What's in the file
- Your business and customer details blocks, ready to type over.
- Line items pre-filled with typical decorating work charges — Internal painting - labour (per day), Preparation: filling, sanding and masking, Materials - paint and sundries.
- Quantity × rate formulas, a subtotal, a VAT row you can set to 0 if you're not registered, and a total that updates itself.
- Payment terms and guarantee wording written for painters and decorators.
Excel vs doing it here
A spreadsheet is ideal if you like seeing the maths and want to keep a running log of jobs. The trade-off is that spreadsheets email badly — customers should still get a PDF. The generator on this site does the numbering, the VAT and the PDF for you, free and with no sign-up.
Open the painter and decorator invoice generatorCommon questions
- Should preparation be a separate line on a decorating invoice?
- Yes. Preparation is often a third of the labour, and customers who only see "painting" assume they are paying purely for the time a roller was moving.
- Do I charge paint at cost or with a markup?
- Either is fine as long as you say which on the invoice. Silent markups are the main reason decorating bills get argued over after the event.
- How many coats should I state on the invoice?
- Whatever you actually applied — normally two over prepared surfaces. Writing it down protects you if the customer later claims coverage is thin.
Make it in the browser instead
Fill in the job, download the PDF. Free, unlimited, no account and no watermark on Pro. Already set up for decorating work.
Open the free painter and decorator invoice generator