Currency, Tax, and Bank Details on a Cross-Border Invoice

You quoted a US client in dollars, but your bank account is in euros. Their AP team wants a SWIFT code, your domestic invoice template only has an IBAN, and you have no idea whether to charge VAT. The invoice you send next week will either get paid on time or sit in someone's inbox while they ask you four follow-up questions. The difference is in about eight fields. Here is what to change on each one.

The currency line: pick one, and make it obvious

A domestic invoice can get away with a bare currency symbol. A cross-border invoice cannot. $1,200 is ambiguous between USD, CAD, AUD, SGD, HKD, and several others. Always show the three-letter ISO code next to every amount: USD 1,200.00, EUR 1,200.00, GBP 1,200.00. Put the currency in the invoice header too, on its own line, so the AP clerk processing payment does not have to guess.

Pick the currency before you send, not after. If you bill in USD but receive in EUR, decide who carries the FX risk. Most freelancers and agencies bill in the client's currency and absorb the conversion at their own bank. That is fine on small invoices. On larger ones, add a clause: Amounts are payable in USD. Any FX or intermediary bank fees are the responsibility of the payer. Without that line, your bank will quietly deduct fees from the incoming wire and you will be short.

If you need to show both currencies for the client's internal accounting, show the billing currency as the authoritative amount and the converted figure in brackets with the rate and date: USD 1,200.00 (approx EUR 1,108.00 at 0.9233 on 14 Mar). Our currency converter is handy for this. Never put the converted amount in the total field. AP teams pay what is in the total field.

Tax: the line that depends entirely on where both of you sit

Tax wording is where most cross-border invoices go wrong. The rules vary by country pair, but the patterns are:

• You and your client are in the same VAT/GST country. Charge tax as normal, show your tax number, show the tax amount on its own line.
• You are in a VAT country, your client is a business in another VAT country (for example, EU to EU). Often zero-rated under reverse charge. Write a line such as Reverse charge: VAT to be accounted for by the recipient under Article 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC, and show both VAT numbers.
• You are exporting services to a client outside your VAT/GST zone. Usually zero-rated or out of scope. Still write it on the invoice: Zero-rated export of services or Out of scope of UK VAT. Silence here makes AP teams nervous.
• You are a US contractor billing a foreign client. No sales tax on the invoice in most cases, but you may need to provide a W-8BEN to your client and they may need a W-9 from you for US-based work. The W-9 / W-8BEN picker walks you through which one applies.

Whatever the situation, name it explicitly. A blank tax row reads as an omission. A row that says VAT 0% (reverse charge) reads as a finished invoice. If you want the country-specific wording, the invoicing by country pages cover the exact phrases for the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and more.

Bank details: more than an account number

A domestic invoice with just an account number and sort code, or a routing number, will not clear a SWIFT wire. For international payments, include every one of these:

• Beneficiary name, exactly as registered with your bank. Not your trading name if they differ.
• Beneficiary address, the address on file with the bank.
• Bank name and address, full postal address of the branch.
• IBAN if your country uses one. Validate it before sending with the IBAN validator, because a single mistyped character bounces the wire after three days and costs about 25 in fees.
• SWIFT/BIC code, 8 or 11 characters. Required for almost every cross-border payment.
• Account number and routing/sort code for countries without IBAN (US, Canada, Australia, India and others).
• Intermediary bank details if your bank requires them. Ask your bank; some smaller banks need a correspondent in New York or London for USD or GBP wires.
• Payment reference, usually the invoice number. State explicitly: Please reference INV-2024-0142 on the wire.

If you offer a local receiving option (Wise, Payoneer, a US ACH account for non-US recipients), list it as a separate block labelled clearly: Local USD ACH (preferred for US payers). A US AP team will pick ACH over an international wire every time, and you will get paid two to three days faster.

The fields that have nothing to do with money but still matter

Foreign AP teams need a few things that a domestic invoice often skips. Include a PO number field, even if empty, because most large companies will refuse to pay without one and you want them to fill it in rather than reject the invoice. Include an AP contact line so the person who received the invoice can pass it on without retyping anything. JupiterInvoice lets the recipient add a PO, set their AP contact, and forward the invoice to that contact directly from the link, which avoids the email tennis match that delays most overseas invoices. The mechanics are covered in our practical guide to international invoicing, and the underlying feature is recipient editing.

Show your legal entity name and registration number (company number, ABN, GST number, EIN, whatever applies). Show payment terms in days and as a date: Net 30. Due 14 April 2024. Foreign teams interpret "Net 30" differently, and an explicit date removes the argument. If you are not sure what to put, the due date calculator handles weekends and holidays.

A quick pre-send checklist

1. Currency shown as ISO code on every line and in the header.
2. Tax row present, with explicit wording even if the rate is zero.
3. Both tax/registration numbers shown if reverse charge applies.
4. IBAN validated, SWIFT/BIC included, beneficiary name matches the bank record.
5. Intermediary bank line included if your bank requires one.
6. FX and bank fees clause added on wires over a few thousand.
7. PO number field and AP contact field present.
8. Due date written as an actual date, not just "Net 30".

Build the invoice once with these fields, save it as your international template, and reuse it. When you are ready, create the invoice and send the link. The recipient can fill in their PO and AP contact without emailing you back, which is usually where overseas invoices lose their first week.