Carpet fitter
invoice template

Carpet fitters invoice carpet retailers, homeowners, landlords and contractors for fitting carpets and underlay. This free template sets out a carpet fitter invoice the way customers expect to see it, with example lines you can keep or replace.

What goes on a carpet fitter invoice

Give the rooms and square metres or square yards, stairs, gripper, underlay, door bars and door trimming, and say whether the carpet was supplied by the customer or a retailer.

Line by line: Fit carpet, lounge and hall (per m²), 32 × £6.00 = £192.00; Stairs, 13 treads, 1 × £90.00 = £90.00; Gripper and door bars, 1 × £45.00 = £45.00. The subtotal is £327.00. The example assumes you are not VAT registered, so there is no VAT and the total due is £327.00. The figures are illustrative, not a price guide, so use your own rates.

Whatever the job, a UK invoice must carry the basics GOV.UK lists: a unique invoice number, your name or business name and an address, your customer's name and address, a clear description of what you are charging for, the date the work was done and the date of the invoice, the amounts, any VAT, and the total owed. The template has a place for each, and the guide to what a UK invoice must include explains the rules behind them.

Number invoices in one unbroken sequence, such as INV-0001, INV-0002 and so on, and never reuse a number, even for a cancelled invoice. The invoice number generator suggests a format and works out your next number.

How carpet fitters price their work

Per square metre or per room, with stairs, uplift of old carpet and furniture moving as extras.

Whatever the model, write it on the invoice as the customer agreed it: the unit (hour, day, job, item), the quantity and the rate on each line. A customer who can see how a total was built pays faster than one who has to ask. If you are working out what to charge in the first place, the day rate calculator works back from the income you want, and the markup calculator shows what you keep on anything you buy in.

Agree this before you start

Agree who supplies carpet and underlay, uplift and disposal, furniture moving, and door trimming.

When to send a carpet fitter invoice

On completion; retailers on their payment terms.

The sooner an invoice goes out, the sooner it is paid: the payment clock starts when the customer receives it. Send it by email as a PDF on the day the work is finished, and the guide to sending an invoice covers what to put in the email.

VAT on carpet fitter invoices

Standard-rated once registered.

Services to homes and businesses are standard-rated at 20% once you are VAT registered, and there is no special relief for most cleaning and maintenance work. Most sole traders in this line of work stay under the £90,000 registration threshold; if you are not registered, your invoice must not show VAT at all.

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover over any rolling 12 months goes above £90,000, or you expect it to in the next 30 days alone. The VAT registration checker tracks where you are, and invoicing without a VAT number explains what an unregistered invoice looks like.

Who carpet fitters invoice

undefined tend to have two kinds of customer. Regular domestic customers, where a monthly invoice listing each visit saves everyone paperwork, and commercial customers such as offices, letting agents and landlords, who will want your invoice to carry their purchase order or property reference. For agents managing many properties, put the property address on every line so their accounts team can recharge the right landlord.

CIS 340 names carpet as the exception: fitting carpet is excluded from CIS, even on a construction site, while other floor coverings can be within it.

Recharging costs and expenses

Costs you pay out for a job, such as travel, parking, materials or specialist hire, can be passed on to the customer when you agreed to it. Put each on its own line with a short description, and keep the receipts. Recharged costs are part of your income, and the original cost is your expense; if you are VAT registered, VAT is normally charged on the recharge at the rate of your main service. Only a genuine disbursement, a cost paid purely as the customer's agent, is passed on without VAT. The mileage calculator shows what business travel is worth at HMRC's rates.

Insurance, keys and access

Customers trust you with their homes and premises, and a few details on your paperwork show you take that seriously. Public liability insurance is the cover most customers and every letting agent will ask about; put the insurer and policy number on your quote or invoice template. If you hold keys, record which keys you hold, where they are kept and how they are labelled (never with the address on the tag), and return them against a signature when a contract ends. For commercial sites and schools, a basic DBS check may be a condition of the contract, so note it in your terms. None of this is required on an invoice by law, but agents and offices choose suppliers who make their compliance checks easy.

