Free Template · Excel + PDF
Free Painting Invoice Template (Excel + PDF) for 2026
A real painting invoice with line items, payment terms, late fee clause, and a signature line. Built for residential painters who get paid by the job, not by the hour. No signup, no email gate.
IRS-compatible, mobile-friendly
No signup, no email gate
A painting invoice is the document that gets you paid. A handshake or a text message will not. The Built and Talker Research April 2025 survey of 250 US general contractors and subcontractors found 70% of contractors regularly face delayed payments, with 35% reporting projects canceled or significantly delayed because of financing gaps. The PYMNTS and American Express January 2025 report put the drag at $280 billion in added construction costs in 2024 alone.
Painting is one of the trades hit hardest. 215,310 painters work in the United States per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 OEWS data, and roughly 34% of them are self-employed per the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Most are running solo or two-person crews where the invoice is the difference between getting paid this week and getting paid in 60 days.
“Payment delays aren’t just administrative headaches, they’re adding significant hidden costs to construction.”Chase Gilbert, CEO, Built Technologies, Inc. Built / Talker Research survey of 250 US contractors, April 2025.
This page gives you a free painting invoice template in Excel and PDF, walks you through every line item, and shows you exactly when a template stops working and you should upgrade to invoicing software. Everything below is for residential painters and small commercial repaints. If you are running pay applications on a multi-million dollar commercial job with AIA G702 and G703 forms, this is not the template you want.
What’s Inside
Pair this painting invoice template with our guide on how to estimate a painting job and our ranking of the best estimating apps for painters. Size the paint first in the paint coverage calculator, set the rate with the painting contractor pricing guide, and find every cost guide on the Project Cost Guides hub.
Every line item a painting invoice should have
01 · Header
Business name, license, and contact
Business name, contractor license number, address, phone, email, and logo. License number is required on every invoice in California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and most other licensed states. Even where it is not required, including it protects your lien rights.
02 · Bill-to and job address
Two distinct fields, never the same line
Bill-to is the homeowner or property manager paying. Job address is the property where the painting was done. Confirm both match the signed estimate. Mismatches are the most common cause of payment disputes on residential paint jobs.
03 · Invoice number, dates, job ref
Sequential numbering and a clear due date
Sequential invoice number such as 2026-014. Issue date, due date, and a job reference or PO number. Sequential numbering protects you in audits and lets you track which invoices are paid versus open.
04 · Labor line items
Prep, primer, paint, trim, cleanup as separate lines
Itemize labor by phase. Surface prep, repairs, primer, paint application by coat, trim, specialty, and cleanup all show on separate lines. The painting invoice template uses hours and rate, or flat per-room or per-square-foot pricing. Both columns are pre-built.
05 · Materials by SKU
Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr line columns
Materials by SKU when the homeowner specified a brand. Primer, paint, brushes, rollers, painter’s tape, drop cloths, and disposal. Materials are a separate subtotal from labor. This is what lets you handle sales tax correctly state-by-state.
06 · Subtotal, tax, deposit, balance
Deposit credit and balance due, both visible
Labor subtotal, materials subtotal, sales tax line, deposit applied as a credit, and balance due in bold. Showing the deposit credit reassures the homeowner you have not double-billed and reduces follow-up calls.
07 · Payment terms
Net 7 or Net 15 with a stated late fee
Payment terms in writing. Net 7 to Net 15 is standard for residential paint. The painting invoice template includes a 1.5% per month late fee clause, the most common rate within state usury caps. The clause must be on the invoice to be enforceable in most states.
08 · Lien notice and signature
Mechanic’s lien preservation language
Lien rights notice and a signature line for the client. Mechanic’s lien rules vary by state, but a signed invoice with itemized work is what most state statutes require to start the lien clock. Painters are covered as improvers of real property in most states.
Don’t Confuse the Two
Painting invoice vs painting estimate
A painting estimate is what you send before the job. A painting invoice is what you send after. The two documents do different jobs and need different fields.
If you need the pre-job document, grab the SimplyWise painting estimate template instead. The two pair together: send the estimate to win the bid, send the painting invoice template to get paid.
How To Fill It Out
Seven steps to a clean painting invoice
Set your business header
Drop in business name, contractor license number, address, phone, email, and logo. Most state contractor boards require a license number on every invoice for licensed work. The template has a logo placeholder pre-sized at 240 by 80 pixels.
Assign a sequential invoice number
Use a sequential number such as 2026-014 or PNT-0142. Sequential numbering protects you in IRS or state revenue audits and lets you track which painting invoices are paid versus open. The template has a counter cell in Excel that increments automatically.
Confirm bill-to and job address
Bill-to is whoever is paying. Job address is the property where the painting was done. Confirm both match the signed estimate. Property manager invoices are billed to the management company at their office address, not the property address.
Itemize labor by phase
List labor by phase. Prep, repairs, primer, paint coats, trim, specialty, cleanup. Use hours times rate, or use flat per-room pricing. Painter hourly rates charged to customers run roughly $20 to $75 per hour per HomeAdvisor’s painting cost guide, depending on market and complexity. The median painter wage is $23.99 per hour per the BLS May 2024 OEWS, which sets a labor-cost floor.
Itemize materials by SKU
List materials by SKU when the homeowner specified a brand. Primer, paint, brushes, rollers, painter’s tape, drop cloths, and disposal. Materials are a separate subtotal from labor. This is what lets you handle sales tax correctly. Most states tax materials but not labor on residential painting, but it varies.
