Free Freelance & Self-Employed Invoice Template — PDF, Word & Excel

Freelance invoice example (filled in)

Here is the same FREELANCE INVOICE with every field filled in, so you can see what goes where. The amounts are placeholders: illustrative, not market rates.

FREELANCE INVOICE SAMPLE

Invoice no.

INV-0007

Date issued

[invoice date]

Due date

[invoice date + 30 days]

From (freelancer)

[Your name] (trading as [business name, if any])
[Your address]
[Email] · [Phone]

Bill to (client)

[Client name or company]
[Client address]
[Accounts email]

Project / period

Website copy — work done [1–30 month year]

Description	Hours	Rate	Amount
Discovery call and brief	2	50.00	100.00
Drafting: homepage and three service pages	10	50.00	500.00
Revisions (one round, as agreed)	3	50.00	150.00
Subtotal			750.00
Tax (0 here: enter the rate that applies to you, if any)			0.00
TOTAL DUE			750.00

Notes

Payment terms: Net 30 (due [due date]). Pay by bank transfer to [account name, account number or IBAN], quoting INV-0007.

Using this template when you are self-employed

The blank covers what every invoice needs. What you add depends on where you work; these notes quote the official guidance for three countries.

United Kingdom: sole traders

GOV.UK says you "need to give them an invoice (bill) by law if both you and the customer are registered for VAT (a business to business transaction)". Its list of what an invoice must include is: a unique identification number; your company name, address and contact information; the customer's name and address; a clear description of what you're charging for; "the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)"; the date of the invoice; the amounts charged; VAT if applicable; and the total owed. For sole traders it adds "your name and any business name being used" and "an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name".

• Use Invoice no. for the unique identification number and Date issued for the invoice date.
• Write the supply date (or the dates the work was done) in the Project / period box.
• Put your own name, plus any business name, in From (freelancer). The GOV.UK list does not include a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR).
• If you and your customer are both VAT-registered, GOV.UK says you must use VAT invoices, which include more information: use the VAT invoice template instead.

Source: GOV.UK, Invoicing and taking payment from customers and Invoices: what they must include (checked September 25, 2026). More detail: how to invoice as a sole trader.

Australia: sole traders not registered for GST

business.gov.au says GST-registered businesses must use tax invoices, while businesses that aren't registered for GST use regular invoices "that don't show any tax". For a regular invoice there is no law that sets out the content, but its list of common practice starts with "the word 'invoice' – you must not use 'tax invoice'" and includes your business name and your ABN. This template is titled FREELANCE INVOICE, so add your ABN under From (freelancer) and leave the Tax line at 0. Once you are registered for GST, you use tax invoices instead, which by law must show the words "tax invoice", your ABN and the GST amount, among other details.

Source: business.gov.au, How to invoice (checked September 25, 2026).

United States: independent contractors

US clients who have to report what they pay you to the IRS ask for your taxpayer ID on Form W-9, which the IRS says you use "to provide your correct Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to the person who is required to file an information return with the IRS" (IRS, About Form W-9). How that fits with your invoice, and what a "1099 invoice" means, is covered in our 1099 invoice guide.

Billing per item instead of per hour?

If you sell products or bill fixed units rather than hours, the general blank uses QTY × UNIT PRICE columns instead: PDF, Word or Excel.

For the full picture — record keeping, tax registration and sending invoices as a self-employed person — read the Self-Employed Invoice Guide.

Freelance invoice format: every field, in order

All three formats carry the same document, titled FREELANCE INVOICE. Here is every field on it, from top to bottom, with the two that the spreadsheet version leaves out marked:

• Three header fields — Invoice no., Date issued and Due date, grouped at the top of the form.
• From (freelancer) — a blank block for your name, address and contact details: four lines in the PDF and Word files, three in Excel.
• Bill to (client) — a matching block for the client you are billing.
• Project / period — one side field naming the engagement or the stretch of time the invoice covers. (PDF and Word)
• Line-item table — four columns: Description, Hours, Rate and Amount. Blank rows waiting to be filled: six in the PDF, seven in Word, ten in Excel.
• Totals — three lines: Subtotal, Tax and TOTAL DUE, with the total set apart in the accent color.
• Notes — a two-line free-text block for payment details, bank information or terms. (PDF and Word)
• A printed reminder at the foot of the form — bill hours × rate per line, and state your payment terms (for example Net 30) and your late-fee clause on every invoice.

The tax line ships empty in the PDF and Word files, and the Excel tax-rate cell starts at 0 — we do not assume a rate for your country, state or client. Fill in the rate that applies to you.

Which format should you pick

• Take the PDF if you want to print the form and write on it, or send a blank invoice that will look identical on every device. Nothing in it moves, and nothing calculates.
• Take the Word file if you want to edit the document itself — drop in your logo, rename a column, add rows, or save a reusable version with your details already typed in. It opens in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice.
• Take the Excel file if you want the arithmetic done for you. It is the only one of the three with live formulas, and it is the fastest choice when you are billing many hourly lines at different rates.

When to use a freelance invoice

Use it whenever you have finished billable work and want to be paid for it as an independent contractor rather than an employee. That covers the ordinary cases — a delivered project, a month of retainer work, a batch of hours logged against a client — and it also covers the awkward ones, like a deposit before you start or a partial milestone on a long engagement.

The details that decide whether it gets paid on time are mostly boring ones: a unique invoice number so both sides can reference it, a due date rather than a vague "on receipt", and payment terms plus any late-fee clause written on the invoice itself. Terms you never disclosed are hard to enforce later.

For the longer version — how to set terms, chase a late payer, and handle taxes as a freelancer — read the Invoicing Guide for Freelancers.