Photography Invoice Template

This template bills a client for a photo session: the hours of coverage, any edited images beyond the number your session includes, and prints, less the retainer the client paid to book the date. It suits portrait, family and event sessions where you deliver edited images and sell prints.

The photography invoice has:

• Photographer: business name, address, and phone or email.
• Invoice details: invoice no., invoice date, payment terms, due date and a booking no. (a placeholder for your booking or contract reference).
• Bill to (client): client, address and email.
• Shoot: the session, the date and location, the images delivered, and a "Usage license" field that's a placeholder for the usage terms you agreed.
• Session coverage, Edited images and Prints: tables with Item, Details, Qty, Unit, Rate and Amount, with a "Coverage subtotal", an "Images subtotal" and a "Prints subtotal".
• Totals: Subtotal, "Sales tax, if applicable", Total, "Less: retainer received" and Amount due.
• How to pay: accepted methods, account name, bank details and a payment reference.
• Session notes on what the session includes, the retainer and when prints ship.

It comes as three files:

• Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx): filled with a sample invoice for you to overwrite.
• PDF: a blank form to print and fill in by hand, with a blank for the tax rate. It fits on one page. It's sized for A4 paper, so if you print on US Letter, check the scaling setting in your print dialog.

Bill the session as hours of coverage at your hourly rate, and say in Details what the session includes, such as "Outdoor family session, 25 edited images included". The sample's note puts the terms in writing: "Sample terms: the session covers 2 hours and 25 edited images; further edited images are 12.00 each." Use your own terms.

List each print size and paper on its own line, such as "Fine art print, 16 x 20 in." on matte paper, with the quantity and price each. The sample's note says when prints go out: "Prints ship to the client's address once this invoice is settled."

The "Usage license" field is a placeholder: set out in your contract what the client may do with the images, such as personal use only, and refer to it on the invoice. What US copyright law says:

• Who owns the photos, unless they're a work made for hire. "Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work" (17 U.S.C. § 201(a), copyright.gov). But § 201(b) says: "In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright." Which commissioned works can be works made for hire is set out in Circular 30.
• A print isn't the copyright. Section 202 says "Transfer of ownership of any material object, including the copy or phonorecord in which the work is first fixed, does not of itself convey any rights in the copyrighted work embodied in the object". Selling a print or delivering a gallery doesn't by itself transfer the copyright.
• Transfers are in writing. Under § 204(a), a transfer of copyright ownership "is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner's duly authorized agent". Section 101 (copyright.gov) counts an exclusive license as a transfer of copyright ownership, but not a nonexclusive license.

Outside the US, check the law where you work. This page isn't legal advice.

In the Excel file:

• Each line amount is Qty × Rate, rounded to the cent, and each table has its own subtotal.
• Each table has one blank row at the end. To add more lines, insert rows above the last item row of a table so its subtotal includes them, then copy the amount formula down.
• The Subtotal adds the three tables, "Sales tax, if applicable" is the Subtotal × the rate in its own cell, and the Total is the Subtotal + the tax.
• You type the retainer, and the Amount due is the Total less the retainer.

The file's tip says: "To leave out "Sales tax, if applicable", set its rate to 0%; to leave out "Less: retainer received", set it to 0.00. Don't delete these rows: the totals refer to them."

In the Word file, the amounts are typed, not calculated, so retype them when you change a figure. The PDF is blank, so fill in every amount and the tax rate by hand. We haven't tested the files in Excel or Word.

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