Contractor Invoice Checklist: Before You Send

An invoice can be saved correctly and still reach the wrong person. It can arrive in the right inbox with an unexplained charge or a missing job reference. Before starting a routine payment follow-up, make sure you know which of those situations you are dealing with.

Use a short review between preparing an invoice and sending it. Check the source records, preview what the customer will receive, and record the actual delivery result. Keep unresolved details visible instead of marking the whole task finished because a document exists.

This checklist covers administrative preparation and delivery. It does not determine when you are legally entitled to bill, what terms to impose or what to do in a payment dispute. Follow the applicable agreement and requirements, and ask the appropriate qualified adviser when those questions are uncertain.

Start with the record you intend to bill

Identify the customer, property or job, and the invoice reference. A familiar customer name is not enough when the same person manages several locations or your team has multiple open jobs for them.

Open the current source records before copying details into the invoice. Check what work the invoice represents and which authorized changes belong with it. A request for extra work and an approved change are different records; a note saying someone asked for something does not settle what should be charged.

Confirm that the person responsible for billing has resolved whether this invoice is ready under the existing arrangement. A finished visit, a closed project status and permission to bill are separate questions. If an unresolved issue affects readiness, name the issue and the person who can resolve it. Do not make the answer up to clear a checklist.

Use the contractor job-notes checklist to improve the underlying visit record. The invoice review should reference that evidence, not create a competing account of what happened in the field.

Use a review sheet before sending

Keep this sheet beside the draft invoice. These are suggested checks, not a universal list of legally required invoice fields. Add requirements that apply to the actual customer and job.

On a narrow screen, scroll the review sheet sideways. Keyboard users can focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Do not tick a row simply because the field is populated. An old purchase-order reference or a copied address can look complete while belonging to another job. Record where you verified an important detail so a second person can understand the check.

If you work alone, the second pass can still be separate from drafting. Preview the document after entering the details instead of relying on the same screen and assumptions used to create it.

Make the invoice understandable without exposing the whole job file

Write descriptions that let the recipient connect the charge to the agreed work. Use the correct work area, reference and relevant service detail. Avoid a vague label when the person processing the invoice was not present at the job.

Keep supporting material proportionate. If the customer has an agreed submission process, check which references and attachments it needs. Do not attach every photo and internal message simply because they exist. Review attachments for unrelated customer information, access details and internal discussion before sharing them.

Check that an attachment's name and contents agree. A file labeled for the current job may still be an old copy. Open the actual file or permitted customer preview, and check links using an approved preview/test workflow rather than assuming your signed-in access proves the recipient can open them.

Keep tax treatment, disputed charges and accounting adjustments with the person qualified and authorized to decide them. This worksheet is a way to find a discrepancy, not a substitute for that review.

Confirm where the invoice should go

The person who arranged site access may not process invoices. Confirm the billing contact and any submission reference using the customer's established communication channel. If an instruction changes unexpectedly, verify it before sending a customer record to a new address.

Record the selected recipient and delivery method. If you use more than one approved channel, make clear that the messages concern the same invoice. Sending a reminder or replacement copy should not accidentally create a second charge in your own records.

Keep your payment instructions consistent with the authorized setup. Do not request card details, passwords or sensitive payment information in an ordinary email reply. This article does not recommend adding a payment method merely to offer more choices.

Consult the PocketBoss contractor invoicing overview when assessing the software, then confirm the current workflow in your account. Check which delivery results and follow-up options are actually available before depending on them.

Separate saving, sending and receiving

A saved invoice is not a sent invoice. In Pocket Boss a new invoice sits in New until you send it, the row records the send date, and the Viewed column shows when the customer opened it. Marking something as sent by hand proves nothing about delivery, so check the actual send history when a customer says they never got it.

After sending, record the result the system actually reports. If it says sent, keep that fact separate from an acknowledgment by the intended recipient. Neither a send action nor a view indicator, by itself, establishes that the customer agrees with the invoice or that payment has arrived.

Read the delivery error before you repeat the same send. If you invoice from QuickBooks Online, Intuit's undelivered-invoice guide covers checking delivery status, addresses and error details, and notes that a bounce on a message to several recipients may not say which address failed.

Use the documentation and support channel for the tool you actually use. Record what you checked and any support reference. Do not remove security protections or change account settings blindly to make a message go through.

Work through a delivery exception

Consider an invented example, DEMO-I08. The coordinator, Avery, has an invoice for a completed storage-installation job. The responsible billing person has reviewed its readiness and details under the existing arrangement. The customer previously supplied a billing email address and asked for the job reference to appear on the document.

At 9:00 AM on September 10, site local time, the coordinator notices that the preview contains the reference from a previous job. The invoice remains a draft while the reference is corrected and the preview is checked again. No email has been sent.

At 9:20 AM, the corrected invoice is sent through the agreed channel, but the system reports a delivery error. The coordinator records the invoice reference, intended recipient, time and reported error. Avery keeps the task open with a 10:00 AM check time: confirm the email address through the established customer contact and review the tool's delivery guidance.

At 10:00 AM, that contact supplies a corrected email address through the established channel. The coordinator verifies the change, checks that the same invoice is being resent and records the new attempt. The system now reports sent, but the intended recipient has not acknowledged it. The record therefore says “resent; acknowledgment not yet recorded,” not “accepted” or “paid.”

The example stops there. It does not assume the customer pays, promise that a corrected address resolves every problem or establish a standard timing rule. Its purpose is to keep the wrong reference, failed attempt and later send distinguishable.

Follow up on the unresolved fact

Choose the next action based on what is actually open. An unconfirmed address calls for a recipient check. A missing reference calls for a document check. A question about the work or amount belongs with the person who can answer it. An overdue-balance decision needs the applicable agreement and appropriate advice, not a guessed schedule copied from a blog.

Keep one named owner and a next check time for the open item. Record a customer's actual response without upgrading it: “please resend to billing” is not the same as “the invoice is approved for payment.” If a teammate takes over, include the last verified result and what still needs an answer.

For the wider coordination around changes and unanswered questions, use the contractor customer communication guide. Keep the invoice record itself focused on the relevant billing question, source reference and delivery history.

Review the small set of invoices with missing details or failed delivery separately from your ordinary payment follow-up. That gives the team a concrete action to take without treating every open invoice as the same problem. The result to aim for here is an accurate record and a clear next step; payment timing remains something to measure, not promise.