How to create and send an invoice

Invoicing is where most trade admin falls down: the job's done, you're on to the next one, and the paperwork waits until Sunday night. TradePlanr turns a finished job into a sent invoice in a couple of minutes, so the clock on getting paid starts while you're still on the drive.

This tutorial walks through creating an invoice from a job, adding labour and materials as line items, handling VAT, and sending the finished PDF to your customer by email or text.

1. 1. Open the job you've finished

   From your jobs list or the diary, open the job you want to bill. Everything you've already recorded against it — the customer, the address, any notes or photos — carries straight through to the invoice, so there's nothing to retype.

   If the work wasn't logged as a job, you can start a blank invoice instead from the Invoices tab, but starting from the job keeps the paperwork linked to the work for later.

   A completed job's detail screen in TradePlanr with the Create Invoice button visible

2. 2. Tap Create Invoice

   On the job screen, choose Create Invoice. TradePlanr fills in the customer's details, the job address and your business information — the name, logo and payment terms you set up in your business profile.

   Tip

   If your logo or bank details are missing here, set them once in Settings → Business Profile and every future invoice picks them up automatically.

3. 3. Add your line items

   Add a line for each part of the work — first fix, second fix, materials, callout — with a quantity and price. Separate lines for labour and materials make the invoice easier for the customer to read, and far easier for you to defend if they query it.

   Prices can be entered including or excluding VAT depending on how your business is set up.

   The invoice line items screen with labour and materials entered as separate lines

4. 4. Check VAT and totals

   If you're VAT registered, confirm the right rate is applied — the standard 20% on most work, with the reduced rate available where it applies, such as certain energy-saving installations. TradePlanr totals everything and shows the VAT breakdown the way HMRC expects to see it.

   Not VAT registered? Leave VAT off entirely; the invoice simply shows your totals with no VAT section.

5. 5. Preview the invoice

   Tap Preview to see the exact PDF your customer receives — your branding at the top, numbered invoice, itemised work, totals and payment terms. Check the customer name and address in particular; it's the detail people notice first.

   A preview of the finished invoice PDF showing business branding and itemised totals

6. 6. Send it by email or text

   Choose Send and pick email or SMS. The customer gets a link to view and download the invoice, and the job is marked as invoiced so you can see what's billed and what's still owed from your dashboard.

   Sending before you leave site is the habit that changes cash flow — invoices sent the same day get paid noticeably faster than the ones that wait for the weekend.

   Tip

   Pair this with a payment link (see the card payments tutorial) and customers can pay the moment the invoice lands.

That's the whole loop: job → invoice → sent, in the time it takes to pack the van. Once you've done it twice it becomes automatic, and the Sunday-night paperwork pile stops growing.