Invoicing as a contractor is different from invoicing as a shop. You're not billing a fixed catalog price out of a POS — you're billing a scope that had labor, materials, sometimes a permit, sometimes a change order, and almost always a deposit already collected. A contractor invoice that gets paid fast is one that shows the customer exactly what they agreed to, exactly what changed, and exactly what's left to pay. Here's the step-by-step.
**1. Set up your business header once.** Your invoice should show your legal business name (or DBA), address, phone, email, and — critically — your contractor's license number if your state requires it on billing documents. California, Nevada, Arizona, and many others do. Put it in the header so it's on every invoice automatically. Add your logo. It takes 20 seconds and makes you look like the professional you are, not a guy with a Word template.
**2. Assign a unique invoice number.** Never send two invoices with the same number. Sequential numbering (INV-1001, INV-1002) works fine; some contractors prefix by year (2025-1042). Glo Invoice numbers automatically and lets you set a custom prefix per project or crew.
**3. Fill in the customer and job details.** Name, service address (which may be different from billing address on multi-property owners), and reference to the signed estimate or contract number. If it's an insurance job, include the claim number. If it's a GC subcontract, include the GC's job number.
**4. Itemize labor and materials separately.** This is the single biggest mistake solo contractors make: lumping everything into one 'labor and materials — $4,200' line. It looks lazy, it invites disputes, and in many states you owe sales tax on the entire amount if you can't show which portion was materials. Break it out: 40 linear feet 12/2 romex — $184; 8 GFCI outlets — $96; 6 hours licensed labor at $95/hr — $570. Then apply tax to the material lines and exempt the labor lines per your state's rule.
**5. Show the deposit already collected and change orders separately.** If the customer paid $2,000 down, that line reads 'Deposit received on [date] — $2,000.00' and reduces the balance. Change orders should have their own section with their own line items and their own dates — this keeps the original scope clean if anything gets disputed later.
**6. State the payment terms.** Net 15 is standard for residential; Net 30 for commercial and GC subcontract work. Include the due date explicitly ('Due by November 20, 2025'), a late fee policy if you have one ('1.5% per month on unpaid balances after 15 days'), and accepted payment methods. In Glo Invoice, terms save once and apply to every future invoice.
**7. Include a way to pay online.** This is the single fastest way to shrink your average days-to-payment. A contractor invoice with only 'Please make check payable to…' takes an average of 22 days to get paid. The same invoice with a Pay Now button that accepts card, Apple Pay, or ACH gets paid in an average of 6 days. Glo Invoice generates a tokenized public link on every invoice — the customer taps, pays, you get a notification.
**8. Send it the day the work is done.** The single biggest variable in contractor cash flow isn't your rates — it's how fast you invoice. Waiting until Friday, or worse, month-end, is how contractors end up floating $30,000 of materials on a credit card. Text the invoice from the truck before you pull off the job site. The customer's memory of the work is freshest, and they haven't spent the money yet on something else.
**9. Follow up automatically.** Set a reminder at 7 days past due, 14 days past due, and 30 days past due. Glo Invoice fires these by email and SMS on your behalf, using your business name and a soft, professional tone. Manual follow-up is where invoices go to die.
**10. Keep records for tax time.** Every invoice, deposit, and expense should live in one place, tagged to the customer and the job. At quarter-end you (or your CPA) run a P&L in ten seconds and know what you actually made, not just what came into the bank account.
**Common variations.** How to send an invoice as a contractor: text or email a link from the invoicing app — never a static PDF attachment, because you can't take a card through a PDF. How to write an invoice as a contractor: use the itemized structure above; don't hand-type it in Word because you'll forget line items and tax. How to invoice as a 1099 contractor working for another business: same structure, but the payer usually wants your W-9 on file and a specific PO number on the invoice.
**How to make an invoice as a contractor for free.** Glo Invoice's 14-day free trial includes unlimited invoices and estimates, branded PDFs, online card payments (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, standard Stripe rate), customer records, and photo attachments. Cancel anytime to sign up, no invoice cap, no watermark. Paid plans add automated reminders, recurring invoices, mileage, and larger crews.
The whole loop — build, send, follow up, get paid — should take you under 90 seconds per invoice on a phone. If it takes longer than that, the app is in your way.