How to write an electrical invoice

Bill electrical work by the device, circuit or hour you agreed, show every payment already received, and put a date on the balance due.

Electrical invoice lines and units

Line	Unit	How it’s counted
Electrician labor	hr	Hours on site, per worker
Service call	visit	One per trip
Device work	ea	Each outlet, switch or fixture
Circuit or panel work	job	One price per named job
Wire, breakers and boxes	ea	Each item, or one materials line
Permit and inspection	ea	Fee, with the permit number

Tie each device line to a room, such as “Replace outlets with GFCI, kitchen and both baths, 4”, so the customer can check the count against the house. Keep materials apart from labor. When the customer supplied the fixtures, bill the installation only and say so on the line; if a fixture fails later, the invoice shows whose it was.

Deposits and stage payments on the final bill

Start from the contract price, subtract each payment you’ve received, and bill what remains. With round numbers, as an illustration only: a $4,000 contract, a $400 deposit and $1,200 paid at rough-in leave a final invoice showing $4,000, $1,600 paid and $2,400 due.

Service calls, new construction and remodels

Invoice a service call at the end of the visit. On new construction or a remodel, bill the stages your contract names, such as rough-in, trim-out and final, and show on each invoice the contract price, what was billed through the last stage and this stage’s amount. If your contract lets the general contractor hold back part of each payment, show the amount held on every invoice and bill it as its own line at the end.

Payment terms

Print the due date as a date and list how you take payment. Working for a general contractor, ask when its monthly billing cutoff falls and what it needs with your invoice, such as lien waivers; an invoice that misses the cutoff can wait a full cycle.

Sales tax on electrical invoices

Tax treatment of electrical labor and materials varies by state, and installing new wiring can be treated differently from repairing what’s there. With labor on separate lines from wire, devices and fixtures, your invoice can follow whichever rule your state uses. Show sales tax only where your state has you charge it; your state’s guide explains when.

Texas: TDLR’s contractor details on invoices

TDLR’s penalty schedule for electricians lists as violations failing to include the contractor’s name, address, phone number and license number on all proposals, invoices and written contracts, and failing to include the Department’s information on them (TDLR). The rule behind it, 16 TAC §73.51(f), gives that information as “Regulated by The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, P.O. Box 12157, Austin, Texas 78711, 1-800-803-9202, 512-463-6599; website:” and then TDLR’s web address (16 TAC §73.51(f)). That means every invoice, down to a one-visit service call.

California: preliminary notice when you’re a subcontractor

California gives subcontractors, among others, a lien right for work authorized on a work of improvement (Civ. Code §8400). Except as other statutes provide, before recording a lien claim, giving a stop payment notice or claiming against a payment bond, a claimant must give preliminary notice to the owner or reputed owner, to the direct contractor it works under, and to the construction lender, if any; without it, the lien claim or stop payment notice isn’t valid (Civ. Code §8200). An electrician hired directly by the owner gives it only to a construction lender, if there is one, and a laborer needn’t give one. Give it within 20 days after you first furnish work: a late notice can still be given, but then supports a lien, stop payment notice or bond claim only for work performed in the 20 days before it was served and afterward (Civ. Code §8204).

Three mistakes that delay payment

1. “Electrical work” as the only line. A single total gets taken apart device by device before anyone pays it.
2. Changes on a verbal OK. Circuits added because the homeowner asked on site, without a signed change order, become the charge they refuse. Some state or local laws also cap how far a final bill can run over the estimate without the customer’s approval (FTC, Hiring a Contractor).
3. A final bill that trails the inspection. Send it the day the inspection passes, with the permit number on it, while the finished work is fresh in the customer’s mind.