives you the line; your contract and accountant give you the numbers.

What to keep on file

Keep a copy of every invoice you send, numbered in sequence with no gaps, with the signed estimate, the signed change orders, and proof of each payment received. How long you must keep business and tax records depends on your province and on the tax authority, so check before you throw anything out.

Where a spreadsheet invoice falls short

If you bill a few jobs a month, this sheet works. The trouble starts when you copy every line over from an estimate by hand, chase overdue invoices from memory, and cannot see at a glance what a customer still owes.

In JobSnap, you create the invoice from the accepted estimate, so the customer and line items carry over. Each invoice gets its own number and a due date from a default payment period you set once, and you mark it sent, paid, overdue or cancelled. The customer's page shows what has been billed and what is still outstanding. If you use QuickBooks Online, customers, estimates and invoices can sync with it. Invoices show up on the job's feed, next to the photos and daily reports that back up what you billed.