Short answer: a consultant invoice lists the fixed fee work and the hourly work as separate lines, adds tax after the subtotal, and says when payment is due. In this template that is a $3,200 workshop plus 12 hours at $185 ($2,220), a $5,420 subtotal, and 8.5% tax of $460.70, so the client owes $5,880.70 on Net 30. Open it in the generator and change the lines to your own.
What is in this template
A month of consulting billed the way most consulting is billed: one deliverable at a fixed price, plus the hours that followed it, plus sales tax, on 30 day terms.
| Line | Detail | Amount |
|---|
| Operations strategy workshop | 1 at $3,200 | $3,200.00 |
| Implementation support | 12 hours at $185 | $2,220.00 |
| Subtotal | | $5,420.00 |
| Sales tax | 8.5% | $460.70 |
| Total due | Net 30 | $5,880.70 |
It uses the Modern design, which puts a bold header bar and an accent colour at the top of the page. Classic and Minimal are one click away in the tool if your client is more conservative.
Separating the fee from the hours
The workshop and the support hours are on separate lines because they were agreed differently. The workshop was a quoted price, so the client is checking a number they already approved. The hours are variable, so that line is the one they might have a question about.
Keeping them apart means a query about the hours does not delay payment of the fee, and it lets you name the period the hours cover. Write “Implementation support, August 2026” rather than “support”, so the approver knows which month they are signing off. If your hours ran over what you estimated, say so in the notes before the client has to ask.
Invited to give a talk rather than hired for a workshop? The honorarium invoice template keeps a one-off honorarium and travel on separate lines.
Tax comes after the discount
This template has tax and no discount, but it is worth knowing the order for when you use both. The tool applies a discount to the subtotal and then calculates tax on the discounted figure, which is what almost every jurisdiction expects. Applying tax first produces a slightly higher total and a conversation with the client’s bookkeeper that you do not want.
Whether you should be charging 8.5% or anything at all depends on where you and your client are, and on whether you are registered. If you are registered, your registration number usually has to appear on the invoice, so put it in the notes or under your business name. If you are not registered, set the rate to 0 and do not imply otherwise.
Retainers and monthly consulting
For a fixed monthly retainer, one line with a quantity of 1 and the month named in the description is enough: “Advisory retainer, September 2026”. If your retainer includes an hours allowance, show the retainer on one line and any excess hours on a second, so the client can see they went over rather than discovering a larger number than usual.
For staged project work, invoice per milestone and reference which stage this is. Payment tied to something the client can look at and agree is finished gets approved faster than payment tied to a date.
Example: a monthly retainer with extra hours and travel
A second example, for the month after the workshop. The client pays a monthly retainer that includes 10 hours, the work ran to 16 hours, and there was one site visit by train.
| Line | Detail | Amount |
|---|
| Advisory retainer, October 2026, includes 10 hours | 1 at $2,500 | $2,500.00 |
| Hours beyond the retainer, Oct 6 to Oct 24 | 6 hours at $185 | $1,110.00 |
| Train fare for the Oct 14 site visit, at cost | 1 at $146.50 | $146.50 |
| Total due | Net 30 | $3,756.50 |
$2,500.00 + $1,110.00 + $146.50 = $3,756.50. The 6 extra hours are the 16 worked minus the 10 the retainer covers, and they sit on their own line so the client sees the overage instead of a bigger number than usual. The train fare is billed at what it cost, with the receipt kept. There is no tax line here, to keep the example about the retainer; if you charge tax, add your rate in the tool. Load this example to open it in the generator with the same PO number and Net 30 notes.
Expect a purchase order
Consultants bill larger organisations more often than freelancers do, which means purchase orders, approval queues, and an accounts payable address that is not your contact. Ask for the PO number before you invoice, put it in the notes, and send the PDF to the address that pays invoices while copying the person who hired you. An invoice missing a PO number is not usually rejected, it just sits.
Related reading
Payment terms explained covers Net 30, end-of-month variants, and why 2/10 net 30 works on clients with a finance department. Estimate vs quote vs invoice is worth reading before you send a proposal, and getting invoices paid on time has the follow-up sequence for when Net 30 becomes Net 45.
Not quite the right shape? There is a freelance invoice template, a small business template, a tutoring invoice template for lessons, and a contractor estimate for work that has not been agreed yet.