Invoicing for general contractors

Invoice Koi is an invoice app for general contractors, with grouped sections and a subtotal under each, and an estimate that turns into the invoice when the job is won.

Make an invoice free

The iPhone app is coming to the App Store.

An illustration of a spirit level, a brick trowel, three bricks, a tape measure and a string line, with a koi swimming among them.

A build is not one bill, it is six. The customer wants to see what the groundworks cost separately from the roof, the estimate has to be detailed enough to win the job and survive it, and the whole thing runs over months while the receipts pile up in the van.

01On the document

What general contractors
put on an invoice.

Save these items with your own rates. Tap to add them to an invoice, with the unit, price and totals filled in.

Line	Unit
General labor	hrs
Day rate, two trades	days
Dumpster rental, 20-yard	week
Equipment and tool rental	week
Materials and consumables	job
Site visit and estimate	each

Set your own prices. The app's starter rates are placeholders. To bill one job today with nothing installed, the free general contractor invoice template opens in your browser with these lines on it.

A job, grouped Subtotals per section

DEMO

Dumpster rental, 20-yard$420

Clearance labor, two trades$720

Subtotal$1,140

STRUCTURE

Steel and fasteners$1,450

Day rate, two trades$1,440

Subtotal$2,890

MAKE GOOD

Drywall and paint, two coats$1,180

Subtotal$1,180

Total$5,210

Grouped line items work on all nine templates.

A photograph of a general contractor standing on the slab of a half-built addition with the frame going up behind, phone in one hand.

02Why general contractors use it

Three things that
save the evening.

Stages the customer can actually read

Group line items under your own headings with a subtotal each. A $40,000 job reads as five decisions instead of forty rows, which is the difference between a query and a payment.

The estimate becomes the invoice

Quote it once. When it is accepted the estimate converts, carrying the lines, the client, the tax and your terms, so the thing you bill is the thing they agreed to.

Your signature on every document

Drawn once, printed on every estimate and invoice at whatever size the page needs: sharp on a phone and sharp in a PDF somebody prints out.

03 · Questions

Asked by general contractors.

Can I bill a building job in stages?

Yes. Group the work under headings with their own subtotals, and record what has been paid as each stage settles. The balance and the status follow from the payments recorded against it.

Can I send a detailed estimate before the work?

Yes, with the same grouped structure and the same nine templates as an invoice. When it is accepted it converts rather than being retyped.

Where do the receipts go?

Photograph them. Merchant, amount, tax and category are read off the paper and filed, and the photograph is kept whether or not the reading worked.

Weighing up apps? Invoice Koi vs Joist and Invoice Koi vs Contractor+ set the features side by side, including where they win. Or see all 12 comparisons.