Cleaner invoice template
Cleaning is a lot of small visits and one invoice at the end of the month, which makes the description do the heavy lifting: which visits, which property, which rate. This template bills a month of a regular round in a single line, handles one-off deep cleans, and covers the one situation where a clean counts as construction work.
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Invoice details
Your business
Non-VAT mode: no VAT is shown. Correct if your turnover is under £90,000.
Stored on your device only and embedded in the PDF. PNG or JPG, under 1MB.
Bill to (your client)
CIS (construction)
Appearance
Items
Discount, deposit & payment
Receiving a deposit can create a VAT tax point. Check HMRC guidance if unsure.
Your business name
Invoice
INV-0001
Not VAT registered
No VAT is charged on this invoice
Bill to
Client name
- Invoice date
- 01/10/2026
| Description | Qty | Unit | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | 1 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
- Net total
- £0.00
- Total
- £0.00
Billing a regular round
Invoice a period, not a pile of visits. "Weekly clean, 14 Waverley Road — 4 visits in September (2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd) @ £45" gives the customer everything they need to check it against their diary in one line. Where a month has five visits instead of four, that line explains the bigger total before anyone has to ask.
Pick a billing day and keep it. Most domestic rounds are invoiced at the end of the month for the month just worked, or at the start for the month ahead if you're paid in advance — either works, but switching between them mid-year is how customers end up convinced they paid twice. Build September's invoice here and October's is a duplicate with the dates and number changed.
One-off cleans, access and cancellations
End-of-tenancy, post-build and spring cleans are priced as a job, and the invoice should say what the job included — "End of tenancy clean, 2-bed flat: oven, windows internal, carpets excluded — fixed £180". Exclusions matter more than inclusions here, because end-of-tenancy work is usually being checked against a letting agent's deposit-return checklist.
Wasted journeys are worth a line in your terms and, when they happen, on the invoice. If you turned up and couldn't get in, a stated call-out or cancellation charge is far easier to defend than a silently unchanged monthly total. Same with consumables and specialist products: either build them into the rate or bill them as their own line, but be consistent about which.
Commercial contracts change the paperwork
Offices, landlords and letting agents are business customers, and that brings two things domestic work doesn't. They'll want longer terms — 30 days is typical — and often a purchase order reference on the invoice. And if they pay late, you're entitled to statutory interest at the Bank of England base rate plus 8% plus a fixed compensation sum, which you are not entitled to from a householder. Work it out with the late payment calculator.
Commercial work also moves your turnover a lot faster than domestic rounds. Two or three office contracts can carry a cleaning business past the £90,000 registration threshold within a year — and unlike householders, business customers reclaim the VAT, so registering costs them nothing. Keep an eye on the rolling 12-month figure rather than the tax year.
Builders’ cleans are construction work
An unexpected one, and worth knowing before you take on site work. Internal cleaning of a building carried out in the course of its construction, alteration or repair is a construction operation — so a builders' clean or sparkle clean for a contractor falls inside CIS and the VAT domestic reverse charge, and the contractor will deduct 20%, 30% or 0% from your labour.
Ordinary contract cleaning of a finished, occupied building is not construction and carries none of that. The distinction is whether the building is still a building site. If you do take sparkle cleans, use the CIS invoice generator for those and the standard invoice here for everything else — see the CIS guide for the mechanics.
A typical cleaner invoice
Example line items you might add:
- Weekly clean, 14 Waverley Rd — 4 visits in Sept @ £45
- End-of-tenancy clean, 2-bed flat (carpets excluded) — fixed £180
- Wasted journey, 16 Sept (no access) — £20
Frequently asked questions
How do I invoice for regular cleaning?
Bill the period as one line, naming the property, the number of visits and the dates covered. A customer can then check it against their own diary immediately, and a five-visit month explains its own total.
Can I charge for a visit where I could not get in?
Yes, if your terms say so. Put the wasted-journey or cancellation charge in writing up front and then show it as its own line on the invoice — an unexplained unchanged total is far harder to defend than a named charge.
Do cleaners charge VAT?
Only once registered, and most domestic cleaning businesses stay under the £90,000 rolling 12-month threshold. Commercial contracts change that quickly — but business customers reclaim VAT, so registering does not make you more expensive to them.
Does CIS ever apply to cleaning?
Yes, in one case: internal cleaning carried out in the course of a building’s construction, alteration or repair is a construction operation, so a builders’ clean for a contractor falls within CIS and the reverse charge. Cleaning a finished, occupied building does not.
Can I charge a business client interest for paying late?
Yes. For business customers — offices, landlords, letting agents — statutory interest of base rate plus 8% applies automatically along with fixed compensation. The same right does not exist against a private householder.