Free Construction Invoice Template
Bill construction and building work cleanly: break out labor, materials, and equipment, apply tax, and download a professional PDF. Your company details save locally for the next job.
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What goes on a construction invoice
Construction billing is often progress-based — break the work down so the client can see exactly what they’re paying for.
- Project name/number and the billing period
- A schedule of values or phase being billed
- Separate lines for labor, materials and equipment
- Percentage complete for progress billing
- Retainage withheld, if applicable
- Tax, total and payment terms
Construction billing is progress billing
Unlike a one-and-done trade invoice, a construction invoice usually bills a slice of a larger contract as the project advances. The backbone is the schedule of values — the total contract price broken into line items (site prep, framing, electrical, finishes). Each pay application invoices the percentage of each line completed this period, shows what was billed previously, and subtracts retainage (a 5–10% holdback the owner keeps until completion as security). On commercial jobs you’ll often bill on standardized AIA-style forms (G702/G703). Get the schedule of values agreed up front: it’s the spine every invoice hangs off, and a vague one turns every draw into a negotiation.
What a construction pay application shows
A progress invoice on a construction job typically carries:
- The original contract sum, approved change orders, and the revised contract total
- Each schedule-of-values line: scheduled value, % complete, completed this period and to date
- Materials stored on site but not yet installed, where the contract allows billing them
- Retainage withheld (this period and cumulative) shown explicitly
- Less previous payments, equals the net amount due this application
- A conditional lien waiver for the amount requested, exchanged for payment
Getting construction invoices paid on time
- Bill on the owner/GC’s monthly cutoff date and format — miss it and you wait a full cycle for money you’ve earned
- Get every change order signed before doing the work; unapproved extras become free work at billing time
- Track retainage on every application and invoice its release at substantial completion — it’s your profit sitting in escrow
- Know your state’s preliminary-notice and mechanics-lien deadlines; they run from when you started or last worked, not from the invoice
- Keep line descriptions matching the schedule of values exactly, so approval is a comparison, not an investigation
FAQ
- What goes on a construction invoice?
- Project/job reference, itemized labor, materials and equipment, quantities and rates, tax, total, your business and the client’s details, and payment terms.
- What is retainage on a construction invoice?
- A percentage (commonly 5–10%) that the owner or general contractor holds back from each progress payment as performance security, released at project completion. Show it on every pay application — withheld this period and cumulatively — and submit a dedicated invoice to collect it once release conditions are met.
- What is a schedule of values?
- The total contract price broken into a list of work items, each with a dollar value. Progress invoices bill the percentage of each item completed in the period. Agreeing a detailed schedule of values up front is what makes construction billing smooth — every draw references it instead of re-arguing the whole job.
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New to invoicing? Read how to make an invoice.