How to Create an Electrical Invoice (With Tips)

What Should an Electrical Invoice Include?

An electrical invoice typically includes important details related to the services provided by an electrical contractor or company. 

While the specific format and requirements may vary depending on the region and business practices, here are some common elements that should be included in an electrical invoice:

Invoice number

An invoice number is a unique identifier assigned to individual invoices for tracing and organizational purposes. 

Invoice numbers serve as a reference point for both electrical contractors and their customers.

They provide a systematic way of identifying and categorizing invoices, making it easier to manage financial records and track payment status. Therefore, assigning a unique invoice number to each transaction ensures accuracy and maintains a clear audit trail. 

Due date

Any electrical service invoice should include a due date to establish clear expectations between the electrical contractor and their clients and facilitate timely payment. Due dates reduce the likelihood of payment delays or missed payments and set a standard for financial transactions.

When determining the due date to include on electrical invoices, it’s important to consider factors such as payment terms, industry norms, and any legal or contractual obligations.

Business logo

A business logo is a visual representation of a company’s brand identity, and it’s an important element to include in an electrical invoice. 

By incorporating the logo on an invoice, contractors reinforce brand recognition and establish a consistent visual presence. 

Moreover, clients familiar with the logo will easily associate it with the services provided, enhancing brand recall and fostering trust and loyalty.

Contact information

Including contact information on an electrical invoice ensures that customers have easy access to the contractor’s contact details. 

This information typically includes the business’s phone number, contact person, email address, and physical address.

When including contact information on an electrical invoice, ensure the information provided is accurate, up-to-date, and prominently displayed. 

It is also helpful to specify the preferred contact method or hours of availability, if applicable, so clients know when and how to reach out and when to expect a response. 

Services, materials, and their cost

Most people want to understand what they are being billed for. 

Putting the costs of your services and materials on your electrical invoice eliminates confusion and provides transparency regarding the tasks and materials used during the project.

This level of clarity builds trust and ensures that customers clearly understand the value they are receiving. 

Sales Tax

Sales tax is a mandatory component in many jurisdictions. 

Including sales tax information on an invoice ensures that the contractor or electrical company adheres to the applicable tax laws and regulations. It helps demonstrate compliance and avoids potential penalties or legal issues related to tax collection. 

Issuer and customer signature fields

Any invoice should have an issuer and customer signature field, so you and your customers can sign the document.

Knowing which elements to include in your electrical invoice is a good place to start. 

Now, you need to quickly skip to the practical part of the process, which we’ll outline in the next section. 

How to Create an Invoice for an Electrical Service Job

There are many ways to create invoices for electrical service jobs, each with benefits and drawbacks. 

Use Excel or Google Sheets

A simple way to create an invoice is to use spreadsheets. 

Excel or Google Sheets provide flexible platforms that allow for the customization of invoice templates. Users can create personalized layouts, add company logos, and tailor the invoice design to align with their brand image. Also, spreadsheets offer robust calculation capabilities, making it easy to calculate totals, taxes, discounts, and subtotals automatically. 

On the downside, creating invoices in Excel or Google Sheets requires manual data entry, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. 

Also, while spreadsheets allow for basic automation through formulas, they may lack more advanced automation features in dedicated invoicing software. 

Tasks such as automatic invoice generation, recurring invoices, or integration with accounting systems may require additional manual steps or workarounds.

Use an electrical invoice template

If you’d rather skip the creation process and want a quick way to generate electrical invoices for your customers, electrical invoice templates might be more suitable. 

Invoice templates provide a pre-designed structure that saves time creating invoices from scratch. Also, using invoice templates ensures consistency across all invoices.

The same format, branding elements, and layout are applied consistently, enhancing professionalism and brand recognition. This cohesive presentation strengthens the company's image and promotes a sense of reliability and trustworthiness.

ServiceTitan provides a free, customizable electrical invoice template that contractors can use to easily generate invoices for their customers. 

Our free invoice template includes all the elements that make a professional and compliant electrical invoice for contractors.

Easily generate invoices with our electrician invoicing template!

Invoice templates provide plenty of benefits. But they also can’t address more complex issues associated with invoicing. For that, electrical invoicing software is recommended, and we’ll next discover how it can provide contractors with the answer to all of their invoicing problems. 

Use electrical invoicing software

When a homeowner reports a simple electrical problem, they usually just want you to fix it and send them a bill. 

