A repair shop invoice has a harder job than a retail one. It has to survive an industrial accounts payable department that will match it against a purchase order, an approved quote, and a receiving note before anyone signs a cheque. Miss the PO number and it sits in a queue. Exceed the approved amount without documented authorization and it gets short-paid. Bill “motor repair — $4,200” as one line and purchasing calls you instead of paying you.
The template below is structured to clear those hurdles: full reference block, itemized labor and parts, separate lines for the outside services and freight that shops routinely absorb by accident, and a test-results summary that quietly ends most quality disputes. It pairs with the motor repair work order template — same job number, same equipment block, so the invoice reconciles to what was authorized.
The template, field by field
1. Your details
Boring, and the reason invoices get returned. Accounts payable cannot pay an entity it cannot match to its vendor master.
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Legal business name | The name on your vendor registration, not your trading name if they differ. | Yes |
| Address & contact | Remit-to address plus a phone number and email for billing queries. | Yes |
| Tax ID / registration | EIN, VAT, GST, or local equivalent. Required in most jurisdictions for the customer to claim the expense. | Yes |
| Invoice number | Sequential and unique. Gaps and reused numbers cause audit problems. | Yes |
| Invoice date & due date | State both. "Net 30" alone leaves the due date open to interpretation. | Yes |
2. Customer & job reference
This block is what a plant's AP clerk matches against their system. Every missing field here is a week of delay.
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Bill-to entity | The legal entity that issued the PO, often a different company than the plant that shipped you the motor. | Yes |
| Ship-to / site | Where the repaired unit went, if different from bill-to. | Yes |
| Customer PO number | The single most common reason industrial invoices are rejected. Get it at intake. | Yes |
| Job / work order number | The same number as your work order, so the customer can tie the invoice to what they approved. | Yes |
| Equipment identified | Manufacturer, HP/kW, frame, and serial number. Never bill "one motor repaired." | Yes |
3. Labor
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Operation description | Strip and clean, rewind, machining, bearing replacement, balance, assembly, testing, one line each. | Yes |
| Hours | Actual hours by operation, from the work order. | Yes |
| Rate | Your shop rate. Show straight-time and overtime or field-service rates separately if they differ. | Yes |
| Line total | Hours multiplied by rate, per operation. | Yes |
4. Parts & materials
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Part number & description | Bearings, seals, magnet wire, insulation, varnish, hardware. | Yes |
| Quantity & unit price | Selling price, not your cost. Consumables can be grouped as one shop-materials line. | Yes |
| Line total | Extended price per line. | Yes |
5. Other charges
The lines shops forget to bill. Each one is money already spent.
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Outside services | Machining, dynamic balancing, plating, specialist testing sent out to a vendor. | Optional |
| Freight in / out | Inbound collection and outbound delivery, listed separately from the repair. | Optional |
| Rigging / crane / field labor | Site work, removal, and reinstallation, with travel time and mileage. | Optional |
| Core charge / scrap credit | A credit line if you retained the old core or salvage. | Optional |
| Inspection fee | Where a motor was stripped and quoted but the customer declined the repair. | Optional |
| Storage | For units left past your stated collection window. Only bill it if the term was disclosed. | Optional |
6. Totals, terms & payment
| Field | What goes in it | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Subtotal, tax, total due | Show the tax rate applied, and mark any exempt lines with the exemption reference. | Yes |
| Deposit / progress payments | Amounts already received, deducted to give the true balance. | Yes |
| Payment terms | Net 30, net 15, COD. Must match what was on the quote and work order. | Yes |
| Late fee policy | A stated monthly percentage. Unstated late fees are unenforceable in practice. | Optional |
| How to pay | Bank details, cheque payee, or card link. Make it impossible to have to ask. | Yes |
| Warranty statement | Duration and coverage, repeated from the work order. | Yes |
| Test results summary | Before-and-after insulation resistance and the no-load run figures. Optional, and the single best anti-dispute field on the page. | Optional |
Plain-text version
Paste this into Word, Google Docs, or a spreadsheet and print it. Nothing to download, no sign-up.
