How to create a PDF invoice template for contract or consulting work.

If you’re a contractor, consultant, or freelancer, how you invoice for your time is just as important as the work that you do. Your invoices need to include clear and accurate information and look professional. Create a customized invoice template for your consulting or contract work. You’ll save yourself time, and it may help you to get paid on time. Read on to learn how.

What you’ll learn

• The importance of invoicing as a contractor, consultant, or freelancer
• Starting right — get client agreement, track your work, and decide how to invoice
• What to include in an invoice template
• Creating and/or customizing an invoice template
• Sending invoices to clients as PDF files

The importance of invoicing as a consultant, contractor, or freelancer.

Consultants, independent contractors, and freelancers often are their business. They do it all — deliver services, complete operational tasks, manage finances, marketing, and more. If this is you, you’re not alone. There can be a lot to do, no matter what type of legal structure you have set yourself up as — a sole trader, a small business, or an independent contractor.

Having a systematic approach to invoicing to charge for your work is not only common sense, but it’s also essential. You want to make sure you keep track of the work you do, charge for it accurately, give your clients all the information they need to pay you on time and meet your tax and record-keeping responsibilities.

Creating invoice templates for your contract or consulting work will save you time. It will also ensure you present your clients with a professional close to the work you have provided and are asking payment for.

Start right — get client agreement, track your work, and decide on an invoicing system.

Before you even do any work for a client or charge for your services, there are three vital steps to take to ensure that you invoice correctly for your work. These are —

• Client agreement.
  Set out and pre-agree rates, fees, and chargeable costs with your clients before you start any work. These terms and conditions for payment and deliverables should be set out and agreed upon in mutually signed and secure PDF documents, quotes and/or a contract for services to protect both parties should any issues arise.

• Track your time or work completed.
  Whether you charge by the hour for your services or work at a flat rate or fixed price, always track your time and work done, including any costs that may be chargeable to your clients. Keeping track of what you have done and when will make it much easier when it comes to creating your invoices and is more reliable than your memory alone.

• Assess your needs for different accounting and invoicing methods.
  As a contractor or consultant, take a little time to weigh up what type of accounting or invoicing method is going to suit you. This might depend on the volume of invoices you expect to be producing and your budget.

You may opt to purchase accounting software that can produce invoices for you. It’s also quite straightforward to create professional invoices using applications and software you probably already have. Either way, you’ll need to customize your invoice template to reflect you and your business.

What to include in an invoice template.

Always review a consulting or contractor invoice template to check it includes fields and sections for everything you need to include. Your invoice template needs to lay out for your client what you are asking them to pay you for, how much you are asking to be paid, and when you expect payment. An invoice template should be laid out in a way that is easy for your client to understand.

Details to include in a contractor or consulting services invoice template include —

• A clear heading of Invoice or Tax Invoice.
  Include a heading that clearly states the document is an Invoice. If you are in a country such as Australia or New Zealand, where you may be GST registered, you will need to state it is a Tax Invoice.

• Your information.
  Include your name (or company name) address, phone number, email address, and any other relevant contact information on your invoice. If you have a logo, always add it to your invoice. This makes your invoice recognizable, and it reinforces your brand.

• Your client’s information.
  Include space to add the client's name, address, phone number, email address, and any other relevant details. If your client is a larger organization, remember to include a line for the department or name of the person who was responsible for engaging your services.

• Invoice Number.
  Include a field to assign a unique invoice number to every invoice.

• Date.
  Add a date field to select the dateou create and send your invoice.

• Description of services.
  Use dropdown fields to list the services you regularly provide. Then, when you use your template to create the invoice, it’s quick for you to select an item.

• Hourly rate or fixed price.
  Specify whether your invoice is on an hourly rate or fixed price basis.
  • If you charge an hourly rate, include columns for the number of hours worked and the hourly rate charged.
  • If you deliver services at a priced price or set rate, make room to itemise each deliverable.

• Subtotal.
  Calculate the subtotal field by adding up the costs of all the services provided.

• Taxes.
  If applicable, include a field for any taxes, such as GST that need to be added to the subtotal. Make sure to clearly state the type of tax, and the tax rate and calculate the tax amount.

• Total amount due.
  The total amount due field should add your subtotal and taxes (if any) to get the total amount due from the client.

• Due date.
  Add a field to select the date the payment is due. Make sure this is clear and easy to spot on your invoice.

• Payment terms.
  Specify any payment terms, such as late payment penalties or discounts for early payment.

• Payment methods.
  Include the payment methods you accept, such as credit card, bank transfer, PayPal, etc.

• Additional notes.
  Add any additional notes or terms relevant to the invoice or project. A note to say something along the lines of, “Thank you for your business. Prompt payment is appreciated”, is always a nice touch.

After you’ve created your invoice template —

• check that all your form fields work
• ensure there are no typos or errors

Create and customise an invoice template.

There are many invoice templates available online that you can download and customize. If you are using accounting software, you will usually have prebuilt invoice templates that you can also adapt.

When you’re adapting an invoice template, always be sure to check it covers everything you need, and that nothing is missing. For example, in Australia and New Zealand, if you are GST registered, you will need the words “Tax Invoice” and clearly show the GST amounts.

Adobe offers a few ways to create and customise invoice templates —

• Start from scratch or edit a PDF invoice template.
  Use Adobe Acrobat to either start an invoice template from scratch or edit and customize an existing PDF template.

• Convert to PDF.
  Invoice templates in Word or Excel are easy to convert to PDF.

• Use your creative apps.
  Explore invoice templates on Adobe Stock that have been created in InDesign, Illustrator, and other apps in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

• Customize free editable invoice templates.
  Adobe Express has many free editable invoice templates that you can download and make your own.

To customize a PDF template with Adobe Acrobat, you’ve got a lot of tools at your fingertips. You can easily edit a PDF, add interactive form fields, calculate fields, and more.

Send your invoices to clients as PDF files.

You can easily send your invoices to clients as PDF files from within Acrobat. Here’s how —

• Review first.
  Before sending the invoice, double-check all the information you have entered, such as your client details, and services being charged for, and all amounts are accurate and complete. Also, review your PDF security settings and password-protect any content you don’t want others to be able to change.

• Send the invoice.
  You can either send your invoice as an email attachment from within an Adobe Acrobat app or use cloud storage to invite your recipients to access your PDF invoice via Adobe Acrobat online.
  
  

Related content.

Keep exploring! A few other articles to help consultants and contracts work with PDF files include —

• PDF security: Protect your sensitive content and information
• How to be operationally efficient as a one-person business
• How to scan receipts to PDF