Consulting invoice template
An invoice for consulting work: calls, workshops and deliverables on dated lines, a retainer as a flat fee, and travel at cost. Fill in your own and save it as a PDF.
Opens in the free invoice generator. No account, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
What to put on it
- A purchase order or reference
- Larger clients match invoices to a PO number. If you were given one, put it in the invoice number or the first line. Without it the invoice can sit unpaid in a queue.
- Who to send it to
- Often not your contact. Ask for the accounts payable address before the first invoice, and send it there.
- The period covered
- For a retainer or a monthly engagement, name the month on the line itself: “Monthly advisory retainer, November”.
- Expenses kept apart
- Travel and other costs go on their own lines at the amount paid, so fees and reimbursements are easy to tell apart.
Hours, days or a retainer
Consultants bill by the hour, by the day, or with a monthly retainer that covers a set amount of time. A day rate goes on the invoice as a quantity at a price: three days at your day rate. Time beyond a retainer goes on hourly lines under it.
Payment terms with larger clients
Thirty days is common, and some companies pay on longer cycles set by their own policy. Find out before you start. If their cycle is long, invoicing on the last day of the month instead of a week later can move your payment up by a whole cycle.
Questions
More on writing invoices in the guides.
How do I invoice a retainer plus extra hours?
Put the retainer on its own line as a flat fee with the month it covers. List the extra work under it as hourly lines with dates. The client sees what the retainer bought and what went beyond it.
How do I bill a day rate on an invoice?
As a quantity at a price: the number of days, times your day rate. Describe what the days were for and give the dates in the description.
Should travel time be billed?
That depends on what you agreed. Some consultants bill travel time at their full rate, some at half, some not at all. Whatever you agreed, put travel time on its own line so it is not mistaken for project work.
Related templates
Beyond a template
Have the lines written from your notes.
A template still leaves the writing to you. With a free Sandglass account you paste the notes you kept, a time-tracker export or a git log, enter your hours and rate, and it drafts the dated lines. Then it emails the invoice and tracks whether it was paid.