Invoicing for towing, with the hook up and the miles kept apart.
A recovery is not one price. It is an attendance, a distance, sometimes a time of night, and often storage that starts counting the moment the vehicle lands on your yard.
Free forever No card No account needed to start
Nobody is in a good mood when the invoice appears
Every towing customer meets you on the worst part of their day. They have broken down, been in a collision or come back to an empty parking space. Whatever the invoice says, it arrives into that mood, which means anything unexplained becomes a complaint rather than a question.
The charges themselves are entirely standard in the trade: a hook up fee, mileage, an out of hours premium, storage per day. The trouble is that a single total for all four looks arbitrary to someone who was expecting to pay for a tow, and only a tow.
Storage runs on a clock, so the invoice must show the clock
Storage is the charge most often disputed and the easiest to defend, because it is arithmetic. Date in, date out, rate per day. Written that way it is checkable by the owner, the insurer and the finance company. Written as storage, 340 it is an invitation to argue.
Third party payers make this sharper. Motor clubs, insurers and finance companies pay against their own reference and their own schedule, and an invoice that lacks the claim or job number sits unprocessed while everyone assumes it is with someone else. Getting that reference onto the document is worth more than any wording anywhere else on the page.
What a recovery operator needs
Invoice Local runs from the phone in the cab, which is where the job actually ends.
The work a recovery invoice covers
Roadside, accident, statutory or trade movement, the same builder handles all of it.
On every recovery invoice
These documents go to insurers, motor clubs, finance houses and sometimes courts. They have to be unambiguous.
- Business name, your logo on Pro, and any operator licence you add
- A sequential number that keeps takings reconcilable
- Date and time of attendance where it affected the price
- Vehicle registration, make and model
- Every charge with its own line: hook up, mileage, premium, storage
- A tax line only when you charge tax
- Claim, job or membership reference for third party payers
- Paid status and method, so a kerbside card payment becomes a receipt
What recovery operators search for, and what the invoice must show
The searches on the left bring people here. The list on the right is what gets a third party invoice processed rather than parked.
How towing businesses find this
- towing invoice app
- tow truck invoice template with mileage and storage
- how to invoice storage days for a recovered vehicle
- app to invoice a motor club or insurer
- offline invoice app for a recovery truck
- free invoicing app for a small towing company
What a third party payer needs to see
- Hook up or attendance charge, named
- Mileage with the distance and the rate
- Out of hours or bank holiday premium as its own line
- Storage with date in, date out and daily rate
- Vehicle registration on the document
- Claim, job or membership number
From drop off to invoice sent
Four steps in the cab before the next call.
- Add the vehicleRegistration, make and model typed once.
- Add the chargesHook up, mileage, premium and storage, each on its own line.
- Add the referenceClaim or job number for a third party payer, which decides whether it gets paid.
- Take payment or sendCard at the kerb becomes a receipt, or email it to the insurer.
A night recovery with three days of storage
An illustrative invoice to an insurer. Every line is arithmetic somebody else can check, which is why this gets processed.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Attendance and hook up, accident recovery | $140.00 |
| Mileage, 34 miles at $3.20 | $108.80 |
| Out of hours premium, 23:40 attendance | $75.00 |
| Storage, 3 days at $32, in 12 Aug, out 15 Aug | $96.00 |
| Total due, net 30, claim REF-77341 | $419.80 |
Example only. The figures are illustrative and are not a guide to recovery rates in your area.
A towing 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 recovery operators ask
What does it cost?
Unlimited invoices, quotes and receipts are free forever, with saved customers, saved line items and sending by WhatsApp or email. Pro is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year and adds five more designs and removes the small watermark.
How should I bill storage so it is not disputed?
Show the date in, the date out and the daily rate on the line. Storage is disputed more than any other charge in this trade and defended more easily than any other, because once the dates are printed the argument becomes arithmetic that the other side can check themselves.
Can I invoice a motor club or insurer?
Yes, and the deciding factor is their reference. A claim or job number on the document is usually the difference between being paid on their next run and sitting in a queue while nobody tells you anything. Save each account with its own terms.
Can I take payment at the roadside?
You take it however you already do, by card reader or transfer, then record it on the invoice. The document then shows the amount paid and a zero balance, which is a receipt the customer can give to their own insurer.
Does the vehicle registration need to be on it?
Put it on every time. A recovery invoice without a registration is hard to match to a claim, hard to match to a storage record and hard to defend if anything is questioned months later.
Does it work on a motorway shoulder with no signal?
Yes. Invoices are created and stored on the phone, so reception only matters when you press send. Anything created offline syncs later if you have signed in.
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 mobile trades paid at the vehicle
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.
Make every charge checkable
Free forever for unlimited invoices, quotes and receipts. Pro is $4.99 a month for the extra designs and no watermark.