Invoice Generator — Free, No Account

What an invoice must contain

Exact requirements vary by jurisdiction, but this set is close to universal and covers most tax authorities:

• The word "Invoice" —Sounds trivial; some tax authorities require the document to identify itself as one.
• A unique sequential number —Required almost everywhere. Gaps and duplicates cause problems in an audit, so use a single unbroken sequence.
• Invoice date and supply date —The date issued and the date the goods or services were provided. They are frequently different, and tax points usually follow the supply date.
• Your full legal name and address —The registered entity name, not a trading name alone.
• Your tax registration number —VAT, GST or equivalent, where you are registered. Mandatory for the customer to reclaim.
• The customer’s name and address —And their tax number for cross-border business transactions.
• Itemised description, quantity and unit price —Enough detail that a third party can tell what was supplied.
• Tax rate and amount per line —Separately from the net amount, especially where different lines carry different rates.
• Total due and payment terms —State the due date explicitly rather than "30 days" — an explicit date is harder to dispute.
• Payment details —Bank details or a payment link. An invoice that does not say how to pay it gets paid late.

Getting paid faster

• Invoice immediately —The single largest determinant of payment date is issue date. Invoicing weekly rather than monthly can halve your average collection time.
• Put the due date in the subject line —Invoices are processed by people who never open the PDF unless they have to.
• Address it to the right person —Accounts payable, not your day-to-day contact. Ask who that is at the start of the engagement, not when it is overdue.
• Include a PO or reference number —Many companies will not pay an invoice their system cannot match to a purchase order, and will not tell you why.
• Shorten the terms —Net 14 gets paid sooner than net 30. Terms are negotiable more often than people assume.
• Chase early and neutrally —A short polite note the day after the due date works. Most late payments are administrative, not deliberate.
• Know your statutory rights —Many jurisdictions entitle businesses to statutory interest and a fixed recovery cost on late commercial payments. Mentioning it politely is often enough.