Download the template here (MS Excel template file) or view it as a pdf file here.

Of course you don’t have to invest in a copy of Excel just to produce a few invoices, OpenOffice.org has most of the functionality of Excel (and other MS Office products) and it’s free. The template opens OK in OpenOffice but needs some slight adjustments for page margins and layout etc.

Google Docs allows you to produce invoices and other documents online and export to Excel or OpenOffice if required. They have their own invoice templates available and again it’s all free of charge.

Zoho.com is another online office suite, similar to Google Docs, with a lot more thrown in as well. They have their own dedicated online application for raising invoices invoice.zoho.com but annoyingly they’ve now seem to have started charging for its use.

Microsoft Office Accounting Express is FREE, fully featured, small business accounting software. For a free product it compares very well with the basic versions of Quickbooks and Sage, allowing you to raise and track invoices, enter bills, keep track of what you owe and what you’re owed etc, and did I mention that it’s FREE? It’s even upgradeable to the more advanced Microsoft Office Accounting Professional for about £150 if you find that you’ve outgrown it.

To satisfy HMRC you need to include on your invoice:

The date of issue of the invoice.
A sequential number that uniquely identifies the invoice.
Your business’s name, address and VAT registration number.
The name and address of your customer.
Your customer’s VAT registration number (only if they’re VAT registered in another EU country and you’re invoicing without VAT).
The date of supply of services (the date you did the work).
A description of the services supplied (from a VAT point of view ‘Courier work’ would be OK – your customer may want more detail).
The VAT rate applied (normally 17.5%).
Total amount of VAT payable.
The total amount payable for the whole invoice excluding VAT.
The total amount of VAT charged at each VAT rate (normally just one entry for the 17.5% rate).
The unit price of the services supplied and the number of units charged for – if this is normal practice for your industry (as far as I’m aware it isn’t normal practice in the courier industry) or required by your customer. In practice you can ignore this unless you charge your customer by an agreed price per mile or hour worked AND they’ve asked you to include the figure on your invoice. For example ’200 miles @ 70p/plm’.

To satisfy Companies House and Trading Standards:

If your business trades under a name other that its actual name then you must include the actual name on your invoice, as well as the trading name.

If you’re a sole trader John Smith and you trade as ‘John Smith’, ‘J Smith’ or just ‘Smith’ then that is the only name that needs to appear on your invoice.
If you’re a partnership of John Smith and Alan Jones, and trade under any combination of the names (‘Smith & Jones’, ‘J Smith & Alan Jones’ etc) then those are the only details needed.
If your business is a limited company and it trades under its own name ‘S&J Courier Services Ltd’, then that’s the only name that needs to appear on your invoices.

In any other case, where the business trades under a name that is not its actual name, the full actual name of the legal entity behind the trading name must be shown on all invoices. So if John Smith trades as ‘John Smith Couriers’, or John Smith and Alan Jones trade as ‘J&A Couriers’, or even if S&J Courier Services Ltd trade as ‘S&J Courier Services’, then the actual name of the sole-trader, the partners or the limited company must be shown on the invoice.

To keep you customer happy

The date you did the job.
The collection and delivery details – I prefer the format ‘XYZ Semiconductors, London E14 – ABC Computers, Manchester M30′.
Any reference if you’ve been given one by the customer – otherwise use the name of the person who booked the job.
Any purchase order number supplied by the customer – if it’s the first job you’ve done for them it doesn’t hurt to ring them and ask them what they need to appear on the invoice.
The POD for the job – often not essential with end-users but other transport companies like to get their PODs. Also attach the original hard copy POD to your invoice, KEEP A COPY FOR YOUR OWN RECORDS THOUGH.
Your bank details. – Most companies pay by BACS or internet banking these days. Make the payment process as simple as you can for them and avoid any excuses for late payment.
Invoice promptly – if it’s a one-off job then don’t leave it until the end of the month, do it now.
Invoice accurately – only invoice for the agreed amount. if there are any additions for waiting time, call-outs etc then agree the charges with the customer at the time that the cost is incurred.
Don’t backdate your invoice. If you don’t get round to sending your invoices until the middle of the month then don’t date them at the end of the previous month. Large companies may not notice and you’ll be paid as and when your invoice is cleared, small companies may get annoyed at being presented with an invoice due for payment within a few days of receipt.