That’s fine, says Ron Lutwiller, chief operating officer at The Roby Family of Companies in Charlotte, N.C., but an electrician who only fixes the reported problem and ignores key safety issues may be short-circuiting the customer.

“If it’s not a problem, we’re not repairing it,” Lutwiller says, but his technicians put safety first by performing a hazard evaluation on every service call.

Customers appreciate knowing if their home’s electrical system needs to be updated, and a safety inspection gives them peace of mind.

That extra effort for every customer also opens opportunities for Roby’s techs to upsell products and services and communicate the benefits of each option as they present an electrical invoice to the homeowner. 

Lutwiller trains Roby’s techs to create electrical invoices using ServiceTitan software, giving them touch-screen ease in effortlessly presenting options, getting approvals, and accepting payments in the field or office, or online.

“It has been easier for the field technicians than for the office personnel,” Lutwiller says of his team’s transition to the ServiceTitan software. “I’m still amazed at how quickly they picked it up. It’s actually been a little refreshing.”

With ServiceTitan’s electrical invoicing software, contractors can save valuable time previously spent on repetitive manual data-entry tasks. Also, they no longer need to manually calculate complex pricing structures or worry about inaccuracies in invoicing calculations.

Other benefits of our electrical invoicing software include:

• Invoice customization: With ServiceTitan, electrical contractors have access to customizable templates where they can add their logos, choose fonts and colors, and personalize the layout to align with their brand. This customization enhances the professional appearance of the invoices and reinforces brand consistency.

• Improved payment collection: Our invoicing software includes features like automated payment reminders and notifications, which help minimize late payments. Contractors can set up reminders to be sent to clients before and after the due date, reducing the need for manual follow-ups and improving payment collections.

• Organized recordkeeping: With invoicing software, electrical contractors can easily organize and centralize all invoicing-related information in one place. They can easily access and search for invoices, view payment history, and maintain a comprehensive record of client transactions. This streamlines recordkeeping and simplifies financial management.

• Scalability and growth: As electrical contractors grow their business, managing a growing number of invoices becomes more challenging. ServiceTitan’s invoicing software offers scalability, accommodating an increasing volume of invoices and clients. Contractors can easily scale their invoicing processes, add new clients, and handle higher transaction volumes without compromising efficiency or accuracy.

Electrical Invoicing Tips for a Better Process

To make the most of their invoicing process, electrical contractors can leverage the power of invoicing software with the tips presented below.

Tip #1: Email electrical contractor invoices directly to the customer

Generating a digital invoice for electrical work even before you leave the job site is the best way to get paid quickly and easily.

A mobile app like ServiceTitan, with professional product photos and detailed cost breakdowns, also allows your techs to personalize customer service by clearly explaining the work completed and discussing recommendations for electrical safety upgrades.

ServiceTitan’s electrical invoicing software allows contractors to close jobs faster, improve billing efficiency, and save time with pre-designed templates for electrical invoicing.

Give your customers a personal touch and gain a repeat customer for life.

Tip #2: Don’t email or text customers without asking first

Always ask your electrical customers for permission before communicating by email and text. Even though digital communication seems commonplace in today’s on-demand world, it’s just a courteous thing to do.

Easily start the conversation by asking whether the customer would like to receive appointment reminders via text, or a text alert to let them know exactly when their electrician is scheduled to arrive.

When the job is complete, techs can use ServiceTitan’s electrical invoicing software to email customers a direct link to the invoice for easy payments.

Tip #3: Give your techs an easy-to-use electrician invoice template

Your company’s electricians often learn by doing, so give them a good electrical invoice example. An electrician invoice template should clearly answer the following questions:

• What payment methods do you accept? Checks, credit cards, and/or cash?

• What are your billing terms? Do you require a deposit before work begins?

• Are you set up to receive online payment? If so, did you include the correct link?

• Does your company offer financing plans?

• Does the invoice clearly show the amount due and the due date?

• Will the customer accrue late fees, and what are the penalty terms?

• Is the job itemized, clearly outlining the service, repair, materials, and labor?

• Is your company’s contact information — name, physical address, email, and phone number — easy to find on the invoice? 

ServiceTitan’s electrical invoicing software allows contractors access to a wide range of professionally designed templates that help them save time and improve billing efficiency.

Tip #4: Don’t make it too difficult for your techs to process an electrical invoice in the field

Following Roby’s example, train all your techs to use the same process for completing an electrical invoice by outlining the details you want to include. 

Explain what information you want to be recorded on every work order invoice, and make it easy by using a mobile app that lets your techs simply click through the various options. 

