How to write a contractor invoice

• Your business name, phone, email, and GST/HST number if you're registered
• Any licence number your trade or city requires you to show
• The client's name and billing address, and the job site if it's different
• The invoice number, invoice date and the dates the work was done
• Labour, materials and other charges, each on their own lines
• GST/HST, the total, the due date, how to pay, and your warranty

If the client is a GST/HST-registered business (a property manager or a general contractor, say), CRA lists the details they need on your invoice to claim the tax back:

Show labour as hours times your rate ("Labour: tile install, 16 h × $65") or as a flat price per task. Splitting it by stage, such as prep, install and finishing, makes a long job easier to follow.

Put materials on their own lines, or as one line with the receipts attached. When materials are mixed into one big labour number, clients start to question the whole total. When they're separate, questions are rare and quick to answer.

Add anything else as its own line: permits, disposal, equipment rental, travel if you charge it.

For jobs with a large materials cost, take a deposit before you order anything. Send the deposit as its own invoice. When the job is finished, send a final invoice for the rest and mention the deposit invoice number in the notes, so everyone can see it's been accounted for.

On longer jobs, bill in stages as the work is done, for example after rough-in and after finishing. Each stage is its own invoice. It keeps your cash flow steady and stops one big bill from landing at the end.

Clients change their minds mid-job. Agree on the change and its price before you do it, in writing if you can (a text is better than nothing). Then add it to the invoice as its own line with the date it was approved, like "Extra: move outlet (approved June 12)". Nobody is surprised by the total that way.

Once your taxable revenue goes over $30,000 in a calendar quarter, or over the last four quarters together, you must register for GST/HST. Before that, registering is optional.

If you're registered, GST/HST generally applies to the whole amount you bill for the job, materials included. Provincial sales tax is different: several provinces have their own rules for contractors, often charging the contractor PST on materials rather than the client. Check your province's rules before you add a PST line.

In this generator, pick your province under Tax and discount to add the right GST or HST line, then check it against your own situation.

Send the invoice from the job site if you can. This generator works on a phone, so you can fill it in and download the PDF before you pack up.

My invoices then shows every job at a glance: blue when a payment isn't due yet, amber when it's due within a week, red when it's overdue. When the client pays, mark the invoice paid and send them a receipt.