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What information do I need to include on an invoice?

       Accounts and Bookkeeping


Date Published: January 2008

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An invoice is a legal financial document of which you have to keep records by law. Invoice layout and design can be used as part of your marketing and re-inforcement of your business brand i.e. by using your company colours, logo, etc. However, there is certain information that you must include on your invoices to meet the statutory requirements.

The information that you will need to require will be greater if you are VAT registered, or a registered Ltd company, so we will start with a sole trader or partnership business, and add to these.


This is the basic information that you MUST include on your invoice.

1. Your business name and address details

2. The name and address of the company you are invoicing (and the contact name if you have one)

3. A unique invoice reference / number that will relate to this invoice only.

4. A date for the invoice (which will generally be the date on which the invoice is created - or in accounting parlance, "raised")

5. A list of the products and / or services that you have provided, line by line, and the cost of each of these.

6. A total amount for the invoice.

7. The payment terms for the invoice (i.e. how long the customer has to pay)


In addition to this information the following is useful to also include on the invoice:

8. Telephone / Fax contact numbers.

9. Company email address.

10. Customer Purchase Order Number - so they know which purchase order the invoice relates to if they are using an order management system.

11. Details on how to pay, including bank account details for BACs / online payments.


If you are VAT regsitered you must also include:

12. The amount of VAT on each line of the invoice and the VAT Rate charged

OR

The total amount of VAT charged on the invoice, and the rate, if VAT applies to all items on the invoice.

13. Your VAT Registration Number


Finally, if you are a registered Limited company, you must include:

14. Your Company Number

15. Your full registered company address.


If you are using business software like Business Builder, then creating an invoice can be automated from a Sales Order - you just click a button and the invoice document is automatically created with the necessary information included. It doesn´t get easier than that!


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Comments

Posted by oxy
On Friday 29th of January 2010 11:15:45 AM

"Do I need to write address of my client or I can give just phone number details ?"

Posted by Davide
On Friday 5th of November 2010 06:50:27 PM

"What about this information? 1. Country of Origin of the goods 2. Status of the goods (T1 or Free Circulation) 3. Transportation method Thanks Davide"

Posted by Joshua Gallows
On Wednesday 9th of January 2013 01:46:46 PM

"Looks detailed and well-elaborated. Really helpful for a layman in understanding the basics of invoicing. "

Posted by Cristina Miguel
On Saturday 19th of January 2013 08:21:24 PM

"Item No. 10 on your list is a MUST include if you want to get paid promptly. In a large corporation that receives thousands of invoices it is impossible to know the unique purchase order that is funded to pay for the items on your invoice...it goes on the "pile""

Posted by Sam
On Saturday 12th of April 2014 05:55:55 PM

"Brilliant advise, exactly correct and put perfectly for me to understand it! Great help, thanks "

Posted by Krishnan
On Wednesday 9th of July 2014 03:03:03 PM

"Please advise whether we need to have any continuity in the Sale Invoices numbering. The reason being ,in my company we use SAP on a GLOBAL basis and we follow one Invoice serial number for all the Group companies. The Invoice number will be based on the availability at the time we raise the Invoice in India. "

Posted by Bert
On Thursday 4th of September 2014 05:30:46 PM

"What about CURRENCY? Not a requirement or what?"

Posted by Andrew Work
On Tuesday 4th of November 2014 04:24:57 PM

"Always amazes me how UK companies (and ESPECIALLY the tax and government entities in the UK) fail to include bank payment information on their invoices!! HMRC is a classic case of mindlessness: Their invoices miss off all bank info, insist on a cheque (cheques ceased to be legal tender in most countries in the late 20th century), and fail to provide an IBAN number. They then fine you for not being able to pay them! The final hoot with HMRC is that they do not have internet in Newcastle (I asked them). They do have a telephone line however, but the best way of paying them still seems to be cash delivered by carrier pigeon. An invoice should ALWAYS include VAT registration details (preferably of BOTH parties), Bank IBAN and bank transfer details, a unique invoice number, date, name, address and contact details (email, telephone). I wish I could contact HMRC to be able to explain this to them.."

Posted by RAM RAUT
On Monday 12th of October 2015 01:56:31 PM

"Why business address must require on invoice ?"

Posted by Muzi Mlimi
On Thursday 14th of April 2016 10:47:57 AM

"This is very simple but detailed. Thank you very much for this."

Posted by Shamika
On Saturday 12th of November 2016 02:00:40 PM

"What shouldn t you include in your resume? Because resumes are typically only one to two pages long, your resume should contain only information that relates to the job for which you are applying."

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