It’s important that your invoice states whether or not it includes GST, VAT…etc. Do you need to charge extra for Tax? eg: GST This means the buyer has a total of that number of days on the invoice to pay the net amount stated. Depending on the invoice, this can be any amount of time, but standard times are net-30, net-15, and net-10. Net 30 specifies that the buyer has 30 days to pay the invoice. In general, an invoice is issued by the seller, and a PO is issued by the buyer. For example, if a local coffee shop agrees to buy five cases of espresso from their favorite distributor, they might sign a purchase order when they buy the product, and the distributor will issue an invoice upon receipt of the coffee. A purchase order is the contract between buyer and seller agreeing to purchase whatever goods or services are being bought. That means if you carry a range of similar items, you’ll need to use an identifier like an SKU or product ID number. Product descriptions need to be easily understood by both the buyer and seller. Most invoice templates have separate places for each one.įrom: The seller’s address should include the business name, street address, and phone number, and email address. To: The buyer’s contact info has two components: one address that the seller invoices, and another that the seller ships to.
The invoices you get from one contractor might look a bit different from the invoice you get from another.īut all invoices are built of the same building blocks: But if you’re selling to the same person on a monthly or even weekly basis, it makes sense to set up an account to track.
Your local takeaway restaurant isn’t likely to set up a credit-based account with you (even if you are a regular customer). They’re used for account-based transactions between vendors and sellers who work with each other on a regular basis. But invoices, unlike a restaurant bill, aren’t due immediately upon receiving them. Invoices are like most bills in that they’re issued from a vendor to a customer for something they’ve already received. Five thousand years after the Sumerians invented invoices, we’ve added a couple bells and whistles to make record-keeping easy, but that much remains the same. These ancient cuneiform tablets don’t bear much resemblance to the invoices we have now, with logos and account numbers, but the same information was being conveyed.Īlso Read: Try QuickBooks Online Accounting Software for Global What is an Invoice?Īn invoice is a bill for an account between a buyer and a seller indicating what was sold, and how much is owed.
Way back before indoor plumbing, paper, or even the alphabet was invented, humans were sending each other invoices to keep track of their accounts.