Commercial Invoice PDF Template

Congratulations! Your company has come to the end of the work on a contract, and it's time for your company to get paid. For your company to request another company to pay, there needs to be some prerequisites. A contract showing the order of some goods and the confirmation of the fulfillment of those goods or services are some ways to validate an invoice.

When an invoice is complete, you can send it to the other company, and reasonably expect to be paid by it. It is essential to make sure that your invoice has all of the right components; that way, there's no delay in the payment process. Sometimes an invoice just includes the instructions for you to be paid, but other times it contains instructions about the company that needs to pay.

You’ll need to do all of the proper research and homework first, but this template will give you a head-start and a useful framework. You should always consult a lawyer, though, before finalizing any contracts.

Download the template today and edit it using any version of our PDF Reader apps.

Invoices must also generally be written or displayed on top of the company’s official letterhead or stationery. The recipient must be confident that the invoice is being issued from the authorized entity, not from a bogus company or impersonator. By attaching invoice numbers, purchase order numbers, or account numbers, you can help parties identify the document and validate its authenticity. Don’t include the full account number, though: the last four digits are usually sufficient for this purpose.

When providing invoices for services, you need to consider providing information about the service contract’s term length. Alternatively, if the service contract is ongoing, then state this in the invoice. Commercial invoices often have different terms for payment than personal invoices, and there are several ways that the customer can pay.

With commercial invoices, purchases are usually made with a particular account, such as a net 30 customer account. These accounts are established from retail customers to vendors and are often provided on credit, based on the number of goods or services they may purchase every month. At the end of the month, the customer pays all of the invoices under the net 30 balance, rather than paying for items individually.

An invoice can also be a hierarchical document. Rather than being an invoice with individual items listed as product and services, the invoice can be a master document which controls many sub-invoices. Instead of listing the line-item goods and services on the commercial invoice, list the sub-invoices. You might want to do this, especially if you’re billing on a net-30 basis. You can send the net-30 invoice at the end of each month with the sub-invoices listed.

Invoices must also generally be written or displayed on top of the company’s official letterhead or stationery. The recipient must be confident that the invoice is being issued from the authorized entity, not from a bogus company or impersonator. By attaching invoice numbers, purchase order numbers, or account numbers, you can help parties identify the document and validate its authenticity. Don’t include the full account number, though: the last four digits are usually sufficient for this purpose.

When providing invoices for services, you need to consider providing information about the service contract’s term length. Alternatively, if the service contract is ongoing, then state this in the invoice. Commercial invoices often have different terms for payment than personal invoices, and there are several ways that the customer can pay.

With commercial invoices, purchases are usually made with a particular account, such as a net 30 customer account. These accounts are established from retail customers to vendors and are often provided on credit, based on the number of goods or services they may purchase every month. At the end of the month, the customer pays all of the invoices under the net 30 balance, rather than paying for items individually.

An invoice can also be a hierarchical document. Rather than being an invoice with individual items listed as product and services, the invoice can be a master document which controls many sub-invoices. Instead of listing the line-item goods and services on the commercial invoice, list the sub-invoices. You might want to do this, especially if you’re billing on a net-30 basis. You can send the net-30 invoice at the end of each month with the sub-invoices listed.

Some companies offer invoices to customers as part of a proposal. These invoices aren’t due by a specific date but are instead relating to certain conditions’ fulfillment. They can help customers understand pricing for a project-based task to be more transparent for large projects. These types of invoices are often attached to project proposals or service offers. Customers who accept these offers can then know exactly what needs to be paid to start the project or service contracts. This can increase efficiency significantly in a project, lowering barriers relating to paperwork and bureaucratic processes.

Invoices often aren’t very straightforward. They can include many miscellaneous items, terms, and information that isn’t directly related to the itemized list of products or services. Sometimes, the invoice is the only location for companies to include the terms and conditions which dictate how the client is instructed to pay and how the vendor must deliver the goods and services.

At the end of the commercial invoice, it’s the responsibility of the vendor to include all of the details or references that might be required. Sometimes quantities, qualifications, and standards need to be mentioned. You may need to define specific units of measurement that are non-standard. Shipment information, packing lists, references to tracking numbers, and accompanying documentation need to be included if the invoice is being used to account for physical goods.

Suppose the invoice is being used to account for goods or services internal to a larger company or organization. In that case, you’ll need to follow the rules for work orders, purchase orders, and other tracking procedures. There may be SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures that you need to follow. Every company is different, but all of these complicated procedures are designed to make business more accessible and efficient.

Now, you have a general idea of how commercial invoices work and can make a variety of commercial invoice types while understanding what each component of the invoice is for. Get started now with this easy to adapt commercial invoice template for general use, in convenient PDF format.