Free invoice checker

What it checks

Every row says found, missing or check this, with one line on why it matters and what to add:

• Your business name and your phone or email, at the top, so the customer knows who the bill is from and how to reach you.
• The customer's name, under a "Bill to" or "Customer", so there is no doubt whose bill it is.
• An invoice number and the invoice date: how you both refer to it, and the day the terms count from.
• A due date or payment terms, such as "Due on receipt" or "Net 30": without one there is no day the bill is late.
• A description of the work and line items with amounts, so the customer can see what the total is made of.
• A total, and whether the math adds up: the lines against the subtotal, then the tax, discounts and payments against the total. It shows the sum it found.
• A tax line, present or not. Whether tax applies to the job is not decided here.
• How to pay: a pay link, bank details, or who to make a check out to.
• Your license number, only where your state's rule puts it on invoices, and late fee or interest terms next to your state's answer.

The state rules it shows

Pick a state and three rows carry that state's answer, copied word for word from this site's state pages, each with a link to the page and the date it was checked. Sales tax on labor: the state's answers for repair work on a home, installation and new construction from the sales tax on labor by state table. A "Depends" there stays "Depends": the state's page says on what.

Late fees: when your invoice mentions a late fee or interest, the state's rate when none was agreed and the most you can set, from the late fees by state table, with its marks ("Two answers", "Not fully confirmed"). It flags a rate only when the state's page gives one clear figure for every customer and the yearly rate your invoice states is above it. It never calls a fee illegal.

Your license number: asked for only in the states whose rule, as quoted on our contractor license pages, names invoices: Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas. Most of those rules cover only some trades, so the row says who it covers and asks you to check, rather than marking it missing. Where a state's rule names other documents (contracts, bids, ads or vehicles) but not invoices, one line shows what that state's page says, without marking anything missing; where we found no rule, nothing is shown.

How it reads an invoice

It reads the text the way a person skimming the page would: your name and contact details above the "Bill to", the customer under it, the lines with amounts, then the subtotal, tax and total. Text copied from a PDF often puts each column on its own line; the checker joins a line of figures back onto the words above it. Page numbers and "carried forward" lines from a long invoice are left out of the sums.

The math is only checked when every amount reads cleanly. A line's amount is its last dollar figure; a line that shows a rate but no amount, or a quantity and a price that do not multiply to the amount, makes the row say it couldn't check the math rather than guess. Cents of rounding are allowed.

It looks for words, so a part written in an unusual way can be missed. Read the row before you change anything, and if it says something is missing that you can see, your invoice is fine on that point.

Fix what is missing

• Free invoice template — every part above in Word, Excel or PDF, and a template for your trade you can fill in online
• Late payment reminder templates — what to send when the due date has passed
• Late fees by state — what interest or late fee an unpaid invoice can carry, from each state's own laws
• Sales tax on labor by state — whether your labor is taxed on a repair, an installation or new construction
• Contractor license limits by state — the limits, and where each state wants your license number

Then send it from Workeey

Workeey keeps your business details and your clients, so every invoice starts with them filled in. The invoice goes to your client by email with a pay link, so once you connect Stripe they pay by card or bank right from it. Every invoice shows as draft, sent, paid or overdue, so you can see who still owes you. It is free to start: see pricing.