Blog>Trade>Starting a Business>Invoicing as a carpenter and using a free carpenter invoice template
Last updated: 18 December 2024
Invoicing as a carpenter and using a free carpenter invoice template
Like most business admin, doing your invoicing can be a bit of a pain. That's why, as a carpenter, you may be better off using a free carpenter invoice template or invoicing app to ease the burden. You can free up time to concentrate on winning work and building a more profitable business.
As a carpenter, you’ll want to focus on earning money and building your business.
Getting the paperwork right when billing customers can help make trade businesses more profitable. It pays to spend time doing it right.
That’s where a free carpenter invoice template can help. It’ll make light work of the chore.
Time to be more profitable
Using a free carpenter invoice template (like ours) allows you to devote more time to your business.
If you’re starting as a carpenter, now’s the time to set up your invoicing how you want. Growing your carpentry trade business makes staying on top of your invoicing more important than ever.
Why do you need trade business invoices?
The sales invoice is the bedrock of pretty much every business. After all, it records your income. You should maintain accurate business accounts for paying taxes. HMRC can issue fines to trade businesses that don’t keep accurate records.
These are some of the key advantages of getting your invoicing right:
Look more professional
If you think about it, your invoice is probably one of the few documents customers receive from you. So, you’ll want it to look the business.
An invoice template for a carpenter shows customers you are:
Professional
Well-organised
Keen to charge your customers correctly
Expecting to be paid on time
Manage your cash flow better
If your invoicing is up to date and accurate, then your cash flow forecasting should be too. Improving cash flow can be a challenge for trade businesses.
A cash flow forecast works like this. Your invoices record your income, against which you deduct business expenses to work out your cash flow.
How to improve cash flow for trade businesses
What keeps tradespeople awake at night? Worrying about getting paid on time and settling your bills is probably a contender. Often, it all comes down to cash flow. Poor cash flow can quickly bring down even a successful business. Keep in control It doesn't matter whether you're a small or large
Try our quoting and invoicing tool
This free tool will help save you time and effort with invoicing
Make sure you invoice job-related costs
Costs relating to each job can cover:
Materials such as wood
Smaller items, like screws and other ‘consumables’. These can be cheap but someone has to pay for them
Carpentry tools that may need maintaining, repairing or sharpening. Individual costs may not be high but think about passing some or all of these costs on to customers
Keep more accurate business accounts
An invoice template for a carpenter automatically generates high-quality business records. It helps you keep on track.
If you use an accountant, they will welcome accurate records. This could help reduce their bill for preparing your accounts.
Your tax returns to HMRC will need income and expense information. Using a free template gives you greater peace of mind about the information you submit.
If you don’t keep adequate records, you could face a £3,000 HMRC fine.
How a free carpenter invoice template can boost your business
Basically, there are two ways of producing an invoice:
By hand, the long way
Using a carpenter invoice template – free versions are available
Drawbacks of invoicing manually
Cost of buying invoice pads with duplicates – one for you one for your customer
Keeping a record in a ledger of every invoice and when it was paid
Errors are more likely and this makes it harder to keep accurate business records
Having to store paper invoices somewhere secure – the volume will build up over the years
Benefits of using a free carpenter invoice template and tool
You don’t need to feel daunted by switching from manual to digital. Like most software nowadays, invoice template tools are designed to be easy to use.
Hopefully, you’ll quickly pick up the basics. With our invoicing tool, you can:
Use your business details
Automatically create an invoice from an existing quote
Add your own customer leads
Receive new leads in your local area and quickly add a new quote
Send quotes and invoices directly to customers
Want to learn more? Our tool has been created for use on the go.
Our quoting and invoicing tool - saves time on your admin
With tradespeople estimated to spend around 2.5 hours every week on quoting and invoicing customers, our tool is designed to help streamline your job processes. It's easy to use, and generates both quotes and invoices at the touch of a button. > “Our members often tell us that quoting is a pain
Try our quoting and invoicing tool
This free tool will help save you time and effort with invoicing
Carpenter invoice sample
A free carpenter invoice template will prompt you for information, so you don't leave anything out. Below is a typical carpenter invoice example of what goes in a typical trade business invoice:
Invoice number – unique and in sequence
Date
Your trading name, address and contact details
Customer details (of whoever you are invoicing) – their name and address
Description of the work or service you have provided
Dates when the work took place
Amount charged – including your time and any materials they are to pay for
VAT – if you are VAT-registered
Payment terms (see below) – when you expect to be paid
Your trade business account details – for customers to pay you
These are the main components for self-employed sole traders. Other details may be needed if your trade business is a partnership or limited company.
Remember your Ts & Cs
If you look at a carpenter invoice sample, it'll probably include Ts & Cs. This is wording to help things run smoother.
Ts & Cs cover many areas, including how you want your invoices paid.
Set out your terms and conditions
Terms and conditions tell customers how you work. They help customers understand what you will – and won’t – be doing. That includes when and how you expect to be paid.
Put your payment terms in writing on your invoice. That can avoid misunderstandings later on or late payments.
Say how you prefer to be paid
If you're using a free invoice template, then online payments could make sense. You'll probably find that nowadays more customers are comfortable making digital payments.
Taking card payments should make it easier to match money coming in against your invoices.
Keep on top of late payers
With good customer relationships, you'll hopefully rarely be in the awkward position of having to chase up invoice payments.
But business life isn’t always simple. You may need to taken action on overdue invoices. If that’s ever the case, you have certain rights as a tradesperson for getting paid.
Knowing your invoicing is accurate by using a template should help if you’re forced to take legal action or use debt collectors.
Try our quoting and invoicing tool
This free tool will help save you time and effort with invoicing
Free up your time to find more business leads
Starting a carpenter business is a big step. Keeping a business successful can be challenging.
That's where we can help. It's not just our free carpenter invoice template that can boost your trade business.
We can support you in lots of other ways. They include:
Exclusive offers and discounts with suppliers like Tradepoint and Wickes
Reduced cost of workwear and branding
Guaranteed work when booked through us (T&Cs apply)
Dedicated trades apps for job management and quoting/invoicing
What do you need to become Checkatrade approved?
Becoming a Checkatrade member comes with a whole host of benefits, but the biggest has to be gaining our seal of approval. Homeowners tend to expect a commitment to quality when it comes to the Checkatrade tick, which can help you to win more business. Here are the checks you'll need to pass to join our directory.
Key takeaways
A free carpenter invoice template makes invoicing easier to do and more consistent
Using an invoice template for a carpenter helps you keep more accurate business records
A carpenter invoice template creates professional-looking documents to give your customers
Details you record using a free carpenter invoice template can help if you need to chase later-paying customers
HMRC can fine businesses that don’t keep adequate records – a free carpenter invoice template helps you make sure you do
Ready to take your carpentry business to the next level?
We can help you get there
