Construction Invoice Template

Setup takes about 25 minutes for your first project. Download the .xlsx file and open it in Excel or Google Sheets. Start with the Schedule of Values sheet — enter your contract line items and allocate the total contract value across each scope of work. This becomes the foundation for every draw invoice you send. Then review the Invoice sheet header and update it with your company name, license number, and address. Set the retainage percentage (typically 5% or 10%) in the configuration cell at the top of the Invoice sheet — that rate will apply to every invoice automatically.

To create an invoice for a draw, go to the Invoice sheet and enter the project details, invoice number, and billing period. In the line items, reference the Schedule of Values to determine your billing entitlement for the period — enter the amount you're billing for each scope, and the sheet calculates the retainage holdback and net amount due. If you have approved change orders to bill, pull the amounts from the Change Order Log. When the invoice is complete, log it in the Invoice Log with an Outstanding status. Print or export to PDF to send with your lien waiver.

Ongoing management is where the time savings compound. After each payment clears, update the Invoice Log to Paid and mark retainage received if applicable. Each month, check the Change Order Log for any approved change orders that haven't been billed yet — this is the most common cash flow leak for general contractors. At project closeout, use the Retainage Tracker to confirm what's due and generate the final retainage release request. Contractors who run five or more simultaneous projects find that 30 minutes per week in this workbook keeps their receivables current and prevents the end-of-year billing scramble.

Construction invoicing is more complex than almost any other industry. A single draw invoice might include progress billing on three scopes of work at different completion percentages, a change order approved last month that hasn't been billed yet, materials delivered to site but not yet installed, and a subcontractor pass-through. The retainage holdback reduces your cash received by 5–10% on every invoice until project closeout. Generic invoice templates have no structure for any of this — they treat construction like a consulting engagement, with a flat list of services and an amount due. The result is invoices that owners dispute, retainage that gets forgotten, and change orders that never get billed.

The schedule of values is the central document in construction invoicing. It maps the total contract value to specific scopes of work, and each draw invoice is a claim against that schedule. Owners, lenders, and project managers use the schedule of values to verify that your billing is proportional to work actually completed — billing 80% against a scope that's 40% done is the fastest way to create a payment dispute. AIA G702 and G703 forms are the standard in commercial construction, and this template follows that same structure without requiring you to buy or use AIA software. Every draw invoice you create references the schedule and shows the cumulative billed-to-date per scope, which gives owners exactly what they need to approve payment quickly.

The two most common cash flow problems in construction are unfollowed change orders and unclaimed retainage. Change orders are often approved verbally or via email and then billed weeks or months late — sometimes never. The Change Order Log forces a billing discipline: every approved change order gets a row, and anything marked approved-but-not-billed is a visible reminder that money is sitting unclaimed. Retainage is the larger issue for contractors with multiple active projects: 5–10% withheld across five $500K contracts is $125K–$250K in working capital that you're financing for your clients. The Retainage Tracker turns that abstract number into a concrete receivables figure you can manage, follow up on, and factor into cash flow planning.