Pro­fes­sion­al invoice templates for Word, Excel and PDF

For an invoice to be re­cog­nised by the tax office as an official business document, you must comply with several formal re­quire­ments. Invoice templates can assist you in ensuring all necessary details are included.

What is an invoice template?

Invoice templates are sample invoices that contain all the required com­pon­ents and can be used to map out new invoices. Instead of starting from square one and tediously as­sem­bling all of the elements on your own, a template like this provides you with a complete example of an invoice with place­hold­er in­form­a­tion that you just have to exchange for the real data.

Invoice templates can generally be cat­egor­ised into text-based and tabular formats. For invoices with only a few services, a text-based template is usually the better option. However, as the com­plex­ity of billable services increases, a tabular invoice template becomes more useful. This format provides a clearer structure for listing in­di­vidu­al prices and the total amount. Ad­di­tion­ally, some templates can include built-in functions to auto­mat­ic­ally calculate values, such as VAT, making invoicing more efficient.

What does a pro­fes­sion­al invoice template look like?

A pro­fes­sion­al invoice should be both clear and com­pre­hens­ive. On one hand, it must be visually appealing and easy to read so that customers can quickly find all relevant details. On the other hand, it must include all necessary in­form­a­tion to ensure com­pli­ance with tax and record-keeping re­quire­ments. In­com­plete or in­ac­cur­ate invoices can cause issues during audits and may even impact tax de­duc­tions.

General invoice re­quire­ments in the United Kingdom

For a com­mer­cial document to be legally re­cog­nised as an invoice in the United Kingdom, it must meet the mandatory spe­cific­a­tions set by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC):

An invoice must include the following:

• Unique iden­ti­fic­a­tion number – Each invoice must have a unique, se­quen­tial number that uniquely iden­ti­fies the document.
• Seller’s name, address, and contact details – The name and address of the supplier issuing the invoice.
• Buyer’s name and address – The name and address of the customer being invoiced.
• Invoice date – The date when the invoice is issued.
• Supply date – The date when the goods or services were provided.
• De­scrip­tion of goods or services – A clear de­scrip­tion of the items or services provided.
• Unit price and quantity – The price per unit and the total quantity supplied.
• Total amount excluding VAT – The total amount payable before VAT.
• VAT rate and amount (if ap­plic­able) – The VAT rate and the cor­res­pond­ing VAT amount.
• Total amount including VAT – The total amount payable, inclusive of VAT.
• Discounts (if any) – If a cash discount is offered, the rate of the discount should be stated.
• Delivery address for legal documents – If using a business name, an address must be provided where legal documents can be delivered.

Be sure to check that the listed in­form­a­tion is complete and accurate—es­pe­cially if you are using a template solution for your invoices.

How to use invoice templates for Word and Excel

To help you un­der­stand the structure and func­tion­al­ity of the invoice templates for Excel, Word, and other formats, we outline the necessary steps to follow when using them.

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Free invoice template download

Your choice simply depends on which program you would rather work with. If you just want to simply and easily achieve the desired goal then a standard-compliant invoice that contains both the complete and correct in­form­a­tion about the provided service as well as the ap­pro­pri­ate customer data. Open the download for your free invoice template by double-clicking:

How to customise the invoice template step by step

After down­load­ing the free invoice template as a PDF, Excel, or Word file, you only need to customise it to meet your in­di­vidu­al re­quire­ments. Simply follow our in­struc­tions:

1. First and foremost, enter your address in­form­a­tion or the company address data in the top left corner. Directly un­der­neath, enter the customer’s address in­form­a­tion.
2. On the right side, you will find another place­hold­er for your own address in­form­a­tion, along with ad­di­tion­al contact details such as a phone number or email address. If you do not offer this kind of support, simply remove the cor­res­pond­ing lines from the invoice template.
3. Next is the invoice subject, which you can phrase freely. Instead of the simple ‘Invoice’ that’s written in the template, you can, for example, also include the invoice number or any other agree­ments or con­di­tions.
4. Below the subject, you will find three place­hold­ers for the invoice number, the customer number (optional), and the invoice date. Be sure to replace the example numbers here and don’t forget to enter the current date.
5. The next line is des­ig­nated for the header text, where you directly address the customer. Typically, you use this space to thank them for using your services or making a purchase and to provide a brief trans­ition in­dic­at­ing that the following section lists the invoiced costs.
6. After ad­dress­ing the customer, the most important part of the invoice follows: the list of items (products or services). A table is available for this purpose, which you can expand or shorten by adding or removing rows as needed. The columns should include the item de­scrip­tion, quantity, unit price, and total price for each item.
7. Below the table, you must specify the total amount due before VAT as well as the total invoice amount including VAT.
8. At the end of the invoice, there is another text area for ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion, such as notifying the customer of the date the service was provided, or the goods were shipped. It is also common to specify the payment deadline for the amount due.
9. The last section of the invoice template is the footer text. Here, you provide your contact details once again, along with the following bank account details, which the customer needs for the payment transfer:

• Company name (to be used on cheques)
• Company address
• Bank account in­form­a­tion (if ap­plic­able)

9. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to include your VAT Re­gis­tra­tion Number if your business is VAT-re­gistered. For in­ter­na­tion­al sales, VAT rules vary depending on whether you are selling to busi­nesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C). B2B sales to VAT-re­gistered EU companies are typically zero-rated under the reverse charge mechanism, meaning the buyer accounts for VAT, and the customer’s VAT number should be included on the invoice.
10. Now you can save and print your invoice template. It’s also possible to save the invoice as a PDF file so that you can send it as an email in the future.

Please note the legal notice for this article.