Put your own name on it, not just the trading name

This is the rule sole traders most often get wrong. If you trade as "Riverside Joinery" rather than under your own name, HMRC's guidance is explicit: you must include your name and your business name on official paperwork, for example invoices and letters. So the header reads Riverside Joinery and somewhere on the document it says Sam Okonjo trading as Riverside Joinery.

Two things you must not put on a sole trader invoice: a company registration number (you don't have one — only companies registered at Companies House do) and "Ltd" or "Limited" anywhere in your name. Both imply limited liability you don't have, and the second is prohibited outright. If you're weighing up incorporating, the sole trader vs limited company guide covers what changes.

Pricing when there is no VAT to point at

Under the £90,000 registration threshold you quote one number and that number is the price. No VAT line, no VAT number, and no "VAT @ 0%" — a zero-rated line implies you're inside the VAT system when you aren't. Customers who are themselves VAT registered sometimes ask for "the VAT invoice"; the honest answer is that you're not registered, so this is the invoice, and there's no VAT for them to reclaim.

Watch the threshold on a rolling 12 months, not your tax year — it's the last twelve months at any point in time, so a busy autumn can tip you over in February. The decision guide covers when registering early is worth it, and the non-VAT invoice generator strips the VAT fields out of the form entirely if you'd rather not see them.

Keep the paperwork Self Assessment will ask for

Your invoices are the backbone of your Self Assessment return, so HMRC expects you to keep records of what you sold and when. Number them in one unbroken run — INV-0001, INV-0002 — because a gap looks like income that went missing. Cancelled a job after invoicing? Don't delete the invoice and recycle the number; leave it in place and issue a credit note against it.

Every invoice you build here is saved in your browser, so next month you duplicate last month's and change two fields. Nothing is uploaded anywhere — the drafts live on your device, which is also why you should take a backup before switching computers.

Start from your trade instead

This page is the general-purpose version. If you work in a trade with its own billing conventions, the tailored page will save you more time: a plumber billing callouts and parts, a cleaner billing a month of visits, a gardener billing a maintenance round, a photographer splitting a shoot fee from a licence, or a personal trainer selling blocks of sessions. Working on site for a contractor? Construction changes the rules entirely — see the CIS invoice generator.

A typical sole trader invoice

Example line items you might add:

• Consultancy — 12 hours @ £40
• Callout & first hour — fixed £75
• Materials supplied at cost — £68.40

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Invoicing when you're not VAT registered
• How to write an invoice
• How to number invoices
• Sole trader vs limited company