Deposits, stages and cancellations

None when the customer supplies carpet.

Deposits are unusual for routine visits but sensible for large one-off jobs, such as an end-of-tenancy clean or a full clearance, where you set a day aside. A cancellation charge for late cancellations is fair if you agreed it in advance; put your cancellation terms on the quote or booking confirmation, not first on the invoice.

Payment terms for carpet fitters

Retailers usually pay weekly or monthly.

If you agree no terms with a business customer, the law sets payment at 30 days after they receive the invoice or the work, whichever is later. Agreed terms between businesses can run to 60 days, or longer only where that is fair to both sides. When a business pays late, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 lets you claim interest at 8% a year above the Bank of England base rate plus fixed compensation, which the late payment interest calculator works out. These rights do not apply to invoices sent to private individuals, so for household customers your own terms matter even more.

Getting paid faster

Three details decide how quickly most invoices are paid. First, your bank details on the invoice itself: account name, sort code and account number, with the invoice number as the payment reference so you can match the money when it lands. Second, a clear due date rather than "payment on receipt", which customers read as "whenever". Third, a polite reminder the day after the due date, then again at 7 and 14 days. A card payment link on the invoice helps with household customers, who are more likely to pay straight away if it takes one tap. The 30-day payment terms guide and invoice payment terms explain which terms to choose.

If a customer disputes the invoice

Most disputes are about scope: the customer thought something was included that you did not. Respond in writing, point to what was agreed, and separate the part in dispute from the rest, which should be paid on time. If only part of an invoice is questioned, a credit note for that part lets the undisputed amount be settled now. If a business customer still will not pay, a formal letter before action usually does it; after that, in England and Wales, the small claims track of the county court handles claims up to £10,000. The guides to invoice disputes and small claims for an unpaid invoice walk through each step.

Common carpet fitter invoicing mistakes

• CIS deducted in error. Carpet fitting is excluded from CIS; tell the contractor if they try to deduct.
• Uplift and disposal unpriced. Old carpet and underlay are heavy and cost money to dump; price removal.
• Area not measured. Record the area fitted, in square metres or yards.
• Showing VAT when you are not VAT registered. You can only charge VAT with a VAT number, and adding it anyway is an offence. If you are not registered, your invoice shows a total with no VAT line.
• Editing an invoice after sending it. Correct a mistake with a credit note and a new invoice, so your records and your customer's match. The guide to correcting an invoice shows how.

Checklist before you send it

Run through this before every invoice goes out. Each point is a reason invoices get paid late:

• The invoice number is the next in your sequence and has never been used.
• The customer's name and address are right, with their purchase order or reference if they use one.
• Each line shows what was done, the quantity, the unit and the rate.
• The subtotal and total add up, and VAT appears only if you are VAT registered.
• The invoice date, a due date and your bank details are on it.
• A copy is saved with your records before you press send.

Keep a copy of every invoice

Every invoice you issue is a record of income. Keep a copy of each one, digital is fine, along with the payments that settle them. From 6 April 2026, sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital, with the threshold falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. The MTD requirement checker tells you when it applies to you, and how long to keep invoices covers the retention rules.

Download the carpet fitter invoice template

The template comes in four forms. The Word version opens in Microsoft Word, Google Docs and Pages: replace the words in square brackets and save. The Excel version opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers, and works as a calculator, so each line, the subtotal, the VAT and the total update as you type. The PDF is ready to print. Or skip the download and fill it in online with the free invoice generator, which opens with these carpet fitter lines already in place and makes a PDF in your own colours, with your logo.

When a template stops being enough, a TapTax account, free to start, creates and sends your invoices, tracks which are paid, and files your quarterly updates to HMRC from the same records. Our guide for carpet fitters covers the tax side: expenses, National Insurance and Making Tax Digital.