Independent contractor invoice template
Download a free contractor invoice template for Word, Excel or PDF, or fill it in online and download a PDF. It's written for US independent contractors who bill by the hour or by milestone. Below the template: what to put on the invoice, and how it fits with Form W-9 and Form 1099-NEC.
Download the template
Versions on this page: Hourly, Milestone
Hourly
Billed by the hour, one month
Milestone
A fixed fee per milestone
No sign-up. The online maker doesn't store what you type.
What to put on a contractor invoice
No federal law lists what a US invoice must contain. Your contract, your client's accounts payable team and state rules, for example on sales tax, decide what goes on it. So the list below is common practice, and each item says why it's there:
- Your name and address, and your business name if you use one, plus an email for questions.
- No Social Security number on the invoice. You give your taxpayer identification number to the client on Form W-9 instead. The IRS: “Use Form W-9 to provide your correct Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to the person who is required” to file an information return. If a client wants a tax ID printed, use an EIN; the IRS notes that “You never have to pay a fee for an EIN”. Keeping the SSN off is our advice, for your privacy.
- Your client's legal name and billing address, and the AP contact or PO number if they gave you one.
- An invoice number, one per invoice and never reused. It helps you and your client match payments to invoices; we found no US rule that requires it.
- The invoice date and the due date, or terms such as “Net 30”. Net 30 means payment is due 30 days after the invoice date; it's a convention, so spell it out on the invoice. The net 30 guide works out the date for you.
- The service period for hourly work, or the milestone reference for a fixed fee, in the words your agreement uses.
- The lines: description, quantity (hours, days, or 1 for a milestone), rate and amount.
- The total due in US dollars.
- How to pay you: ACH details, a mailing address for checks, or a payment link.
- Late-fee terms only if your contract has them. Whether and how much you can charge depends on your agreement and on state law, and states set limits, so this page gives no percentage. For a client who pays late, start with a polite reminder: see our overdue invoice email templates.
The hourly example shows the list filled in: Jordan Sample bills 30.5 hours at $95.00 for October, $2,897.50 in total, Net 30. Fill in this template online.
Billing by the hour or by milestone
By the hour: hours times rate on each line, one line per kind of work or per project. If your client asks, attach or summarize the hours. A billable hours calculator helps when your times need rounding before you bill them.
By milestone: one line per milestone, with the agreed amount and the reference to your contract, quantity 1 and the unit “flat rate”. The milestone example bills $4,000.00 for the second of three milestones.
Both on one invoice: a milestone plus extra hours at your rate are simply two lines. The Excel file handles both kinds of line.
Contractor invoices and Form 1099-NEC
This section is general information, not tax or legal advice.
The W-9 comes first. Clients usually ask for a Form W-9 before they pay you. If you don't give them a correct TIN, they may have to withhold: backup withholding applies at “the current rate of 24 percent” when a payee “failed to provide a correct taxpayer identification number (TIN) to the payer” (IRS, Backup withholding [10-Oct-2026]).
The 1099-NEC threshold is $2,000 for payments made in 2026. The IRS instructions tell payers to report nonemployee compensation of “$2,000 or more”, under the heading “Increase in threshold for requiring filing of certain information returns and backup withholding”, for tax years beginning after 2025. The threshold “may be adjusted for inflation beginning in calendar year 2027”. Before 2026 the threshold was lower.
Who files it: your client, when it paid you at least $2,000 in the year for services in its trade or business and you aren't its employee. Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, are generally not reported. The client sends you your copy by January 31.
Your invoice doesn't change for 1099 work. The 1099 is your client's yearly report of what it paid you; your invoices are your record of what you billed. Keep them: the IRS asks you to keep records “until the period of limitations for that tax return runs out”, which is generally 3 years, 6 years if you left out income that is more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return, and without limit if you didn't file a return (IRS, How long should I keep records [30-Jun-2026]).
Your own taxes: no tax is withheld from contractor payments unless backup withholding applies, so you may need to pay estimated tax. The IRS: “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%”, and “you may have to file Estimated Taxes quarterly”.
Sales tax on services
Each state decides whether services are subject to sales tax, and some states tax certain services. One example: “Starting Oct. 1, 2025, Information technology (IT) services are subject to Washington retail sales tax” (Washington Department of Revenue). Check your state's revenue department before you add tax to an invoice. The Word and Excel files have an optional sales tax row that stays empty unless you fill it in; the online maker has no tax field for US invoices.
Working outside the US?
This template has no VAT or GST fields. If you're based in the UK, the UK invoice template with and without VAT follows the gov.uk rules.
Using the files
- Word: replace every [bracketed] placeholder. The files are printed on US Letter.
- Excel: enter hours and rate; the line amounts and the total are formulas.
- PDF: print the blank one and write on it, or open the filled one to see how the finished invoice looks. Only the filled PDF carries the “Example” stamp.
- Numbering: keep your own sequence, as in item 4 above.
Open the Word file in Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice
To edit the Word file in Google Docs, upload it to Google Drive, then choose Open with and Google Docs. Apple Pages and LibreOffice also open Word files, and the Excel file can be opened in Google Sheets and Numbers; check the layout there. Word doesn't add up the lines for you, so check the totals, or use the Excel file or the online maker, which calculate them.
From tracked hours to an invoice
Track your hours with the timer or the week timesheet, then turn the unbilled hours into an invoice. Clockaroo makes invoices for businesses in the US, in dollars by default, with no VAT and no sales tax calculation, and each line's quantity is the time you tracked, in hours to two decimals. It's free for one person with up to 5 invoices a month; the Team plan costs $9 per person a month, one price per person. Start with a free account.
Sources
- IRS: Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (Rev. 12/2026), checked on Oct 23, 2026
- IRS: About Form W-9 [27-Jun-2026], checked on Oct 23, 2026
- IRS: Backup withholding [10-Oct-2026], checked on Oct 23, 2026
- IRS: Get an employer identification number [16-Oct-2026], checked on Oct 23, 2026
- IRS: How long should I keep records [30-Jun-2026], checked on Oct 23, 2026
- IRS: Self-employment tax [27-Jun-2026], checked on Oct 23, 2026
- Washington Department of Revenue: Information technology services, checked on Oct 23, 2026
