Electrician invoice template

What has to be on a UK electrician’s invoice

There is no special invoice format for electricians, but there is a minimum set of details every invoice has to carry. GOV.UK’s guidance on invoicing and taking payment from customers says an invoice must include:

• a unique identification number
• your company name, address and contact information
• the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing
• a clear description of what you are charging for
• the date the goods or service were provided (the supply date)
• the date of the invoice
• the amount or amounts being charged
• the VAT amount, if applicable
• the total amount owed

Two extra rules depend on how you trade. If you are a sole trader, you must show your own name as well as any business name you use, and if you use a business name you must give an address where legal documents can be delivered to you. If you run a limited company, you must use the full company name exactly as it appears on the certificate of incorporation — and if you decide to name any of your directors on the invoice, you have to name all of them. The footer of the template is where that goes.

“A clear description of what you are charging for” is doing more work than it looks. “Electrical work — £780” technically ticks the box and is still the single most common reason an invoice gets queried. “Supply and install 10-way dual RCD consumer unit, test and certify, plus 3 hours EICR remedials” almost never does.

What changes if you are VAT registered

You must register for VAT when your total taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or when you expect it to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days (GOV.UK: when to register for VAT). Below that you can register voluntarily, but you are not obliged to.

This is the fork in the road for your paperwork. GOV.UK’s VAT Notice 700/21 states plainly that only VAT-registered businesses can issue VAT invoices. If you are not registered, you must not show VAT, must not add 20% to your prices, and must not call the document a VAT invoice. Leave the VAT toggle off in the template and every trace of VAT disappears from the document.

If you are registered, you must use VAT invoices where both you and your customer are VAT registered, and normally you must issue the invoice within 30 days of the date you make the supply. A full VAT invoice has to show:

• a sequential number, based on one or more series, that uniquely identifies it
• the time of supply (the tax point)
• the date of issue, where that is different from the time of supply
• your name, address and VAT registration number
• the customer’s name and address
• a description sufficient to identify the goods or services supplied
• for each description: the quantity of goods or extent of the services, the rate of VAT, and the amount payable excluding VAT
• the unit price
• the gross total amount payable, excluding VAT
• the rate of any cash discount offered
• the total amount of VAT chargeable, expressed in sterling

Two shortcuts exist. For supplies of £250 or less including VAT you can issue a simplified invoice, which needs only your name, address and VAT number, the time of supply, a description, the VAT-inclusive total and the VAT rate for each category — though exempt supplies must not be included on one. Above £250 you can agree a modified invoice with your customer, showing VAT-inclusive rather than VAT-exclusive values. For most electricians the full invoice is simpler than remembering which of the three you are allowed to use, and it is what this template produces.

Keep the paperwork. VAT records must generally be kept for at least six years. If you are self-employed and not VAT registered, GOV.UK asks you to keep business records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year.

Invoice numbering: the rule people trip over

For a non-VAT invoice the requirement is a unique identification number. For a VAT invoice it is stricter: a sequential number based on one or more series that uniquely identifies the document. Sequential means no gaps that you cannot explain.

• Pick one scheme and never change it mid-year. INV-2026-001 upward is fine. So is a plain 1042. Per-customer numbering is not.
• Never reuse a number, even for an invoice you sent by mistake.
• Never delete an invoice to close a gap. If you have to cancel one, issue a credit note that references the original number and keep both.
• More than one series is allowed — for example a separate series for domestic work and for contractor work — as long as each document is uniquely identified.

The reason to care is dull but real: a missing number in a sequence is exactly the sort of thing that turns a routine HMRC check into a longer conversation.

Payment terms, and what happens when you are not paid

Put a payment date on the invoice. If you do not agree one, the law says the payment is late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice or after you delivered the work, whichever is later (GOV.UK: late commercial payments). For business-to-business work you can agree a longer period than 60 days, but it has to be fair to both businesses.

Once a commercial debt is late you are entitled to:

• statutory interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate on business-to-business transactions, calculated daily on the outstanding amount
• fixed debt-recovery costs — £40 for a debt up to £999.99, £70 for £1,000 to £9,999.99, and £100 for £10,000 or more, charged once per late payment

You do not have to charge it. But a line in your terms saying you may is a remarkably effective way of never needing to. Fourteen days is a sensible default for domestic work and 30 days for contractors — pick one and put it on every invoice.

Why labour and materials get their own lines

The template will not let you merge them, on purpose. Under the Construction Industry Scheme a contractor works out the deduction after taking away what you paid for VAT, consumable stores, fuel used other than for travelling, plant hire, manufacturing or prefabricating materials, and materials you paid for directly (GOV.UK: make deductions and pay subcontractors). Everything left is labour, and that is what the 20% or 30% bites on.

So on a £580 job with £370 labour and £210 materials, a 20% CIS deduction is £74, not £116. Bundle it into a single “electrical works” line and the contractor has nothing to work from — they can estimate the materials, but the version that helps you is the itemised one. Even on domestic work where CIS never applies, splitting them makes your margin visible and makes price queries much easier to answer.

When CIS or the reverse charge changes the figures

Two switches in the toolbar change what the document says. Set a CIS status and the invoice grows a deduction line and a statement telling the contractor exactly which figure the deduction was calculated on. Tick domestic reverse charge — only available once you mark yourself VAT registered — and the VAT stops being charged to the customer and the invoice carries the statutory reverse-charge wording instead.

If you subcontract for a contractor, the CIS invoice template explains both properly, and the CIS deduction calculator will tell you what you will actually be paid. If you are not VAT registered and work for householders, ignore both switches — the self-employed invoice template is the cleaner starting point.

How to use this template

1. Replace the business block, top left, with your name, address, phone and email. Add your VAT number only if you are registered.
2. Set your invoice number and dates. Keep the number in the same series as your last invoice.
3. Rewrite the job description line so anyone reading it in six months knows what was done and where.
4. Edit the line items. Mark each one labour or materials — this is what drives the CIS maths. Add or remove lines with the buttons above.
5. Set VAT and CIS if they apply. Check the totals block reads the way you expect before you send it.
6. Fill in your payment terms and bank details, then hit Print / save as PDF and choose “Save as PDF” as the destination.