As any other service businesses, plumbing services must be recorded and legalized to comply with all regulations and give the client proof that certain measures have been taken. 

The right documentation for ensuring the above-mentioned is the Plumbing Invoice. This document summarizes all works, prices, materials, labor, and taxes performed during plumbing work.

A plumbing service invoice sounds like a simple document, and it may be, but it doesn't hurt to describe it and mention all its integral parts to issue a proper one. That is what we do in the subsequent sections.

As we briefly mentioned in the introduction, a professional plumbing invoice is a legal document containing all the crucial information and details regarding a specific plumbing job. Professional invoices like this are presented to customers and legal authorities and saved in the invoice ledgers to prove the job carried out.

Some common works that are recorded and clarified in a plumbing professional invoice are the following:

• Pipe repair

• Installation of sanitary equipment –water pipe fittings & drainage

• Replacing the Water Heater and Fix Faucets, Toilets, Shower/Baths, and Kitchen Pipes

• Toilet maintenance

• Unclogging blocked drains.

Beyond meeting a legal need, a plumbing professional invoice benefits your business and the customer in the following ways:

• It helps you to cut down on repetitive wording and turn hours of invoicing into minutes.

• It helps you to keep your costs organized by including all the necessary data.

• It allows you to minimize errors by including specific form fields.

• It allows you to customize the document as you prefer.

• It makes your business looks more professional.

• It facilitates the process of tracking rates, hard and soft costs, expenses, late fees, etcetera.

• It allows you to protect your plumbing company by sharing payment terms and conditions.

• It makes the process of filling out digital copies of all invoices easier.

• It keeps your business running efficiently and consistently.

• It facilitates the bill-creation process.

Building a professional plumbing invoice shouldn’t take more than seven easy steps, as explained below.

Since plumbing invoice forms are legal documents, they must clarify the sender and the recipient. Remember, this corresponds to an agreement between two parties interested in exchanging services and benefits. Consequently, you must submit your company name and the following:

• Street address.

• City, State, and Country.

• ZIP Code.

• Email and phone number.

In the part of the recipient, you should include the following data.

• Client name.

• Street address.

• City, State, and Country.

• ZIP Code.

• Email address.

You should also include the logo of your company, no matter whether you’re building a Microsoft Excel or Word document; it’s the same. Consequently, you will create professional invoices that provide security to your clients. 

Each invoice is a unique identifier that describes a particular job you’ve performed. As such, each invoice has a unique invoice number that identifies that precise document over multiple others you can have. This unique identifying number helps you to track that particular invoice, especially when recording transactions in the accounting ledger book.

Specify the date when you issued the invoice, likely after the jobs have been completed. You should also include when you expect the services to be paid, which commonly corresponds to the next 14 or 30 business days.

As a plumber, one of the best invoicing tips we can give you is to clarify the payment timeframe before starting the plumbing work. This way, you can prevent billing misunderstandings, and all business relations between parties will be as transparent as possible. 

The plumbing services can be broken down into two main categories: direct costs and indirect costs. The first corresponds to the materials and labor you’ll use to complete the work. The second corresponds to costs derived from overhead charges, such as hiring an employee to help you to complete the job.

Here you should include detailed descriptions of resources, materials, and their specific costs. Remember to communicate the material costs to the client before starting the work since they will know exactly what they’re paying for.

You may have a special offer or a unique discount for a particular client. Include this percentage of fixed quantity at the bottom of the document before calculating the total cost of the services.

The applicable taxes you charge in your plumbing invoice depends on the country or state your business is located or performs its functions. Specifying this percentage and the total amount related to direct and indirect costs is crucial for bookkeeping and subsequent pay taxes. 

The last step is just summing costs and taxes to calculate the invoice total for the services provided.

This is not mandatory, but you can include a final section to note any additional information or statement you consider relevant for your business or client. As a reference, including general agreement terms or special instructions may be a good idea. 

Let’s explore some of the invoice types available that you can download and use quickly if you have the Microsoft Office suite on your computer. If you do not already have this software on your computer, you can acquire a reliable copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global at €6,04.

This bundle allows you to easily manage and edit the three templates we share below. Microsoft Word and Excel provide better tools than Google Sheets and Google Docs so that you can build your plumbing invoice as a professional.

Download it from Allbusinesstemplates.

This free template is a basic document but complies with all the legal invoice requirements. It allows you to easily type your business's and customer's crucial information and describe labor, tasks, materials, each unit price, rates, and total amounts. This file will facilitate the paperwork and invoicing process, which means less time in red tape work and more in plumbing.

Download it from Opendocs.

This plumbing invoice template facilitates breaking labor costs that went into a commercial or residential plumbing job. This file includes three sections: the first for general information about the business and clients, the second for parts used, and the third for labor. 

It allows you to charge your clients hourly or for a flat fee. Types of flat fee services could be replacing a broken pipe or fixing a clogged drain. You can choose the payment method you consider appropriate for the particular case. Your rates can vary depending on the job's difficulty if you charge hourly.

Download it from Freshbooks.

This template corresponds to a Microsoft Word document that any plumbing company can download and use to issue the expected service invoice. It’s a single-page file that integrates everything necessary to look professional and thoroughly register all the work. This document gives you enough space to note all the procedures you performed, items you used, and their costs and amount. At the bottom of this document, you can note the subtotal, service fees, taxes, and invoice total.

Plumbing is a great profession and one of high importance in the present. But like all other services, plumbing services must describe expenses, incomes, and taxes your business has to pay. In this sense, a plumbing invoice is a document you must issue to record works done and completed transactions.