SEO Consultant Invoice Template for Monthly Retainers

The template is built around a fixed monthly retainer, with room for the extras that often come with one. It has:

• Consultant: your business name, address, phone or email, and tax ID if you have one
• Invoice details: invoice number, invoice date, the billing period the invoice covers, payment terms and due date
• Bill to: the client's company, contact, billing address and PO number if they require one
• Engagement: the agreement the work falls under, the website you work on and the hours included each month
• Monthly retainer: one line for the fee for the billing period, with the included hours in the description
• Additional hours (approved): work beyond the retainer, one line per piece of work with the date the client approved it, priced as hours × rate, with its own subtotal
• Reimbursable tools at cost: each tool's share for the month, with a tools subtotal
• Totals: the subtotal of your fees, a "Sales tax, if applicable" line, the reimbursable tools added at cost, and the amount due
• How to pay: accepted methods, with placeholders for your account name and bank details, and the invoice number as the payment reference
• Deliverables this period: a list of the work completed, with anything done under additional hours marked as such
• A footnote saying that hours beyond the retainer are billed only when approved in writing before the work starts

The Deliverables this period list is the client's record of what they're paying for this month. It isn't priced line by line, because the retainer and additional hours already carry the amounts. Describe outputs you can point to, as the sample does:

• "Technical audit of 1,240 URLs with a prioritized fix list"
• "Keyword map for 4 product categories"
• "6 category pages rewritten and published (additional hours)"
• "Monthly ranking and traffic report, attached"

The last item lists the report as something delivered. The figures in it stay in the report.

Avoid lines that promise or bill for outcomes, such as "Ranking improvements" or "Traffic growth". You don't control search engines, and an invoice that charges for results invites a dispute in any month the numbers fall. If your agreement includes a performance bonus, define exactly how it's measured in the agreement and bill it as its own line when it's earned.

If you look after several brands or websites for one client, either subtotal each site on the same invoice or send separate invoices, depending on how the client's accounts team wants to receive them. Ask before the first invoice rather than after it's been rejected.

Put both the payment terms and the actual due date on the invoice. "Net 15" or "Net 30" means payment is due 15 or 30 days after the invoice date, but writing out the date avoids any confusion over which day the count started from. The sample uses Net 15 from an invoice date of 1 November, so the due date is 16 November. You might ask for retainers to be paid before the month starts and give longer terms on project work; whatever you choose, put it in the agreement.

A late fee or interest on overdue invoices is a business policy, and it works best when the client agreed to it in writing before the work began. Put the policy in your agreement and repeat it in the invoice notes. Whether you can charge late fees or interest, and how much, depends on where you and your client are, so check your local rules before setting a figure. The late fee calculator can help you work out the amount once you have a rate.

Tax on SEO services isn't treated the same way everywhere, and nor are recharged costs. Check with the tax agency where you're registered before you fill in the "Sales tax, if applicable" line. If no tax applies, leave it at zero: in the Excel file, keep its rate at 0% rather than deleting the row, because the amount due formula refers to it. In the Word file you can delete the line. On the template the tax applies to your fees only, not to the tools you pass on; if tax in your area also applies to recharged costs, adjust the tax amount (in the Excel file, its formula) to include them.

Don't edit an invoice after you've sent it. If the scope changes mid-month, bill the extra work on a new invoice or on next month's. If you made a mistake, correct it in a way your bookkeeping can track.

1. Fill in your details under Consultant, then the invoice number and invoice date. Number invoices in sequence so each one is unique.
2. Enter the billing period, the payment terms and the due date.
3. Fill in the client under Bill to, including their PO number if they require one, then the agreement, the website and the hours included under Engagement.
4. Enter the retainer for the period in Monthly retainer.
5. Add any Additional hours (approved): describe the work with the date it was approved, then the hours and your rate.
6. Add each tool under Reimbursable tools at cost, with the tool and the period its share covers.
7. Set the sales tax if it applies to you, and check the amount due.
8. Fill in How to pay, list the work under Deliverables this period, then send the invoice and keep a copy.

The PDF is a blank form for printing and filling in by hand. The Word and Excel files have the same layout with sample values already filled in, so you can overwrite them for each client. In the Excel file, the line amounts, subtotals, tax and amount due are calculated by formulas, and the sales tax rate sits in its own cell, starting at 0%. The additional hours and tools sections each have one blank line. To add more, insert a row between two existing lines of that section, copy the amount formula into it, and check that the section subtotal and the amount due include it. Don't delete the tax row; set its rate to 0% instead. In Word or on the PDF, do the arithmetic yourself.

• Retainer invoice for other retainer-based services
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• Consulting invoice for general consulting projects
• Marketing invoice for wider marketing services
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• All invoice templates