Free invoice template for service businesses (Excel)

The file, plyntum-invoice-template.xlsx, has two sheets. Invoice is the one you fill in and send:

• Header: your company details, the client’s details, invoice number, issue date, due date and payment terms.
• Line items: description, quantity, unit (hours, days, items), unit price and a line total that a formula works out.
• Totals: subtotal, a tax-rate cell you can edit (it starts at 0%), the tax amount and the total due.
• Payment: your bank details and a notes line for anything the client needs, such as a purchase order number.

How to use repeats the steps below, so the file still makes sense when someone else opens it. The workbook uses formulas only, with no macros, and opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Apple Numbers. In Google Sheets, upload the .xlsx file and open it with Sheets; the totals keep calculating.

1. Save a copy first. Keep the blank template untouched and create one file per invoice, named with the invoice number.
2. Fill in your details once. Company name, address, a tax or registration number if you have one, and bank details. After that, only the client and the lines change.
3. Add the client. Use the legal name and billing address the client gave you, and the name of the person who approves payment.
4. Give the invoice the next number. Numbers run in order, with no gaps and no reuse: 2026-014 comes after 2026-013.
5. Set the dates. The issue date is the day you send it. The due date is a real calendar date, worked out from the payment terms you agreed.
6. Write one line per piece of work. Enter quantity, unit and unit price; the line total calculates itself. Say you bill 12 hours of design at $80: the line shows $960.
7. Check the tax rate. Leave it at 0% if you do not charge tax, or enter your rate. The tax amount and the total update.
8. Export to PDF and send it. Send the PDF, not the spreadsheet, so the numbers cannot change on the way.

Line items tied to the work

“Design services, March” invites questions. “Homepage redesign, 12 hours, approved 28 March” does not. Each line should point to something the client agreed to: a deliverable, a milestone or a block of hours. If you bill by the hour, the hours should come from a record the client could check, such as a weekly timesheet.

Payment terms and a due date

Write the terms, for example “14 days from the invoice date”, and the date they produce. The person paying sees the date on the page far more easily than a clause in the contract.

Bank details and a payment reference

Give the account name, IBAN or account number, the bank and, for payments from abroad, the SWIFT/BIC code. Ask the client to quote the invoice number in the transfer so you can match the payment to the invoice.

Numbering you can explain

One sequence, no gaps, no reuse. If an invoice is wrong, do not overwrite the old file; issue a corrected document with its own number and refer to the original in the notes line.

Tax, where it applies

Tax rules differ by country. A VAT or GST invoice may have legal requirements beyond this template, such as registration numbers, set wording or an official electronic system. The tax-rate cell does the arithmetic; it does not turn the document into a tax invoice. Check with your accountant. For Georgia, the Georgian version of this page explains the difference between an invoice and a tax invoice (საგადასახადო ანგარიშ-ფაქტურა).

• Invoice when the work is accepted, not at month-end. Every day between delivery and invoice is a day added to your wait.
• Agree the terms before the work starts. Deposits, milestones and due dates belong in the contract, so the invoice holds no surprises.
• Bill extra work separately. One line the client did not expect can hold up the whole invoice. Agree changes in writing first, then invoice them on their own; the article on billing for scope creep shows how.
• Send it to the person who pays. Ask who approves invoices and whether they need a purchase order number on the page.
• Follow up the day after the due date. A short, polite note is easy to write and easy to answer. Once a week, go through the list of open and overdue invoices.
• Price the work so one late payment is not a crisis. If your rate barely covers cost, every late invoice becomes a cash problem. The hourly rate calculator shows what an hour really costs you, and a 13-week cash flow view shows when unpaid invoices start to matter.

A spreadsheet invoice works when you send a handful a month and remember who owes what. It starts to fail when invoice numbers live in several files, when hours are copied from timesheets by hand, and when the only list of unpaid invoices is in your head.

In PLYNTUM, invoices and receivables sit in the same workspace as projects, clients and time:

• Basic invoices and receivables are on every plan, including Launch at $55 a month with 5 members.
• Recurring invoices, for retainers and monthly fees, start with Core: $150 a month, or $120 a month billed annually.
• Hours are logged against tasks on every plan. From Core, managers approve timesheets, and the invoice sits on the same client and project as the approved hours, so you bill from a checked record rather than a spreadsheet.
• Each invoice can be shared with the client by link.

See time and billing software for how hours become invoices, and pricing for the plans.

What PLYNTUM does not do

PLYNTUM is not accounting software: no ledger, no bank feeds, no tax filing and no payroll. It does not submit invoices to a government e-invoicing system. If you need proper books, tax returns or official tax invoices, you need accounting software or an accountant, with or without PLYNTUM. And if you are a freelancer sending two or three invoices a month, this template is probably all you need.