An invoice that is missing a legally required element is an invoice a client's accounts department can send back, and every week it comes back is a week you are not paid. This template carries all of it, laid out the way a UK business expects to read it.
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Delete the VAT lines entirely if you are not VAT registered. Never show VAT you are not registered to charge.
Your business name and address
Client name and address
Invoice number
Invoice date
Supply date (tax point)
Payment due date
Your VAT number (if registered)
Purchase order reference
What a VAT invoice must legally show
If you are VAT registered, every one of these is required. A document missing any of them is not a VAT invoice and your client cannot reclaim against it.
A unique, sequential invoice number
Your business name and address
Your VAT registration number
The date of issue
The time of supply (the tax point) if different from the invoice date
The customer's name and address
A description sufficient to identify the goods or services supplied
The quantity and unit price of each item, excluding VAT
The rate of VAT charged on each line
The total amount excluding VAT
The total amount of VAT charged, in sterling
The rate of any cash discount offered
What should be on it whether or not you are VAT registered
Clear payment terms, stating the number of days
The exact date payment is due, not just "30 days"
BACS details: account name, sort code and account number
A unique payment reference so the payment can be matched
The site or property the work relates to
The dates the work was carried out
A contact name and number for invoice queries
Your company registration number, if you are a limited company
Late payment terms, referencing statutory interest
Before you send it
Invoice number is unique and follows the last one in sequence
The purchase order number is quoted, if the client uses them
It is addressed to the right entity: the managing agent, not the tenant
It is going to the accounts inbox, not to your day-to-day contact
The arithmetic has been checked, including the VAT
The dates of work match what was actually delivered
Any agreed extras are itemised separately rather than absorbed
A copy is kept: six years is the standard retention period
Invoice lines
Description
Site / date
Qty
Unit price
VAT rate
Net
Office cleaning, contracted hours
Unit 4, week ending 12/09
20
£16.50
20%
£330.00
Totals
Amount
Subtotal excluding VAT
VAT at 20%
Total due
Free to print, copy and use commercially, including with your own
clients and staff. From CleanFlo, cleaning business
software for UK companies.
In CleanFlo
Invoices raised from the work, not from memory
CleanFlo turns a completed job into an invoice in one click, VAT on it if you are registered and none of it if you are not, with the BACS details and a unique payment reference already on it, and chases it at 7, 14 and 30 days until it is paid.
Commercial clients do not usually refuse to pay. They fail to process, which looks the same from your end but has different causes and different fixes. Four things account for most of it.
The invoice is missing a purchase order number the client's system requires. It is addressed to the wrong entity: the tenant rather than the managing agent, or the site rather than the head office. It went to your day-to-day contact instead of the accounts inbox. Or, if you are VAT registered, it is missing one of the legally required particulars, so the client's finance team cannot reclaim and returns it.
All four are avoidable at the point of setting the client up, which is why the checklist above includes them. Ask, when you win the contract, who invoices go to, whether a PO is needed, and what entity name goes on it.
Stop printing it
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Send us what you have and we will import it for you, free, during the trial. Ask us to import it
Payment terms that actually work
Terms are worth more than a discount. The difference between being paid in 14 days and 45 is the difference between funding your own payroll and borrowing to do it.
State a date, not a duration. "Payment due by 12 October" is chased more readily than "30 days".
Invoice on completion, not monthly in arrears, for one-off work. Every day between the job and the invoice is a day added to the wait.
Agree terms before you start, in the contract, rather than discovering the client pays on 60 days after the first invoice.
Put the BACS details on every invoice, with a payment reference unique to that invoice so the payment reconciles.
Reference statutory interest. Commercial debts carry a statutory right to interest and a fixed sum in compensation for late payment. You do not have to claim it, but saying so on the invoice changes how it is treated.
Chase on a schedule, not when you notice. Seven, fourteen and thirty days, the same way every time.
Numbering, records and Making Tax Digital
Invoice numbers must be unique and sequential. Gaps invite questions and duplicates cause real reconciliation problems, so pick a scheme and keep it: a plain running number is fine, and prefixing by year makes filing easier.
Keep every invoice for at least six years. VAT-registered businesses must keep digital VAT records and file through compatible software under Making Tax Digital, which means a spreadsheet of invoices you type up by hand is increasingly not enough on its own.
If you are approaching the VAT registration threshold, watch it on a rolling twelve-month basis rather than by financial year, because that is how the test works and it is the most common way a growing cleaning business registers late. Our VAT calculator handles the arithmetic in both directions.
Frequently asked questions
01What must be on a cleaning invoice in the UK?
For any invoice: your business name and address, the client's name and address, a unique invoice number, the date, a description of the work, the amount due and how to pay. If you are VAT registered you must also show your VAT number, the tax point, the net amount, the VAT rate on each line and the total VAT in sterling. Missing any VAT particular means your client cannot reclaim.
02Do cleaners charge VAT?
Only if VAT registered. Cleaning services in the UK are standard-rated at 20%, so a VAT-registered cleaning business charges 20% on its invoices. A business below the registration threshold that has not registered voluntarily must not charge VAT or show a VAT amount, and doing so is a serious error rather than a technicality.
03How long should I keep cleaning invoices?
At least six years. VAT records must be kept for six years, and VAT-registered businesses must keep them digitally under Making Tax Digital. Keeping copies also matters for disputes, where an invoice with the dates of work on it is often the only record of what was delivered.
04What can I do if a client will not pay a cleaning invoice?
Chase in writing on a schedule, escalate to the accounts department and then to a director, and check first that the invoice was correct and went to the right place, since most non-payment is a processing failure rather than a refusal. Commercial debts carry a statutory right to interest plus a fixed sum in compensation, which you can claim. State the terms on the invoice from the start.
05Should I invoice per clean or monthly?
One-off work should be invoiced on completion, because the wait starts when you invoice rather than when you finish. Recurring contracts are normally invoiced monthly, either in advance or in arrears. Monthly in advance is better for cash flow and is common for commercial contracts; agree which before the first invoice rather than after.
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