Painting invoices the client can check against their walls

Interior and exterior bill differently

Inside, the client is standing in the rooms, so bill by the room: living room walls, two coats; hallway ceiling, one coat; six doors and their casings. They can walk the house with the invoice in hand and tick off every line.

Outside, the job is the whole house, and the price is mostly prep and access: scraping, power washing, priming bare wood, caulking every window, the ladder work up on the gable. Bill an exterior by the side or by the stage, prep, prime, body and trim, so the hours on a peeling north wall show up where they happened.

Weather changes the schedule, not the price. If you bid an exterior as a fixed job, three rain days don't go on the bill; if you bill by the day, the days you actually painted do. Say which before you start, and the invoice won't surprise anyone.

• Interior: by the room, the wall or the square foot
• Exterior: by the side of the house or the stage
• Trim, doors and windows: count × your rate
• Fixed bid or day rate: say which up front

How to invoice a painting job

Use the same order every time, so nothing you did gets left in the truck:

1. Walk the job with the client and fix the punch list before you bill.
2. Turn the estimate or the finished job into the invoice. Client, address, lines, tax and photos carry over, and it's numbered on its own.
3. Check the prep and the coats: patching, sanding, caulk, masking, moving furniture, the power wash. Change the quantity where a wall took a third coat, and add a line for any primer you didn't plan on.
4. Put the paint on by the gallon, one line per product at your price, with the colors and sheens in the line names so next year's touch-up is easy.
5. Add any color change as its own line, with the extra coat and the paint it took.
6. Bill the balance: lines that add up to what is left, and the deposit you took written in the notes.
7. Set the due date and send it. It's emailed with a pay link once you've connected Stripe.

What a painting bill should show

A painting bill has to explain walls the client only sees finished. For a blank one, there's a free painting invoice template; for the price before the job, see estimates.

Whether you add sales tax to your labor depends on your state and on the job: a repair, an installation or new construction. See sales tax on labor in every state, with each state's own guidance linked.

• Your business name, phone and email
• The client's name and the job address
• An invoice number and the date
• Each room or surface, with the coats it got
• Paint by the gallon and other materials at your price
• Any color change or extra work as its own line
• The total due and how to pay, with any deposit you took written in the notes under it

Paint by the gallon, at your price

Paint is the line clients check, because they can look up a gallon's price on their phone. Put each product on its own line with a quantity and your rate: 'Wall paint, eggshell, Pebble Path, 6 gal', 'Ceiling flat, 2 gal', 'Stain-blocking primer, 1 gal'. Build your store trips, the returns and the can you open and don't finish into the per-gallon rate, rather than adding a separate markup line. Tape, plastic, caulk and sandpaper can go as one supplies line.

Leftover paint belongs to whoever paid for it. Label the cans with the room and leave them in the garage, and say so on the invoice. It costs you nothing, and it's the first thing a homeowner looks for when the kids scuff the hallway.

When the client changes the color halfway

It happens every few jobs: the first coat goes on, the client sees it in daylight and wants something warmer. That's a change, and it costs you a coat, new paint, and maybe a coat of primer if you're going from dark to light. Before you open the new can, tell them the price, for example 'the switch adds one coat and four gallons, $380', and get a yes, by text if you can, so it's in writing.

On the invoice, give the change its own line rather than quietly raising the room price: 'Color change, dining room, extra coat' for the labor, and the new paint by the gallon. Snap a photo of the first color on the wall before you cover it. Photos from the job carry over to the invoice, and that one picture ends the conversation about why the dining room cost more than the quote.

Touch-ups: part of the job, or a new one

Touch-ups on the final walk are part of the job: the holiday on the ceiling line, the drip on the baseboard. Don't bill them. Fix them before you send the invoice and the client pays happier. A touch-up call months later is different. The movers gouged the hallway, the new couch scraped the wall: that's a new job with its own small invoice, usually a minimum charge plus the time.

That's when the first invoice earns its keep. Each client's history in Workeey keeps every job and invoice, so you open the old one, read 'Hallway, Pebble Path, eggshell', and bring the right can. No guessing at a color match in someone's front hall.

A deposit taken on paper, the balance in the app

Most painters take money before they buy paint. Your deposit percent prints on the quote PDF, but Workeey doesn't collect deposits or track partial payments. The final invoice's lines add up to the balance (a line can't subtract), such as one line “Balance after deposit, per quote”. The deposit's amount and date go in the invoice's notes, which print under the total. Or send the deposit as its own invoice first.

Connect Stripe and the final invoice carries a pay link for card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or US bank; paid that way, it marks itself paid and emails the receipt. A small processing fee applies to online payments (payments). Paid by check? Mark it paid and tap Send receipt, or use our painting receipt template. For a quiet balance, switch on reminder texts for that invoice: up to eight, daytime only, STOP ends them. They need a saved account; 10 a month are free (reminders).

More for painters: pages and free templates

• Painting business software — quotes, prep days and the final bill
• How to price painting jobs — a guide to setting your prices
• How to start a painting business — a step-by-step guide to going out on your own
• Best apps for painting contractors — the apps for this trade compared
• Painting invoice template — free, with a filled-in sample
• Painting estimate template — a free quote sample
• Painting receipt template — a free paid-in-full sample
• Painter wages by state — what employed painters earn in every state, from BLS data
• Painting business name ideas — a free name generator for your trade
• Free invoice template — every field a trade invoice needs
• Free estimate template — copy it, price it, send it
• Free receipt template — a paid-in-full receipt to copy
• Work order template — the job written down before you bill it
• Late payment reminder templates — texts, emails and a letter to copy and send
• All free templates and tools