What goes on an independent contractor receipt
Most contract work is paid by transfer, and the remittance advice does a receipt’s job, so this is the paper you write least. Where it matters is money that arrives before there is any work to point at — a deposit, a retainer, a mobilisation payment. Those have nothing attached to them unless you attach something.
- The date the money arrived, and the amount
- What it is against: a deposit, a retainer, a milestone, or the final balance
- The invoice number it settles, so both sets of books agree
- The balance still outstanding, if any
- How it was paid
- Your business details and tax number, for their accounts team
- A line confirming paid in full, where that is what it is
The sample line items and example prices this sheet opens with are on the independent contractor invoice template — the same table, which is about the trade rather than about this paper, so it lives in one place rather than on all six.
What you get
A PDF, and a link your customer can open in any browser. Word and Excel versions are not available yet — if a spreadsheet is what you need, this is not yet the tool for it, and saying so is cheaper for both of us than you finding out after typing everything in.
Pick how it looks
Six looks, from a plain classic sheet through a bold top band to a shop ticket, and your initials go on automatically until you upload a logo. See all six.
How to send it
Most customers want the paper on their phone, so the receipt goes out by WhatsApp, text or email, or as a link that needs no app and no account on their side. Or download the PDF to print it or keep it for your own records.
Questions
Do I need to issue receipts if clients pay by transfer?
Usually not — the bank record is the proof and most clients never ask. The exceptions are a deposit paid before work starts and a final payment on a job with no further invoice. Those are the payments with nothing else pointing at them.
What about a retainer that rolls over?
Receipt the payment and name the period it covers, then track the hours separately. A retainer receipt that does not say which month it was for is the one you will both be reconstructing at the end of the year.