Invoicing for painters, where preparation finally shows on the page.
Filling, sanding, caulking and masking is where the days go, and it is the part customers never see. An invoice that names it separately from the coats is the difference between a fair price and a price that looks high.
Free forever No card No account needed to start
The customer prices paint, you price preparation
A homeowner works out what your job should cost by looking at the tins. Four rooms, six tins, so why is it four days? They are pricing the material because that is the only part they can see, while most of your time went into filling cracks, sanding, caulking, masking and protecting floors before a single coat went on.
That mismatch turns into a negotiation on every invoice that says "painting, 1,600". It disappears on an invoice that says preparation, two coats, woodwork and materials as four separate lines, because now the customer is reading a plan instead of a number.
Stage the money on anything longer than a week
Decorating is one of the few trades where you can be on site for two weeks before the first payment. Paint, sundries, protection and hire come out of your account on day one, and the invoice does not go out until the last coat is dry. That is you funding the customer's project, and on a large job it is the reason cash gets tight while you are busy.
The fix is stages the customer can see. Materials on acceptance, an interim payment when preparation is signed off, the balance on completion. Milestones tied to visible progress rarely get argued with, unlike milestones tied to dates. The mechanics of doing that cleanly are covered in the guide on quotes, estimates and invoices.
What a decorating business gets
Everything in Invoice Local works on the phone, on a dust sheet, with the roller still in your other hand.
Decorating work you bill for
Domestic, commercial or contract, the invoice is written line by line, which is the only thing that copes with a trade priced five different ways.
On every invoice, automatically
Decorating invoices go to builders and agents as often as to homeowners, so the document has to be readable by somebody who never saw the room.
- Business name, your logo on Pro, and any trade registration you add
- A sequential number, or your own series if a builder requires one
- Issue date, due date and the terms behind it
- Every line with quantity, rate and line total
- A tax line only when you charge tax
- The property address where it differs from the billing address
- Deposit and stage payments shown with the balance calculated
- A print ready PDF that opens correctly on letter and A4
What decorators search for, and what the invoice has to show
The searches on the left bring people here. The list on the right is what keeps a four figure decorating invoice from being questioned line by line.
How painters find this app
- painter and decorator invoice app
- painting invoice template with preparation and coats
- how to invoice a decorating job in stages
- app to quote per room and convert to an invoice
- invoice app that works offline on site
- free invoicing app for a self employed decorator
Lines that explain the price
- Preparation hours named separately from painting
- Number of coats, including primer or mist coat
- Paint by tin count and finish, at cost or marked up
- Woodwork and trim priced apart from walls
- Access equipment or tower hire as its own line
- Making good after other trades, agreed as an extra
From last coat to invoice sent
Four taps while the dust sheets are still down.
- Open the accepted quoteOr pick a saved customer if it was a small job with no quote.
- Confirm what was donePreparation, coats, woodwork and any extras agreed on site.
- Add materialsTins, sundries and hire, with quantities so nothing looks invented.
- Send itEmail for trade accounts, WhatsApp for homeowners, message already written.
A three room repaint, priced the way it was worked
An illustrative invoice where preparation is its own line, which is the single change that stops most decorating price arguments.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Preparation, 3 rooms, fill, sand, caulk, mask | $620.00 |
| Walls and ceilings, primer plus 2 coats | $880.00 |
| Woodwork, 5 doors, frames and skirting | $540.00 |
| Materials, paint and sundries | $385.00 |
| Deposit received on acceptance | −$600.00 |
| Balance due, net 7 | $1,825.00 |
Example only. The figures are illustrative and are not a guide to decorating prices in your area.
A painting and decorating invoice template you can print or fill in
Two pages. The first is the worked example above as a finished document, so you can see what a clear one looks like. The second is the same sheet blank as an invoice, with the line descriptions this trade actually uses, and the amounts left empty because what you charge is yours.
Questions decorators ask
What does it cost to use?
Unlimited invoices and quotes are free forever, including saved customers and line items and sending by WhatsApp or email. Pro is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year and adds five more invoice designs, removes the small watermark and puts your logo on the invoice.
Should I show paint at cost or with a markup?
Either is normal and the app does not take a view. What matters is consistency and that materials appear as their own line rather than disappearing into labour. A customer who can see the tin count rarely questions the total, and one who cannot see it questions everything.
Can I invoice a long job in stages?
Yes. Record a deposit against the accepted quote, then invoice stages as you complete them, and the balance is calculated for you. Tie the stages to visible progress rather than to calendar dates, because a customer will argue with a Tuesday and will not argue with finished preparation.
How do I price making good after other trades?
As a separate agreed extra, confirmed in writing before you do it. On new build and refurbishment work this is where decorators lose the most unbilled hours, because the damage is somebody else fault and the fix quietly becomes yours.
Does it work in an empty property with no wifi?
Yes. Everything is created and stored on the phone, so signal only matters at the moment you press send. If you have signed in for cloud backup, it syncs whenever you are back in coverage.
Do I have to create an account?
No. Install it, enter your business name, and the first invoice can go out immediately. An account is optional and only adds cloud backup and sync across devices.
Which devices does it run on?
Android phones and tablets through Google Play, and any modern browser at app.invoicelocal.com. There is no iPhone app yet, so on an iPhone you use the browser version, which builds and sends the same PDF from the same account.
Other trades working inside the same building
If you still build invoices by hand, the free invoice template is a plain starting point. The invoicing guides cover the paperwork questions that come up most, and the comparison pages are there if you are weighing Invoice Local against another app.
Show the work, not just the total
Free forever for unlimited invoices and quotes. Pro is $4.99 a month for the extra designs and no watermark.