Self-Employed Invoice Template UK (Sole Trader): Free and Compliant

If you are self-employed in the UK — a sole trader, a freelancer, a contractor working outside a limited company — your invoices have real requirements behind them. Unlike the US, GOV.UK publishes a list of what an invoice must contain, and getting it wrong is a genuine, if usually minor, problem.

The good news is that the list is short and the template below satisfies it. This page covers the sole trader case specifically: what you must include, what you must not include, when VAT enters the picture, and how long HMRC expects you to keep everything.

The template#

INVOICE

[Your full name]
[Trading as: Business name — if you use one]
[Street address]
[Town, county, postcode]
[email]  ·  [phone]
[VAT registration number — only if registered]

INVOICE TO
[Customer's name or registered company name]
[Address]
[Attn: contact name or Accounts Payable]
[Purchase order number: __________ if issued]

Invoice number:   2026-014
Invoice date:     3 September 2026
Date of supply:   29 August 2026
Payment due:      3 October 2026   (30 days)

Then the line items as a table:

And the payment block:

HOW TO PAY
Bank:              [Bank name]
Account name:      [Exactly as on your account]
Sort code:         [00-00-00]
Account number:    [12345678]
Payment reference: 2026-014

TERMS
Payment is due within 30 days of the date of this invoice.
Statutory interest and fixed recovery costs under the Late Payment
of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 apply to overdue amounts.

Delete the VAT line entirely if you are not VAT-registered. Leaving a zero-rated VAT row on the invoice implies you are registered, which is misleading. More on this below.

What GOV.UK actually requires#

The guidance on invoicing and taking payment from customers sets out that an invoice must:

• be clearly marked "invoice"
• include a unique identification number
• include your company name, address and contact information
• include the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing
• carry a clear description of what you are charging for
• state the date the goods or service were provided — the supply date
• state the date of the invoice
• state the amount(s) being charged
• state VAT amount if applicable
• state the total amount owed

That first bullet catches people. The word "invoice" must appear. A document headed "Statement of work", "Summary" or "Fee note" is not an invoice, and if payment is ever disputed the distinction matters.

The sole trader rules specifically#

On top of the general list, sole traders have two particular requirements.

Include your own name. Not just the trading name. If you operate as "Lovelace Design", the invoice must also carry "Ada Lovelace". Both is correct: Ada Lovelace, trading as Lovelace Design.

Give a deliverable address. If you are using a business name, you must include an address where legal documents can be served on you. A trading name and a Gmail address does not satisfy this. Many sole traders working from home use their home address; if that is uncomfortable, a registered-address service is inexpensive and solves it properly.

What you must not include#

A company registration number. You do not have one. Company numbers belong to limited companies registered at Companies House. Putting one on a sole trader invoice — or inventing one because a form asked for it — is a misrepresentation, not a formatting choice.

"Ltd" or "Limited" in your trading name. You cannot use those suffixes unless you are actually incorporated.

VAT, before you are registered. Covered next, because this is the one that causes real trouble.

VAT: when it applies, and what happens then#

You charge VAT only once you are VAT-registered. Not before.

Registration is compulsory when your VAT-taxable turnover exceeds the threshold over any rolling twelve-month period — not your accounting year, not the tax year — or when you expect to exceed it in the next thirty days alone.

The threshold is £90,000 as at this guide's review date. Confirm the current figure on GOV.UK before acting on it, because thresholds move with fiscal announcements.

Two practical points that catch people out.

"Rolling twelve months" means you should check monthly. Plenty of sole traders discover they crossed the threshold four months earlier, which means four months of invoices that should have carried VAT. Sorting that out afterwards is unpleasant and expensive.

Waiting for your VAT number. If you have applied and the number has not arrived, you cannot show VAT on an invoice. The accepted approach is to raise your prices by the VAT amount, issue invoices without a VAT line, and then reissue proper VAT invoices once the number comes through. Do not invent a number and do not show VAT you cannot yet account for.

Once you are registered#

Your invoice becomes a VAT invoice, which is a different document with a longer mandatory list: your VAT registration number, the tax point, the rate of VAT on each item, the total excluding VAT, the VAT total in sterling, and the total including VAT.