INVOICE
[Your legal business name]
[Street, city, postcode] Tax ID / EIN: ______________
Billing contact: ____________ Phone: _____________________
Invoice No: ______________ Invoice date: ______________
Due date: ______________
BILL TO SHIP TO / SITE
_______________________ _______________________
_______________________ _______________________
_______________________ _______________________
Customer PO: ______________ Job / WO No: ______________
Equipment: ______ HP Frame ______ Serial ________________
Manufacturer: _____________________________________________
--- LABOR --------------------------------------------------
Description Hours Rate Amount
Strip, clean & inspect _____ ______ _______
Rewind _____ ______ _______
Machining / bearing fits _____ ______ _______
Assembly & balance _____ ______ _______
Final testing _____ ______ _______
Labor total _______
--- PARTS & MATERIALS --------------------------------------
Part no. Description Qty Unit Amount
__________ ________________ ____ ______ _______
__________ ________________ ____ ______ _______
Parts total _______
--- OTHER CHARGES ------------------------------------------
Outside services: _________________________ _______
Freight in / out _______
Rigging / field labor _______
Core charge / scrap credit (_______)
Other total _______
--- TOTALS -------------------------------------------------
Subtotal _______
Tax ______ % _______
Less deposit (_______)
TOTAL DUE _______
Terms: Net ______ days. Late fee ______ % per month.
Warranty: ______ months covering ___________________________
Test results: Incoming IR ______ Mohm -> Final ______ Mohm
No-load run: U ______ V ______ W ______ amps
Remit to: __________________________________________________
Bank / account: ____________________________________________
Questions about this invoice: ______________________________Four billing lines shops forget, every month
Outside services. A rotor goes out for dynamic balancing, the vendor invoice arrives two weeks later, and by then the customer invoice has already gone. The cost sits in overhead permanently. Put the line on the invoice template so it has to be answered, even if the answer is zero.
Freight.Collecting a 400 kg motor is not free, and shops swallow it to seem accommodating. Bill it as a visible line and let the customer decide whether to arrange their own transport.
Inspection fees on declined repairs.Stripping and testing a motor takes real hours. When the customer decides to buy new instead, those hours are still yours to bill — provided the teardown authorization said so up front.
Deposits actually received. Forgetting to deduct a deposit is the one error that gets noticed immediately, and it costs you credibility on every other line of the invoice.
When retyping invoices becomes the problem
Every field in this template already exists on the work order. Typing it a second time is how the invoice total drifts from the approved amount, how a serial number gets a digit wrong, and how parts issued to a job never make it onto the bill at all. The failure is not carelessness; it is that manual re-entry has a predictable error rate and rewind shops run too many jobs for it to stay small.
Generating the invoice from the approved work order removes the step entirely, which is what motor repair invoicing and quoting software is for, sitting on the same job record as the rest of the shop management system. Until then, this template will do the job perfectly well — use it, and switch when the retyping starts costing more than it saves.
Frequently asked questions
- What should a repair shop invoice include?
- Your details and tax registration, the customer's billing entity and PO number, the job number that matches the work order, the equipment identified by serial number, itemized labor and parts, any outside services and freight, tax, payment terms, and how to pay. For motor work, adding the before-and-after test readings to the invoice measurably reduces disputes.
- Should I itemize labor and parts separately on a repair invoice?
- Yes for industrial customers, most plants require itemization to process the payment at all, and a lump sum invites a call from purchasing that delays payment by weeks. The exception is a fixed-price quote the customer already approved, where you invoice the agreed total and attach the itemized detail as backup.
- What payment terms do motor repair shops normally use?
- Net 30 is the industrial default. Shops commonly use 50% deposit on rewinds over a threshold amount, net 15 or COD for new accounts, and a stated late-fee percentage. The important part is that the terms appear on the quote, the work order, and the invoice, terms that first appear at billing are the ones that get argued about.
- Why do repair invoices get short-paid?
- Almost always a missing PO number, a total that exceeds the approved not-to-exceed amount without a documented change approval, or line items the plant cannot match to what they authorized. All three are paperwork failures upstream of billing, which is why the invoice should be generated from the approved work order rather than typed fresh.