To avoid any problems in the future

Spell out your payment terms and the due date on the invoice.
Explain the methods of paying the invoice – “Cheques should be made payable to XYZ Couriers…etc” “BACS payments may be made to Account no……etc”
Don’t mention unreasonable and un-agreed penalties for late payment on your invoice.
Draw the customer’s attention to the Late Payment legislation – “WE UNDERSTAND AND WILL EXERCISE OUR STATUTORY RIGHT TO INTEREST AND COMPENSATION FOR DEBT RECOVERY COSTS UNDER THE LATE PAYMENT LEGISLATION IF WE ARE NOT PAID ACCORDING TO OUR CREDIT TERMS.”
Draw the customer’s attention to your Conditions of Carriage, Conditions of Trading, Terms & Conditions, or whatever “ALL BUSINESS UNDERTAKEN IS SUBJECT TO OUR CONDITIONS OF TRADING – A COPY OF WHICH IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST – or go to www.quietlyefficientcouriers.co.uk/conditions.pdf” This won’t automatically mean that the job you’re invoicing on this occasion will be covered by those conditions, you should have agreed that in advance, but it will help you show that your Conditions apply to any future work you carry out for the customer.

You must be able to provide receipts showing the VAT for anything that you claim the VAT back on in this way. Be warned that HMRC are very likely to ask to see all the supporting VAT receipts if you put in a big reclaim of VAT on your first VAT return. This is nothing to get worried about as long as you’ve stuck to the rules.

You can claim the VAT back on any ‘goods’ that you’ve purchased up to 3 years before your registration date as long as you still have the goods on the date that your registration starts. ‘Goods’ would include vans, computers, promotional material, uniform, fax, telephones and even the tank full of fuel you bought the night before your registration started.

You can also claim back the VAT on any ‘services’ that you’ve paid for up to 6 months before your registration date as long as the service wasn’t one that you ‘sold on’ before your registration date. So you could claim back the VAT on your accountant’s bill from 5 months ago but you couldn’t claim back the VAT that a subcontractor charged you last week if you’ve invoiced your customer for the job before your registration date.

The good news is that you can still claim back the VAT on these pre-registration expenses even if you’ve registered under the Flat Rate Scheme (FRS).

Normally under the FRS you can only claim back the VAT on purchases of ‘capital assets’ costing over £2,000 including VAT; so as far as couriers are concerned usually just on the purchase of a van. When claiming the VAT on pre-registration expenses however you can claim back the VAT on all the purchases mentioned above as if you weren’t on the FRS. So if you were to buy your new laptop 2 weeks before you registered for VAT on the FRS then you’d still be able to claim the VAT back on it. If you bought it just after registering for VAT on the FRS you wouldn’t be able to claim the VAT unless it had cost you £1702.13 plus VAT (£2,000) or more.

The only ‘gotcha’ with regards to the FRS is that if/when you sell anything that you’ve claimed the full amount of VAT back on using the above method (your van for instance) you have to account for the VAT on the sale at the normal rate rather than at the FRS rate. So if you’ve bought your van 3 years ago for £8,000 (plus £1,400 VAT) and claimed back the VAT, then when you sell it next year for £1,500 (plus £262.50 VAT) you’ll have to pay HMRC the full £262.50 VAT when you sell it, rather than £135 under the FRS.

Given that you’ll almost certainly be within a year or so of starting your courier business when you decide to register for VAT, it’s certainly worth going back and claiming all that you’re entitled to.

Unless you’ve taken the (sometimes sensible) option of starting your registration on a date in the future you could have a period of 3 months or longer when you’re liable to account for VAT on all your sales but you’re not legally able to charge VAT. This obviously leaves you with a problem.

You’re not legally able to show the VAT as a separate amount on your invoice unless you’ve received confirmation of your VAT registration.  HMRC’s solution is for you to issue a VAT-inclusive invoice to your customers. So instead of invoicing £100 you would invoice £117.50 ‘including VAT’. If you’ve got a close relationship with all of your customers and you can get them to agree to this in advance then this is without doubt the best option: please read on however.

Most established companies, particularly in the transport sector, will not pay VAT on an invoice unless it’s a genuine VAT invoice containing a VAT number and the VAT shown as a separate amount. You are not allowed (or able) to supply these details on your invoices until you receive confirmation of you VAT registration. If you use the HMRC approved method above (invoicing inclusive of VAT), without the prior agreement of your customer, you may well find that your customer delays payment of your entire invoice until they receive a proper VAT receipt.

The alternative method of dealing with this problem is to invoice for the normal amount, say £100 using the example above, with a clear notice on the invoice stating that you are awaiting VAT registration and a full VAT invoice showing the outstanding VAT will be issued as soon as your registration is confirmed. This avoids the delay that will almost inevitably be caused if you issue a VAT-inclusive invoice as recommended by HMRC.

