A messy invoice is a slow invoice. It gets queried, set aside, and paid late. A clean one that ticks the right boxes gets processed without a second thought. Here's what belongs on a tradie invoice in Australia, the required bits and the ones that quietly get you paid faster. (This is general info, not tax advice, check with your accountant or the ATO for your situation.)
The must-haves
- The word 'Invoice', clearly.
- Your business name and ABN.
- The date you issued it, and a unique invoice number.
- The customer's name (and address for larger jobs).
- A description of what you did, itemised, not just 'labour'.
- The amount payable, and your payment terms.
GST: get this right
If you're registered for GST, your invoice needs to be a valid tax invoice: it must show the GST amount (or state that the total includes GST), and for sales over $1,000 it needs the customer's identity or ABN. If you're not registered for GST, don't charge it and don't call it a 'tax invoice', just 'invoice' is correct. Registration is generally required once your turnover hits $75,000, but confirm your own position.
The extras that get you paid faster
None of these are legally required, but every one removes friction between the customer and the 'pay' button:
- Bank details right on the invoice, BSB, account number, and your name.
- A clear due date ('due 30 July'), not just 'within 14 days'.
- The job address or a reference the customer recognises.
- Itemised lines with quantities and rates, so nothing looks like a surprise.
- A short, human thank-you line. It costs nothing and it works.
Keep your records
Keep a copy of every invoice and quote. You'll want them at tax time, and you'll want them the day a customer says 'I never agreed to that'. Numbered invoices in one place make this painless.
Send it the day the job finishes
The gap between finishing and invoicing is the most expensive habit in the trade. Invoice a week later and you've added a week to when you get paid, and by then the customer's memory of the work has faded while the size of the number hasn't. Same day, while they're still standing in a finished bathroom feeling good about it, is worth more than any chasing you'll do later.
Short terms beat long ones
Thirty-day terms are a habit borrowed from big business, and for a sole trader they're just a month of funding someone else's cash flow. Seven or fourteen days is completely normal for trade work, and almost nobody pushes back, because the terms were on the quote they accepted.
- Put a real date on it, not a duration: 'due 10 August' beats 'net 14'.
- Say what happens after the due date, once, in plain words, on the invoice itself.
- Make the terms the same on every job so you never have to remember which customer got what.
Remove every step between them and paying
Every extra action loses you days. If paying means finding your email, opening an attachment, copying a BSB into a banking app and typing a reference, some of them will do it tonight and some will do it in three weeks. Bank details on the face of the invoice, a reference that's already the invoice number, and a link they can open on a phone will get you paid faster than any reminder.
Getting paid on time is mostly a design problem, not a chasing problem.
Where Agentize fits
Agentize raises the invoice off the finished job the same day, numbers it, puts your ABN, terms and bank details on it, and follows it up if it goes past due. If you'd rather just get the format right yourself, the free invoice template checks your document against the ATO's requirements as you fill it in.
Where Agentize fits
Agentize turns your approved quote into a compliant, itemised invoice with your ABN, GST handled and your bank details on it, numbered, branded and ready to send. Then it chases the payment for you. Plans from $49 a month, cancel any time.