Calculate subtotal, tax, deposit credit, balance
Excel auto-calculates labor subtotal, materials subtotal, sales tax, deposit applied, and balance due. Confirm the formula references match your state. Florida exempts most labor on real-property improvement per Florida Department of Revenue GT-800067, while Texas treats commercial repair labor as taxable per Comptroller Pub 94-116. Always check your state revenue department.
Add payment terms and signature
Set payment terms such as Net 7 or Net 15. State the late fee policy in writing, typically 1.5% per month. Add a signature line for client acknowledgment. Send the painting invoice the same day the work is completed. The contractor who invoices from the truck gets paid first.
Common Painting Line Items
Price ranges for the line items in your invoice
Use these ranges to sanity-check your line items before you send. Every range below traces to HomeAdvisor’s painting cost guide, which aggregates quotes from real homeowner-contractor jobs. Your local market may run higher or lower, but if you are way outside these ranges, take a second look.
Per Square Foot, Interior
$2 to $6 / sq ft
Most common pricing model. HomeAdvisor.
Interior Room, Total
$1,000 to $2,900
Walls and trim, one to two coats. HomeAdvisor.
Exterior, Full House
$1,800 to $4,200
Full exterior, prep included. HomeAdvisor.
Trim and Cabinet Work
$500 to $1,500
Trim only, or $1 to $3 per linear foot. HomeAdvisor.
Small Projects
$400 to $1,200
Touch-ups and partial jobs. HomeAdvisor.
Painter Hourly Rate
$20 to $75 / hr
Standard work to high-skill specialty. HomeAdvisor.
Pricing on the upgrade path stays predictable too. SimplyWise Cost Estimator runs $29.99 per month, free to try. That is the only number you need to remember when you outgrow the painting invoice template.
When To Upgrade
The painting invoice template breaks at 5 invoices a week
The painting invoice template works for solo painters and two-person crews running 1 to 4 invoices per week. Past that volume, the template starts costing you hours. You will spend Sundays on sequential numbering, deposit tracking, follow-up reminders on unpaid balances, sales tax math, and remit. The math gets ugly fast.
The signal that you have outgrown a template: you have 3 or more active jobs at the same time, you are sending 5 or more painting invoices per week, you have lost track of which deposits cleared, or you missed a sales tax filing because the spreadsheet drifted. At that point, SimplyWise Cost Estimator is the upgrade.
Photo to estimate
Drop one photo of the room or exterior in. The SimplyWise photo-to-estimate engine returns an itemized estimate in seconds. The estimate flows straight into a painting invoice when the work is done.
Receipts and mileage in companion apps
Snap paint store and supply receipts at checkout. SimplyWise reads them and files them into expense categories with one tap. Mileage to and from the jobsite logs the same way.
Mobile-first on iOS and Android
92.8% of construction professionals use smartphones daily for work per the JBKnowledge Construction Technology Report. SimplyWise was built mobile-first, so the painter who invoices from the truck gets paid first.
Pricing is $29.99 per month. Free to try. That is less than one paint store run for most painters.
Honest Comparison
Painting invoice template vs Joist vs SimplyWise
When the template stops being enough, these are the two paths most painters consider. Both work. They solve different problems.
For a wider lens on alternatives, see our full construction invoice software ranking. It scores 10 tools on a weighted 100-point rubric.
Pricing, Tax, and Late Fee
Three rules every painter gets wrong
1. Sales tax on labor varies by state
Most painters charge tax incorrectly because they assume their state matches the next one over. It does not. Florida exempts most labor on real-property improvement per Florida Department of Revenue GT-800067, so a residential repaint is typically tax-free on labor, taxable on materials sold separately. Texas treats commercial repair labor as taxable per Comptroller Pub 94-116, and treats residential differently again. Look up your state revenue department before you send your first painting invoice. Set the rate once in the template’s tax cell and stop guessing.
2. The late fee has to be in writing to be enforceable
Most states allow a service charge of 1.0% to 1.5% per month if disclosed in writing. Some cap at 18% APR. The late fee clause must appear on the invoice itself, not just the contract, to be enforceable on the unpaid balance. The painting invoice template includes the standard 1.5% per month language. Confirm your state cap before you send.
3. Lien rights have a deadline
Mechanic’s lien rules vary by state. Most states require a preliminary notice within a fixed window, commonly 20 to 60 days from when the work started or was completed. Painters are covered as improvers of real property in most state statutes, but you have to file. The painting invoice template includes a lien rights notice block that satisfies the disclosure requirement in most states. The actual lien filing is a separate process you handle through Levelset, your state contractor association, or a lien attorney.
What to add to your contract
- 50% deposit at start, balance on completion (jobs over $1,000)
- Net 7 or Net 15 payment terms
- 1.5% per month late fee, capped at state usury limit
- Lien rights preservation language
- Change order clause: any scope changes require written approval and a new invoice
- Signature line, dated
Painting Invoice FAQ
Questions painters ask before sending
Do I need to put my contractor license number on a painting invoice?
Should painters charge sales tax on labor?
What payment terms should painters use?
Can painters charge a late fee?
Is Net 15 or Net 30 better for residential paint jobs?
Is a verbal agreement enough or do I need a signed invoice?
When should I upgrade from a template to invoicing software?
Can I edit the painting invoice template on my phone?
When You’re Ready
Stop chasing painting invoices from your truck.
Snap one photo, get a painting estimate in seconds, and send the invoice the same day the work is done. Receipts and mileage live in companion SimplyWise apps. Free to try.