Consulting invoice template for day rates and deliverables
Bill the days and the report, recharge expenses the right way for tax, and refer to the engagement letter.
From: your business
Bill to: your customer
Number, dates and terms
Total due
$7,300.00
no tax added
Juniper Lane Studio LLC
418 Congress Ave, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78701
billing@example.com
Invoice
| Invoice no. | INV-2026-0001 |
| Date | October 17, 2026 |
| Terms | Net 30 |
| Due date | November 16, 2026 |
Bill to
Bluebonnet Coffee Co.
2200 S Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78704
| Description | Qty | Unit price | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy consulting, day rate | 4 | $1,200.00 | $4,800.00 |
| Market analysis report | 1 | $2,500.00 | $2,500.00 |
| Subtotal | $7,300.00 |
| Total | $7,300.00 |
Payment details
ACH: routing 000000000, account 0000000000 Please include the invoice number with your payment.
Engagement letter dated at the start of the project applies.
United States: no federal invoice format
All required details present
State sales tax rules apply to what you charge, not to the invoice layout.
- Present: An invoice number
- Present: Your business name and address
- Present: Customer name and billing address
- Present: A description of each item
- Present: Due date or payment terms
- Present: Sales tax shown as its own line, with the rate
Made in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server; your business details are kept on this device only, for the next invoice.
Total due
$7,300.00
Consulting invoices are usually large, infrequent and read by a finance team that compares them line by line with an engagement letter, so the template opens on the two shapes a consulting fee takes: time, four days at $1,200, and a fixed-price deliverable, a market analysis report at $2,500, $7,300 in all on Net 30 terms. The part consultants most often get wrong is expenses. HMRC is explicit that a consultant who flies to a client's site cannot treat the air fare as a disbursement: the airline supplied the consultant, so the recharge is part of the consultant's own fee and carries VAT with it. Only a payment made as the client's agent, for something the client itself receives, passed on at the exact cost and itemised separately, stays outside VAT. In HMRC's own worked example, an £80 fee with £20 of recharged expenses and a £50 disbursement gives £20 of VAT and a £170 invoice; the generator reproduces it with one line set to "Outside scope".
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Methodology
Expenses, recharges and disbursements
The word "disbursement" is used loosely in consulting, but for VAT it has a narrow meaning. HMRC's VAT guide lists the conditions and then gives examples that fail them, one of which is a consultant's air fare to the client's site. The practical rule for an invoice is simple: anything you bought for yourself to do the work is a cost of your service and follows its VAT treatment; anything you paid strictly on the client's behalf, for the client, at cost, can sit outside.
| Line on HMRC's example invoice | Amount | VAT treatment in the generator |
|---|---|---|
| Services (fee) | £80.00 | VAT 20% |
| Expenses recharged | £20.00 | VAT 20%, part of the fee |
| Disbursement paid as agent | £50.00 | Outside scope |
| VAT | £20.00 | on the first two lines only |
| Total | £170.00 |
Outside the UK, each authority has its own rules on recharged costs, and this page does not summarise them: in the generator a recharge is simply a line, and you give it the tax code that applies. For the fee itself, the template's $7,300 carries $949.00 of HST in Ontario and $730.00 of GST in Sydney.
Referencing the engagement
Consulting invoices travel through approval chains, and the one that is paid quickly names the engagement letter or statement of work, the client's purchase order number, the period covered and the person who commissioned the work. The generator has a field for the PO number; put the rest in the first line's description or the notes. If the engagement caps fees, show the cumulative amount billed against the cap in the notes so the sponsor does not have to work it out.
Retainers and phased fees
A monthly retainer is invoiced at the start of each month with the period in the description ("Advisory retainer, November 2026"). A phased fee is invoiced at each milestone. When a client pays an advance against future days, invoice the advance as a deposit invoice and show it as paid on the next one. Work billed purely by the hour is clearer on the hourly invoice template, which lays the hours out like a timesheet.
Clients in another country
Consultants often advise clients abroad. The currency can be the client's, and in the UK a VAT invoice in another currency must still state the VAT total in sterling. Whether VAT, GST or HST applies to a service supplied across a border depends on place-of-supply rules this tool does not decide: choose the tax code your situation requires, often zero-rated or outside the scope, and confirm it with the authority. The foreign currency guide covers the sterling figure.