There is a full breakdown, with a template, in the VAT invoice template guide.

Voluntary registration below the threshold is sometimes worth it. If your customers are themselves VAT-registered businesses, they reclaim the VAT you charge, so it costs them nothing — and you reclaim VAT on your own costs. If your customers are consumers, it makes you 20% more expensive overnight. Worth ten minutes with an accountant before deciding.

Numbering, dates and the supply date#

Numbering. Unique, sequential, never reused. 2026-001 or INV-014 both work. If you void an invoice, leave the gap and carry on — a gap is explainable, a duplicate is not.

Three dates. Invoice date, supply date, payment due date. The supply date is required and is not decorative: once you are VAT-registered it determines the tax point, which decides which VAT return the sale falls into. For most services the tax point is the invoice date, provided the invoice is issued within fourteen days of the supply — but if payment arrives first, or the invoice goes out late, the rules shift. Around a quarter-end this matters.

Write the due date as a calendar date. "30 days" invites the question: from when? "Payment due 3 October 2026" does not.

Getting paid, and the statutory rights nobody uses#

If your customer is a business, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you rights that exist automatically, without appearing in any contract.

When payment becomes late. If a payment period is agreed, that governs — but for business-to-business contracts, a period longer than 60 days is only valid if it was expressly agreed and is not grossly unfair to you. For public authorities the limit is 30 days. Where nothing was agreed, the default is 30 days after the later of: the customer receiving the invoice, or delivery of the goods or service.

What you can claim. Statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, running from the day after payment was due, plus a fixed sum for debt recovery costs:

If your reasonable recovery costs exceed the fixed sum — a debt recovery agent, for example — you can claim the difference.

These rights do not apply to consumer customers. If you invoice members of the public, your remedy is whatever your contract says.

How to actually use it. You usually never invoice the interest. You mention it. A line in a chase email — "the invoice is now 21 days overdue and is accruing statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, currently £X, plus £70 in fixed recovery costs" — is specific, correct and entirely reasonable. It moves invoices up payment queues considerably faster than "just checking in on this".

Records: five years, and what that means in practice#

Sole traders and partnerships must keep records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year.

Worked through: for the 2025–26 tax year, filed by 31 January 2027, you must keep the records until at least 31 January 2032.

If you register for VAT, VAT records must be kept for six years, and under Making Tax Digital they must be kept digitally and filed through compatible software.

What to keep: a PDF of every invoice you issued, receipts for expenses, bank statements, and records of any personal money you put into or took out of the business.

Keep a register alongside them — one spreadsheet: number, client, issue date, amount, due date, date paid. It gives you the next invoice number, answers "who owes me money" at a glance, and becomes your income figure at Self Assessment time without any reconstruction.

Do you have to invoice at all?#

Not always, strictly. If you are paid immediately by a consumer — a haircut, a repair done on the spot — a receipt is enough.

But you must be able to evidence your income for Self Assessment, and an invoice is the cleanest way to do it. If you work with business customers, they will require one regardless, because they need it for their own records.

The practical answer: invoice everything. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a tidy tax return and an afternoon reconstructing a year from bank statements.

Common mistakes#

Omitting the word "invoice". Required, trivially fixed.

Trading name with no personal name. Your own name must appear.

Business name with no deliverable address. Required if you use a trading name.

Leaving a zero VAT line on a non-VAT invoice. Implies registration you do not have.

Charging VAT before registration. A real problem, not a formatting one.

Missing supply date. Required, and it sets the tax point once you are registered.

No due date. Without one, the statutory default applies — probably later than you assumed.

Never mentioning statutory interest. It is free, automatic and effective, and most sole traders have never heard of it.

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Our free invoice generator supports GBP, VAT rates and automatic due dates, and produces the PDF in your browser with no account and nothing uploaded.

Related: the general invoice template, the VAT invoice template, the best invoice format for UK freelancers, and a proforma invoice template.

General information about UK requirements as at the review date, not accounting, tax or legal advice. Thresholds and rates change — check GOV.UK and speak to an accountant about your own position. See our disclaimer.