Creating Professional Invoices with Google Docs: A Step-by-Step Guide

how to make an invoice in google docs

Invoice is an important part of the business. Many small businesses look for simple and quick billing solutions for their company. Google Docs provides simple and professional invoice templates to help you to deal with your clients. You can make custom Invoices with Google Docs by downloading or creating the invoice format for free by using Google Docs. After that, you can save them to the cloud for making future invoices.

If you are running your own business and don’t know how to create invoices by using Google Docs, here we are sharing some steps with you to help you create a professional and simple invoice for your company by using a professional invoice template. 

A step-by-step guide for you to create a professional invoice on Google Docs:

1. Log in to Your Google Account

The first simple step is to log in to your Google account and then go for Google Docs by using your account. If you don’t have an account then you need to create one for you to proceed further.

2. Open the Template Gallery

Once you logged in to your Google account and opened Google Docs, you will find a Template Gallery at the top of the page that will open up different templates including VAT invoice, Commercial invoice, Tax invoice, etc. You can use the search bar to search for ‘invoice templates.’

3. Choose Your Invoice Template

The next step is to choose a suitable invoice for your company. You will find different formats for invoices in the template gallery, so you can select from them according to your need and convenience. You need to click on a template to view it as a full document.

4. Save the Template

After choosing the right invoice template for yourself, you can save it to your Drive to use it as a blank invoice template. For that, you need to name the document in the title box and then press enter to save the document to your Drive.

5. Create a New Invoice

For creating a new invoice in Google Docs you have to follow these steps:

  • Open the blank document of invoice template
  • Click on ‘File’
  • Then select ‘Make a Copy’ from the menu

6. Edit the Invoice

Once you get a blank invoice template, you need to edit few important things to the document. The information you should add to the document is:

  • Your company name or logo
  • Your business contact details
  • Your client’s contact details, including the name of your billing contact
  • A unique invoice number
  • The invoice date
  • The payment due date
  • An itemized list of your services with a brief description of each one, the quantity or number of hours worked, and the pay rate.
  • A subtotal for each service
  • The total due amount, including applicable tax
  • Your payment terms, including the payment methods you accept and the details of your late fee policy

7. Choose an Invoice Naming Convention

You should select a standard invoice naming convention for filing your documents neatly in your Google Drive folder. A name must be a combination of three things: the invoice number, date, and client name. Such as “Invoice100_1020_Client Name.”

8. Share the Invoice with Your Client

For sharing the invoice document with your client, use the blue “Share” button in the upper right-hand corner of the Doc. Add your client’s email address, write a short, polite note, and then click on ‘send.’

The other way is to download the Doc and send it by mail or attach it to an email. For that, you should follow these steps:

  • Click File  
  • Download As and 
  • Select the format you like 
  • Open the ‘Downloads’ folder of your computer to see the saved invoice
  • File it where you save your invoices 
  • Then send it to your client

How to Make Free Invoices

You can create your invoice for free by using different online sites that provide free downloadable invoice templates with an online editing options as well. Depending on your business need, you can download the templates for free in Word, Excel, and PDF file formats.