Construction Invoice Template

The contract sum plus approved change orders, a schedule of values broken into trade or work-type line items, the percentage complete and amount billed for each, materials stored on site if your contract allows it, retainage withheld, and the net amount due this period after retainage and prior payments.

This page covers a general contractor or builder consolidating multiple subcontractors' work into a single payment application against a schedule of values the format lenders and owners expect on larger jobs. A single-trade contractor invoicing their own labour and materials on a smaller job is simpler and covered on the contractor template page.

5% to 10% is standard on commercial work, sometimes stepping down to a lower percentage once the project passes 50% complete, per the contract terms. State it as an explicit deduction on the payment application rather than a quiet reduction in the amount claimed.

Commonly, yes: a conditional waiver accompanies the application (valid once payment is received), and an unconditional waiver follows only after the payment actually clears. Owners and lenders on larger jobs often won't process a draw without the conditional waiver attached.

Only if your contract explicitly allows billing for stored materials: show them as a separate line from installed work, and expect the owner or lender to require proof of insurance and sometimes a bill of sale before approving it. Not every contract permits this, so check before including it.

Yes, by trade or by schedule-of-values line rather than lumped into one total: it's what lets the owner or architect verify the claim against the physical work, and it protects you if a sub's payment status is later questioned.

It's released, typically at substantial completion or after a defects-liability period, as its own invoice referencing the completion date and the original contract. Retainage that sits unbilled for months after completion tends to stay unpaid invoice its release explicitly rather than assuming it will be settled automatically.

The same approval-before-work rule applies, but the change order also needs to reconcile against the schedule of values the lender or surety is tracking. An unreconciled change order is a common reason a draw gets held up even when the underlying work is undisputed.

On a fixed-price contract, markup is built into the price and doesn't need separate disclosure. On cost-plus work, the markup percentage must be stated, since the owner is entitled to see what it's applied to. This is the single most common source of a construction payment dispute when it's left undisclosed.

Typically the owner's representative or architect certifies the amount, and on financed projects a lender's draw inspector verifies progress before releasing funds, which is why consistency with the prior application and clear trade-by-trade detail matters more here than on a simpler invoice.