Deposit invoice template

This is a free deposit invoice template: a worked example invoice you can download as a PDF, Excel, or Word file, or open as a live invoice and send in about 30 seconds. The example below is filled in with realistic line items, amounts, and payment terms for deposit work. The sender block is left blank ("Your business name") because that is the part you fill in with your own details.

What this template includes

The fields every deposit invoice realistically needs, laid out the way an accounts payable team expects to read it:

• •Your business details: name, address, and tax ID. Blank in the template, ready for you to fill in.
• •Client and billing entity, with a clear Bill To block.
• •Invoice number, issue date, and due date, plus a PO number field for clients whose AP process needs one.
• •Line items with quantity and rate. The Excel version totals them for you with built-in formulas.
• •Payment terms, including space for late-fee wording so the due date is enforceable.

What a valid invoice must contain

The UK government publishes the clearest public checklist of what an invoice must include, and it matches what an accounts-payable team anywhere expects to see. Every invoice should carry:

• •A unique invoice number that identifies it in sequence.
• •Your business name, address, and contact details.
• •The customer's name and address.
• •A clear description of what you are charging for.
• •The supply date, when the goods or service were provided.
• •The invoice date.
• •The amount charged for each line.
• •The VAT amount, if applicable.
• •The total amount owed.

Sole traders must also show their own name and an address where legal documents can be served; a limited company must show its full registered name. If you and your customer are both VAT registered, you must issue a VAT invoice, which adds your VAT number and a per-rate VAT breakdown. In the US there is no federally mandated invoice format, but the IRS treats invoices as the records that support your gross receipts, so the same fields matter for your own books and any audit.

Sources: GOV.UK, what invoices must include; IRS, recordkeeping for small business. Verified 2026-08-13 by the JupiterInvoice team.

How to lay out a deposit invoice

A deposit invoice bills part of an agreed total before the work happens. The client should be able to read it once and know three numbers: what the whole job costs, what they owe today, and what is left.

• •Name the agreed total. Put it in the line description or the terms, so the deposit is visibly a share of something, not a number on its own.
• •Bill only the deposit. The invoice total is the deposit. If you bill the whole job and ask for part of it, the client's accounts payable system will try to pay the whole thing or nothing.
• •State the balance and when it falls due. "The remaining $2,400.00 is due on the event date, 14 June 2026" beats "balance due on completion", because it is a date someone can diary.
• •Say what the deposit buys. Holding a date, ordering materials, scheduling a crew. It is also where you put your refund terms, if you have any.

The final invoice: crediting the deposit

When the work is done, bill the full agreed total and show the deposit already paid as its own negative line. The client sees the original price, what they paid, and what is left:

Referencing the deposit invoice number on that line is what stops the "we already paid you" conversation. It also gives the client's bookkeeper the match they need.

A deposit invoice is not a receipt

The invoice asks for the deposit. Once the money arrives, what the client should get is a receipt for that payment, showing the amount received and the balance still owed. They are different documents doing different jobs, and the second one is the proof.

JupiterInvoice does both sides: send the deposit invoice, mark it paid when the money lands, and the receipt is a click away with the amount, date and payment method already on it. For a payment taken with no invoice behind it, the receipt maker produces one in a minute, balance included.

When is a deposit taxable?

It depends where you are and what the deposit is for. Several US states treat a deposit as taxable when it is applied to a sale rather than when it lands, and a refundable security deposit is often treated differently from a payment on account. There is no single national rule to follow.

Check your own state's revenue department, or ask your accountant how to record it. This page is a template and an explanation, not tax advice.