Attorney Portrait
Topic Painting,

Looking to streamline invoicing for your painting business? Where do you start? Finding a painting invoice template for free online might initially seem like a good solution, but personalization and branding capabilities might be limited if you’re not graphic design-savvy. Simple plug-and-play invoice templates can be helpful, but once you need to modify the contents or change up the format, you’re probably out of luck.  

Examples of Painting Invoices

Joist by EverPro offers free painting invoice templates that support any job while being easily customizable to reflect your business’s branding. They clearly break down job details so you and your customers have full transparency into each and every project.  

Here is an example of a painting invoice template for general services: 

In some cases, such as when more detailed notes or payment instructions are necessary, your invoice needs to be more specific. In this version of your invoice, you might include an area for special notes, terms of service, materials, or one-off line items. The following house painting invoice example provides a bit of additional detail to cover more specialized services: 

What Goes into a Painting Invoice Template?

The painting invoice examples above demonstrate several different ways that a business can configure these documents. They also offer insights into what information should be included in a painter’s invoice. Every painting business puts its own spin on its invoice structure, so inclusions may vary slightly depending on the specific services you offer or the region you serve. 

However, the basic components of a painter’s invoice remain consistent. Maintaining full transparency and complete records means including all standard project details, including: 

Business Name and Address 

This element may seem obvious, but that also makes it easier to forget. Ensure your business information, such as your contact info and logo, are prominently displayed on the page so customers can identify your documentation at a glance. Including this information also ensures the client has a quick and easy way to get in touch with you should the need arise. 

Client Name and Address 

Printing the client’s information, such as their full name and mailing address, on the invoice is also important for ensuring accurate billing and delivery. It also reassures the customer that the included charges are attributed to the correct client account. 

Invoice Number 

The invoice number is useful for tracking jobs and managing records; it serves as a unique identifier for each proposed project. 

Invoice Date 

The invoice date indicates when the invoice was issued. Including this information helps you and your team keep to the desired timeline and streamlines chronological organization of projects. 

Line items 

These elements offer a detailed breakdown of the work completed. Each line-item entry should contain the specific materials and/or services provided and their corresponding price. Individual line items should be listed as granularly as possible so both you and your customer know precisely what was performed and its associated cost. 

Hours Worked 

For businesses that bill hourly, the invoice should include the number of hours dedicated to each service to reflect accurate pricing. This means clearly listing the price of the service per hour, the number of hours worked, and the total price after final calculations.  

Amount Due 

The amount due is the total cost of the project, including taxes, labor, and materials, minus any additional discounts. This is often the largest or most prominent figure on the invoice because it indicates what the customer ultimately owes. 

Taxes 

You can’t forget the tax man! Depending on your service offering and the state you operate in, applicable taxes must be added to the total before finalizing the amount due. 

Customer Signature 

The customer’s signature confirms they have acknowledged and agreed to the total amount and terms of the payment. This is critical for maintaining trust and transparency in your business’s relationship with its clientele.  

Payment Information 

An invoice should also include the various payment methods you accept (cash, credit, check, and so on) and instructions for settling an outstanding balance. Can the customer pay online? Mail a check? Offer clear directions for how to complete payments

Payment Terms 

Lastly, you don’t want to forget a list of the payment terms. This includes the payment due date, such as “due on receipt” (the total amount is due at signing) or “net 30” (the full payment is due within 30 days). It will also include information on early payment discounts, possible late fees, and any other processing charges, such as a credit card fee.  

What’s the Difference Between a Painter’s Invoice and a Bill? 

These two professional documents are relatively similar—both show clients what they’re paying for or the amount they owe your business for the provided painting services. For the most part, the difference is semantic based on whether you’re the customer or the business. Typically, businesses send invoices, while clients receive bills. It’s important to note that bills and invoices should both include at least a few basics, such as detailed cost breakdowns, payment terms, due dates, and deposits (if applicable). 

Software That Provides Painting Invoicing 

Although not overly complex, invoicing can quickly become time-consuming and tedious. Plus, it’s just one of numerous administrative tasks that business owners must stay on top of. As noted earlier, painting invoice templates will only get you so far. What you really need is an intuitive software that can streamline these responsibilities so your team can spend less time managing projects and more time executing them.  

Service Fusion 

Service Fusion is an all-in-one project management solution that makes it easy to manage and keep track of jobs. Painting businesses can leverage this software to quickly create estimates, plan projects, schedule staff, and more. The interface’s drag-and-drop features make assigning and dispatching qualified painters as simple as a few clicks, and virtual capabilities, such as eSign, make finalizing documents a breeze.  

QuickBooks Integration 

Take advantage of our QuickBooks integration to enable automatic, bidirectional syncing of customers, products, services, job deposits, invoices, and payments. With this functionality in place, updates in Service Fusion instantly populate in QuickBooks and vice versa, reducing duplicate records.  

FusionPay 

This feature makes field service payment processing easy, allowing you to build invoices with a secure payment solution directly within Service Fusion. Automate invoicing by pulling in job details and costs to create digital invoices in one click. You can also receive payments more quickly, avoiding delays by collecting payments in the field right after jobs and enabling customers to pay online or via mobile. 

Joist 

Jost, a Service Fusion sister company, is a mobile-friendly invoicing tool designed for service businesses that offers a number of painting invoice templates. With it, you can create and send invoices and estimates and collect deposits directly associated with those documents. You can also customize invoices to include branded elements, company logos, or project photos to add a degree of professionalism.  

Other capabilities include: 

  • Automate payment reminders to customers and receive notifications when they pay. 
  • Allow customers to pay progressively throughout projects with milestone-based payment schedules. 
  • Manage finances and outstanding invoices effectively with in-depth sales reporting and data analytics. 
  • Accept major credit/debit cards and ACH transfers so customers can pay quickly using their preferred payment method. 

How Can I Simplify Invoicing for My Business?

No two painting businesses will take the same approach to invoicing, but the fundamental elements remain the same. As a rule of thumb, it’s better to include too much information rather than not enough. Don’t leave your customers (or your staff, for that matter) with questions about scope, cost, timeline, or any other key factors in your project plans. Discrepancies or miscommunications due to poor project management can rapidly erode your business’s reputation and the trust you’ve built with your clientele.  

Staying on top of administrative tasks is a critical part of being a business owner, but it doesn’t need to take up all of your bandwidth. Stop wasting valuable time developing your business documents from scratch—turn to Service Fusion to simplify invoicing, estimates, and more for your painting projects. 

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