With ServiceTitan’s electrical invoicing software, your techs can use their phones or tablets to photograph checks, cash, or credit cards physically in the field and post payments automatically. That means fewer trips to the bank and no more lost checks.

Tip #5: Keep customers’ service histories, contact info, and preferred payment methods on file

Knowing a customer’s name, their recent service history, and how they prefer to pay helps to personalize the electrical service experience, whether it’s a routine call to fix a ceiling fan or a more serious electrical safety issue.

With ServiceTitan, contractors can easily add and update a customer’s preferred payment method with just a few clicks.

Our payments software also provides plenty of benefits like:

Flexible payment options: Customers can choose between various payment methods, such as credit cards, checks, or online payments.

• Secure transactions: Payment software employs secure gateways and encryption technology to safeguard sensitive financial information. This builds client trust and ensures that transactions are secure and protected from potential threats.

• Time and cost savings: By automating payment processes, payment software reduces administrative tasks, saving time and reducing costs associated with manual payment collection and processing

Tip #6: Streamline and simplify client invoicing

Too many clients and not enough electricians to go around? It’s a problem for many electrical contractors trying to meet high customer demand, in light of the recent tradesperson shortage. Protect your company’s client list from quickly spiraling out of control by organizing it with a software solution and eliminating human error from the equation.

If your tech or CSR sends an electrical work invoice to the wrong client, how will you ever get paid?

Many electrical contractors use ServiceTitan to streamline their invoicing process to avoid this. By automating various tasks, such as invoice generation, calculating totals and taxes, and managing customer information, our invoicing software eliminates the need for time-consuming manual data entry and simplifies the invoicing process.

Tip #7: Follow up on unpaid electrical invoices 

Everyone likes to get paid for a job well done. Tracking down unpaid invoices every month takes time away from other work, so lessen the load on your office staff by automating the process with digital invoicing.

You'll likely improve operational efficiency and increase your bottom line by automatically notifying the customer by text or email and making it easy to collect payments.

In ServiceTitan, contractors can easily use, view, edit, or deactivate payment terms and add due dates to sales invoices. By doing so, they can track the due dates of those invoices to help manage payment collection and disbursement accurately.

Tip #8: Prepare service techs to accept all kinds of payments

Most successful home services companies accept payment in any form, and the easier it is for the customer, the better.

Some customers only want to pay with cash, while others prefer to use a credit card for larger electrical jobs.

You can accommodate both by using a mobile home services app that allows your workers to process invoices and credit cards while in the field, and photograph any cash they receive for the job. 

With ServiceTitan, you can even process refunds directly through the app and avoid the hassle of third-party processing and invoice adjustments.

Tip #9: Keep track of invoices, service contracts, and membership agreements

As your business grows, so do the number of clients and the records documenting their home’s electrical systems and services. To gain repeat customers, keeping a well-organized filing system is important so your CSRs and electricians can easily access a customer’s latest invoice, a past service contract, or an ongoing membership agreement. It’s the kind of personalized shopping experience customers expect.

With cloud-based software like ServiceTitan, electrical contractors can store and access their documents and files in a centralized location. This eliminates the need for physical storage space and reduces the risk of misplaced or lost documents. Contractors can easily search, retrieve, and manage their files from anywhere with an internet connection.

Tip #10: Don’t forget to offer a service contract or membership agreement as part of your electrician invoice

Train your techs to easily offer good-better-and-best options in a professional format when creating a customer’s invoice.

With the right visual presentation on a digital marketing platform such as ServiceTitan, they can also sell the value of an electrical service contract or membership agreement for future work or priority service when the power goes out. Homeowners tend to remember helpful electricians and don’t mind educating them about their home electrical systems.

ServiceTitan’s service agreement software makes generating new memberships easy. Its three-step membership wizard allows contractors to create new service contracts with just a few taps and tailor memberships for each customer's specific needs.

Now Over to You

Following the tips and techniques outlined in this article can elevate your invoicing process to new heights. 

Remember, a well-designed invoice communicates your services and prices and showcases your professionalism and attention to detail.

As highlighted above, ServiceTitan can streamline and simplify your invoicing process to ensure successful transactions and make your customers happy. 

ServiceTitan is a powerful electrical software solution designed specifically for the needs of electrical contractors. It offers a comprehensive set of capabilities that streamline various aspects of managing an electrical business. With ServiceTitan, electrical contractors can efficiently handle their operations, enhance customer service, and optimize their overall workflow.