Invoice
template for PDF

A PDF invoice template is best when you want paper: a pad of blank documents for jobs away from a computer, or a copy to keep in the van. For a typed document, the free online generator makes a finished PDF with your details in a minute. This page explains both routes, whether a handwritten invoice is valid, and what a UK invoice must show.

Printing and filling in by hand

Print as many copies as you need on A4 and keep them in a folder or clipboard. A handwritten invoice is perfectly valid, as long as it shows everything the law or your customer needs and is legible. Write the number in sequence before you use each one, fill it in fully in ink, and keep a copy: photograph it before handing it over, or use carbon or duplicate paper.

Making a typed PDF instead

A PDF template cannot be edited like a Word file. To produce a typed invoice, use the Word or Excel version of the template and save it as a PDF, or use the free invoice generator, which makes a finished PDF with your business details, logo and colours without any download. Typed documents are easier to read, faster to send and simpler to keep as digital records.

Digital records from paper

If you work on paper, turn it into digital records as you go. Photograph or scan each invoice the day you issue it and file the image with a clear name. Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, your records must be kept digitally, so a paper-only system will need to change once it applies to you.

Keeping a numbered pad

If you issue a lot of handwritten invoices, print a batch and number them in advance, then keep them in order in a folder so any missing number is obvious. Record each one in a simple list or spreadsheet as you use it: number, date, customer and amount. That list makes it easy to see what is outstanding and to total your income at the end of each quarter, and it is the first step towards the digital records Making Tax Digital requires.

What the invoice must show

Send an invoice when you have supplied goods or services and expect to be paid later, even if only a few days later. Businesses almost always need one, because their accounts team cannot pay without it, and a VAT-registered customer needs a VAT invoice to reclaim the VAT.

The template's example lines, which you replace with your own:

Filling in the invoice

1. Replace [Your business name] and the address and contact lines with your own details.
2. Add your customer's name and address under "Bill to".
3. Give the invoice the next number in your sequence and set the invoice date.
4. Describe each piece of work or item on its own line, with the quantity and price.
5. Add VAT at the correct rate only if you are VAT registered, and your VAT number.
6. Set the due date from your payment terms and add your bank details.
7. Save it as a PDF and email it to the person who pays, keeping a copy.

VAT invoices and payment terms

You can only charge VAT if you are VAT registered, and registration is compulsory once your taxable turnover over any 12 months goes above £90,000. A VAT-registered business selling to another VAT-registered business must issue a VAT invoice, normally within 30 days of the supply, showing its VAT number, the time of supply, and for each item the price excluding VAT, the rate and the VAT. Payment terms are up to you and your customer, but between businesses the law fills the gap when none are agreed: payment is due 30 days after the customer receives the invoice or the goods, and late payers owe statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate plus fixed compensation. The invoice due date calculator and late payment interest calculator do the sums.

Invoice, receipt, quote or pro forma?

An invoice asks to be paid for something already supplied. A receipt confirms payment has been made. A quote offers a price before the work, and a pro forma invoice asks for payment in advance but is not a real invoice or a VAT invoice. If you need to reduce or cancel an invoice after sending it, the right document is a credit note, never an edited invoice.

Getting paid on time

Most late payment is disorganisation, not refusal. Put everything needed to pay on the invoice: your bank details, the reference to use and a clear due date. Send it on the day the work is finished, to the person who actually pays, and quote the customer's purchase order number if they gave you one. Then follow a simple routine: a friendly reminder the day after the due date, a firmer one a week later, and a payment reminder letter after two weeks. If a business still does not pay, a letter before action usually does it.

Invoices for sole traders and limited companies

A sole trader invoices in their own name, or in a business name with their own name shown too, and gives an address where legal documents can be delivered. A limited company must use its full registered name, and its business letters and order forms must also show its registered number, place of registration and registered office address, which is why most companies put them on invoices too. Neither needs to be VAT registered to invoice. Until you register, you simply invoice without VAT; once registered, every invoice to a VAT-registered customer must be a full VAT invoice.

Invoicing and your tax return

For most sole traders, income is taxed on the cash basis, which is the default from the 2024 to 2025 tax year: an invoice counts as income when it is paid, not when it is sent. Your invoices are still your record of what you earned and when, so they need to be complete and kept. Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, your quarterly updates are built from these records, which is where keeping invoices digitally from the start pays off: nothing has to be retyped at the end of the quarter.

Common mistakes

• Charging VAT when not VAT registered. You can only show VAT with a VAT number; an unregistered business shows the total with no VAT line.
• Editing an invoice after sending it. Correct mistakes with a credit note and a new invoice, so both sets of records match.
• No due date or bank details. Without them the invoice is harder to pay and easier to ignore; put both on every invoice.
• No copy of handwritten documents. Photograph each one before it leaves your hands.
• Skipping numbers on a paper pad. Number every document in sequence before use.

Checklist before you send it

A quick check of every invoice before you send it:

• A unique invoice number is on it and correct.
• Your name or business name, and an address is on it and correct.
• Your customer's name and address is on it and correct.
• A clear description of what you are charging for is on it and correct.
• The date of supply and the date of the invoice is on it and correct.
• The amount charged for each item, VAT if applicable, and the total owed is on it and correct.
• Your VAT number, and VAT details for each rate, if VAT registered is on it and correct.
• A copy is saved with your records.

Keep a copy

Business documents are records, and records have to be kept. Save every invoice in one place, ideally digitally, so you can find it if a customer or HMRC asks. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax makes digital records compulsory from 6 April 2026 for qualifying income over £50,000, from April 2027 over £30,000 and from April 2028 over £20,000; check your date with the MTD requirement checker.

Other formats and the full guide

This page covers PDF. The invoice template guide explains the document itself in full, and the same template is available in the other formats from there. To skip the download, the free invoice generator makes a finished PDF online.

If you would rather not manage documents by hand, a TapTax account, free to start, keeps your invoices, receipts and bank transactions together and files your Making Tax Digital quarterly updates to HMRC.