Free contractor invoice template
On a job that runs weeks, the invoice is not a request for payment so much as a status report with a number at the bottom. Progress billing done properly tells the owner what percentage of each scope is complete, what changed since the last draw, and what is being held back — and it is the single best defence against a payment dispute at the end.
Download the contractor invoice template
Pre-labeled with the lines a contractor business actually bills, dated today, with the amounts left blank for you to fill in.
PDF, US Letter, print-ready. No signup, no email address.
What is already on the template
These are the rows printed on the PDF, amounts left blank. The note under each one lives here rather than on the invoice, so what you hand a client stays clean. Delete the lines you do not bill — the list is deliberately longer than a single job, so it doubles as a check that you have not left money on the table.
- Deposit / mobilization
- First invoice only. Check your state cap before setting the amount
- [Demolition] — 100% complete
- One line per scope in the schedule of values, with percent complete
- [Framing] — 60% complete
- Bill the percentage completed this period, not the contract value
- Change order #[1] — signed [date]
- Never fold a change order into a progress line
- Allowance reconciliation — [tile]
- Difference between the allowance and the actual selection
- Permit fees
- Passed through at cost, with the permit number
- Less retainage ([10]%) — enter as a negative
- So the balance shown is the amount actually due on this draw
Build the draw schedule before you build anything else
Draws tied to milestones settle themselves. Draws tied to the calendar are argued about every month.
Write a schedule of values
Break the contract price into scopes — demo, framing, rough mechanical, drywall, finishes — and assign each a dollar value that adds up to the contract. Every progress invoice then bills a percentage of each scope, and the owner can check your claim by walking the site.
Tie each draw to a completed milestone
"Rough inspection passed" is verifiable. "End of month two" is not. Milestone draws mean the conversation is about whether the work happened, which is a conversation you can win with a photo.
Bill the period, show the cumulative
Each invoice should show what was completed this period, what has been billed to date, and what remains. Commercial and bank-financed jobs will ask for this in AIA G702/G703 form; residential owners rarely will, but they read it gratefully when you provide it anyway.
Invoice the final payment against substantial completion
Not "the job is done" — substantial completion, meaning the owner can use the space for its purpose, with a punch list attached. That is when retainage becomes billable and when the clock on final payment starts.
The four line types that cause every payment fight
- The deposit
- Several states cap what a residential contractor may collect up front. California's home improvement rule is the strictest well-known one: 10% of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less. Others limit it to a third, or say nothing at all. Look yours up once — an over-collected deposit is a licensing problem, not just an awkward conversation.
- Change orders
- Signed, priced and invoiced separately, every time. The moment a change is absorbed into a progress line, you have lost the ability to prove the owner agreed to it. "We will settle up at the end" is how contractors end up eating $14,000 of extras.
- Retainage
- Five to ten percent held back from each draw until the punch list is closed. It is normal, it is often contractual, and it is also the money you are most likely never to see — so track it as a running balance on every invoice rather than discovering at the end that four draws of 10% is a month of payroll.
- Allowances
- An allowance is a placeholder, not a price. When the owner picks $18/sq ft tile against a $9 allowance, that difference is its own invoice line with the selection named on it. Reconcile allowances as they are spent, not in a lump at the end.
Preliminary notices and lien rights
In many states your mechanic's lien rights depend on a notice you have to send early — California's preliminary notice is due within 20 days of first furnishing labor or materials, and other states have their own form and their own clock. Missing it does not affect this invoice; it affects whether the invoice is collectable if the owner stops paying. Find out your state's deadline before your first job of the year, not during your first non-payment.
Net 30 on paper, thirty-five days in practice
Commercial and GC-to-sub work runs on net 30, often with pay-when-paid language that quietly makes it longer. Small residential work does not have to: due on receipt or net 10 is entirely normal for a homeowner paying a draw, and the shorter term is one of the real advantages of working direct.
Whatever the term, exchange lien waivers with payment — conditional on the invoice, unconditional once the funds clear. It costs you nothing, it reassures owners and lenders, and it is the paperwork that makes the next draw arrive without a phone call.
General contractor invoicing questions
How should I structure a draw schedule on a residential remodel?
Start from a schedule of values that splits the contract price across scopes, then attach each draw to a milestone the owner can verify: contract signing and mobilization, demo complete, rough-in inspections passed, drywall complete, substantial completion. Four to six draws suits most remodels. Fewer and you are financing the job; more and you spend your evenings writing invoices.
How much of a deposit can I ask for?
Whatever your state allows and no more. California caps residential home improvement deposits at 10% of the contract or $1,000, whichever is less. Several other states set their own limit, often a third of the contract; some set none. Where you have room, ask for enough to cover mobilization and long-lead material, and be able to point to the contract clause that says so.
What is retainage and do I have to accept it?
It is a percentage — usually five to ten — withheld from every progress payment until the work is finished and the punch list closed, and on commercial work it is nearly always in the contract. On residential work it is negotiable, and a reasonable compromise is retainage that releases at substantial completion rather than at final inspection. Whatever you agree, show the running retainage balance on each invoice so the final one is not a surprise to either of you.
How do I invoice a change order?
Get it signed before the work happens, price it as its own scope, and put it on the invoice as a separate line that names the change order number and the date it was signed. Never bury it in a progress line and never carry a stack of unsigned verbal changes to the end of the job — an unsigned change order is a gift you gave the owner.
When do I invoice the final payment?
At substantial completion, with the punch list attached and a date by which those items will be closed. Waiting until the last punch item is done gives the owner an incentive to keep finding items, and it delays retainage release by weeks. Invoice at substantial completion, finish the punch list, and release the unconditional lien waiver when the money clears.
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