Contractor invoice template — progress billing and retainage
A general contractor's invoice is a progress claim: percentage complete against a schedule of values, less retainage, with lien waivers attached. These templates are built that way.
An invoicing spreadsheet that opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, or prints to PDF. Pre-filled with the fields a general contracting invoice needs, plus the payment terms this trade most often gets caught out by.
- Blank — the invoice fields, ready to fill in by hand.
- Auto-calculating — same sheet with subtotal, tax, deposit and balance due wired up. Formulas work in Excel and Google Sheets.
- Printable — a clean one-page layout to fill in or save as PDF.
How general contracting work actually gets paid
General contracting bills progress against a schedule of values — each line carries a contract value and a percent complete, and the invoice claims the difference since last time. Retainage is withheld from every draw and released at completion, so it has to appear as its own deduction rather than being netted invisibly. Lien waivers move with the payment: conditional on submission, unconditional once funds clear. Getting that sequence wrong is how a paid contractor still ends up with a lien filed by a sub.
What a general contracting invoice must contain
- Invoice or application number, period covered, and the contract reference
- Schedule of values: each line with its contract value
- Percent complete this period and to date, per line
- Work completed to date, less previously billed, giving this period's claim
- Stored materials on site, if the contract allows them to be claimed
- Retainage withheld at the contract percentage, shown as its own deduction
- Approved change orders, each with number and date, added to the contract sum
- Conditional lien waiver enclosed, and the unconditional one to follow payment
Where general contracting invoices go unpaid
- Percent complete claimed ahead of what an inspection would confirm
- Retainage netted invisibly, so the customer never sees what is being held or when it releases
- Change orders performed on a verbal go-ahead and billed without a signed order
- Subcontractor lien waivers not collected, leaving exposure after you have been paid
The estimate this invoice bills against
An invoice is only as defensible as the estimate it came from. BidWand writes the estimate from a plain description of the job — labour, materials, exclusions and assumptions — so the numbers on this invoice are ones the customer already agreed to.
Draft the general contracting estimate behind this invoice
This generates the estimate, not the invoice — describe the job and you get the itemised figures to bill from. No email needed to see the first one.
What you get — see the format first
A complete estimate you can send to the customer, built from the rate you enter:
| Description | Qty | Unit | Unit price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor — itemized by task | hrs | hour | your rate | — |
| Materials — with your markup applied | qty | ea / sq ft | cost + markup | — |
| Permits, disposal, access | — | — | — | — |
Plus a plain-English scope summary, assumptions (what had to be guessed), exclusions (what you are not doing — the section that prevents most change-order arguments), and a validity period. Printable, or send the link.
Every figure comes from the rate and markup you supply. We never fill in a market price for you.
Related guides
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How to estimate
How to write a contractor estimate · Estimate vs quote vs bid — and which one you should send · What to include in a contractor estimate · How to price a job as a contractor · Should you charge for estimates? · How to follow up on an estimate · How to handle change orders · Estimate vs invoice: what's the difference? · How to raise your prices as a contractor