Small Business Invoice Template

A small business invoice bills one customer for the goods you sold and the work you did for them. This template puts products and services in their own tables, takes a business account discount off the subtotal, adds sales tax if it applies, and states your payment terms. A customer account number on each invoice makes it easier to match their payment to the right account.

Each table has the same columns: "Item", "Description", "Qty", "Unit", "Price" and "Amount". Use "Unit" for how you sell each line: by the pair, the set, the bike or the hour in the sample. Keeping the two tables apart shows the customer what they paid for goods and what they paid for work, and both subtotals feed the one "Subtotal" line.

If a service line relates to products on the same invoice, say so in its description. The sample's fitting line reads "For the products above".

"Sales tax, if applicable" starts at 0%. In the Excel file it applies to the subtotal after the discount. Whether your products, your services or both are taxable, and whether a discount lowers the taxable amount, depends on where you sell, so check with the tax agency there, then set the rate.

The template has one sales tax rate for the whole invoice. If only some lines are taxable where you sell, work out the tax on those lines yourself and enter it in place of the formula.

1. Add your business details, then the invoice number, invoice date, payment terms, due date and the customer's account number.
2. Enter the customer's company, contact, address and email under "Bill to (customer)".
3. List the products you sold in "Products" and the work you did in "Services", each with a quantity, unit and price.
4. Set the business account discount rate, or 0% if there's no discount, and the sales tax rate, or leave it at 0%.
5. Edit the notes, replace the placeholders in "How to pay" with your own details, and send the invoice.

The PDF is a one-page blank form for filling in by hand. The Word and Excel files have the same layout with the sample filled in, for you to overwrite. All three are set up for A4 paper, so if you print on US Letter, check the scaling setting in your print dialog so the whole page fits.

In the Excel file:

• each line amount is "Qty" × "Price", rounded to the cent, and stays blank until both are filled in;
• "Products subtotal", "Services subtotal" and "Subtotal" are formulas;
• "Business account discount" is its rate × the subtotal, "Sales tax, if applicable" is its rate × the subtotal minus the discount, and the amount due is the subtotal minus the discount plus the tax;
• to leave out "Business account discount" or "Sales tax, if applicable", set the line's rate to 0%. Don't delete these rows, because the totals refer to them;
• each table has one blank row. For more lines, insert rows above a table's blank row, copy the "Amount" formula into them, and check that the table's subtotal and "Subtotal" include the new rows.

In Word or on the PDF, work out the amounts yourself.

For a general layout rather than a small business one, see invoice templates by format: Word, Excel, PDF, Google Docs and Google Sheets, or browse all invoice templates.

• Freelancer invoice for fixed-price work, hourly time and expenses passed through at cost
• Services rendered invoice for services already provided, one dated line per service
• Sole trader invoice for UK sole traders billing in pounds sterling
• Sample invoice for a fully worked example with every field filled in