Once your VAT registration is confirmed you send them an invoice for the full amount, with the VAT itemised, with a credit shown for the original amount (if that’s already been paid) and just the VATshowing as outstanding. If you’re ONLY invoicing for the outstanding VAT it can be seen as helpful (or at least ‘friendly’) to show the ‘payment due’ date as the last day of your own VAT quarter.

Remember that you can reclaim the VAT on many expenses incurred BEFORE your registration date. I’ll cover that in a future posting.

wrote:
I think visit to the accountant is needed here

If you go to the accountant and they tell you not to register then get another accountant.

The only reason to even consider not registering for VAT is if you have a lot of customers that aren’t VAT registered.

Read this http://deliver-it.biz/couriers/2008/03/should-i-be-vat-registered/

It never fails to amaze me the number of people on here who I KNOW are operating more than one vehicle & driver, yet there’s no VAT on the invoice when it arrives. How can you possibly run more than one vehicle and turn over less than £1300 per week? Even if your turnover is that low WHY would you want to pay two lots of running costs without claiming back the VAT?

Something I prepared last time this question came up: Should I be VAT Registered?

Richard wrote:
Steve

I am not sure what you mean, if you were employed & your company sent you to London you would charge them mileage 44p per mile there & back.

40p/mile, not 44p.

Richard wrote:
There is no legal obligation for you to declare it to taxman or anyone else.
There is no obligation to keep any records

Apart from the detailed written log of all your journeys.

Richard wrote:
Taking that a step further you own the van & pay all of the outgoings. You receive 44p per mile while driving it. It sucks all of the money out of limited company into your tax free pocket.

You can even assume the 44p includes vat (its a loophole exploit it while it still exists)

You’re only allowed to claim the VAT on the fuel element, not on the full mileage allowance and now you’ve got to keep VAT receipts at least covering the VAT claimed.

Richard wrote:
Basically Gordon turned this bit of legislation into a Dogs dinner & he is too arrogant to revisit it (Suits me fine)

In practice the current situation is no different to the situation that existed for years before the newest legislation was brought in. All that’s really changed is the mileage rates and the fact that the allowance is statutory rather than concessionary.

It’s worth pointing out that the self-employed also have the option of using the mileage allowance scheme providing their turnover isn’t over the VAT registration treshold.

If anyone’s worried about the paperwork (and they shouldn’t be) then at least register on the Flat Rate Scheme; it shouldn’t take you more than half an hour a month to do the admin and you’ll add over 6.9% of your turnover straight on to your bottom line.
 

If you carry out transport wholly within the UK then you have to charge VAT on it wherever your customer is based, EXCEPT if you carry out the UK leg of a delivery that starts or ends outside the EU. So if you were, for example, to collect goods from Portsmouth that had originated in the Channel Islands as part of a delivery from the Channel Islands to somewhere in the EU then you’re meant to zero-rate your charges.

The same is true if you collect goods from outside the EU from a freight forwarder for delivery in the UK – even though you’re just delivering UK to UK you’re meant to zero-rate the UK leg of the transport.

And if you’re delivering 100 consignments from various EU and non-EU countries on the same trip, on your round for TNT International say? According to the VAT office you’re meant to apportion the delivery costs to each consignment and zero rate the costs for the consignments that originated outside the EU!! And you’re meant to keep documentary evidence to justify the zero-rating.  http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000162&propertyType=document#P152_12255

Mostly everyone just ignores it and standard-rates everything, but if your customer is outside the EU and can’t reclaim the VAT then they could kick up a fuss if they wanted.

How far would you drive to save 14.89p/litre on fuel?
 

Whatever you do don’t raise a ‘Network’ invoice as well as your own – it just makes extra work for everyone.
 

If you’re planning on subbing out a lot of work then the flat rate scheme may not be suitable if your suppliers are mainly VAT registered.

There’s now NO POSSIBLE EXCUSE for raising a ‘Network’ invoice and your own invoice with a different number SO PLEASE STOP DOING IT.

And while you’re at it PLEASE STOP sending us hard copy ‘Network’ invoices that we’ve already paid., copies of ‘Network’ ‘Order Confirmations’ that we have no possible use for and ‘Network’ non-POD sheets that we could look at on the site if we had a mind to. It’s all irrelevant and just makes work for us. Some companies may require all this rubbish but we DON’T.

Could I also point out that you can now add your own customised message that will appear automatically at the bottom of every ‘Network’ invoice you produce. Maybe some of you could use this new facility to add your bank details to your invoices?