After this setup, your invoicing system will:
- Automatically send deposit invoices the moment a job is booked, before work starts
- Create and send the final invoice immediately after job completion
- Send automatic payment reminders at 3, 7, and 14 days overdue, without you making any calls
- Accept credit card and bank transfer payments from any device, no checks, no bank trips
- Track exactly who owes what, and flag overdue accounts automatically
The Contractor Invoicing Problem
Let's be real about what's happening: most contractors aren't losing money because they do bad work. They're losing money, or at least waiting way too long to get paid, because of three completely fixable invoicing problems:
- Slow invoicing: You complete a job Friday afternoon, plan to invoice Monday, then get busy with 3 new jobs. By the time you send the invoice, it's been 10 days. The client has mentally moved on.
- No online payment option: Your invoice says "make check payable to..." The client has to find their checkbook, write a check, find an envelope, find a stamp, and get to a mailbox. Each step is a reason to procrastinate.
- Manual follow-up: Following up on late invoices means awkward phone calls or being "the pest." So many contractors let 30-60 day invoices slide because confrontation is uncomfortable.
All three problems are solved by automation.
Best Invoicing Tools for Contractors
- Clean invoicing with "Pay Now" button
- Automatic payment reminders
- Recurring invoices for service contracts
- Time tracking for hourly billing
- Excellent mobile app for invoicing on the job
- 30-day free trial
- Quotes → Scheduling → Invoicing in one place
- Client portal with job history
- Automatic review requests after job close
- GPS tracking for field crews
- Built specifically for field service businesses
- 14-day free trial
- Unlimited invoices, completely free
- Basic recurring invoices
- No automatic reminders (manual only)
- Good for very small or new businesses
- Limited compared to paid options
Our recommendation for most contractors: Start with FreshBooks. If your business grows to where you need scheduling, GPS tracking, and full crew management in one place, graduate to Jobber. Use Wave only if you're just starting out and every dollar counts.
The Contractor Invoice Flow: What Gets Automated
Step-by-Step Setup
Set Up FreshBooks and Create Job Templates (20 minutes)
Sign up for FreshBooks (30-day free trial, no credit card required). Complete your business profile: name, address, logo, and payment terms.
Then create invoice templates for your most common job types. For a plumber, this might be: Emergency Service Call, Drain Cleaning, Water Heater Installation, Bathroom Remodel. For each template, add your standard line items and labor rates. When a job is done, you just select the template, adjust quantities, and send, takes 2 minutes instead of 20.
Screenshot: FreshBooks invoice creation "Service Templates" section showing prebuilt templates for "Emergency Service Call," "Water Heater Install," and "Drain Service" with standard line items already populated
Set Up Deposit Invoices (15 minutes)
This is the most underused tool in a contractor's billing arsenal. A deposit invoice (typically 25-50% of the estimated total) should go out the moment a job is approved, before you've done a minute of work.
Benefits: covers your material costs upfront, filters out non-serious clients, reduces cancellations, and dramatically improves your cash flow.
In FreshBooks: create a standard invoice with one line item, "Project Deposit, [Job Type]: 50% of estimated total" with a note explaining that the balance is due upon completion. Set the payment terms to "Due on Receipt."
Enable Automatic Payment Reminders (10 minutes)
This single setting eliminates the most uncomfortable part of running a contracting business: following up on late invoices. Once enabled, FreshBooks sends these emails automatically, you don't make any calls or send any emails yourself.
Go to Settings → Invoice Settings → Reminders and configure:
- 3 days before due: "Just a reminder, your invoice is due in 3 days"
- Day of due: "Your invoice is due today"
- 7 days overdue: "Your invoice is now 7 days past due"
- 14 days overdue: "Your invoice is 14 days past due, please contact us if you have questions"
Customize the tone to match your relationship with clients. Long-term commercial clients might prefer softer language. New residential clients can get more direct reminders.
Screenshot: FreshBooks Settings → Invoice Reminders showing four reminders configured with days before/after due date and customizable message text
Enable Online Payments (15 minutes)
Accept credit cards and bank transfers directly from the invoice. When clients can pay by tapping a button instead of writing a check, they pay faster, often the same day they receive the invoice.
Go to Settings → Payments and enable FreshBooks Payments. You'll need to provide your business bank account information for deposits. Processing fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per credit card transaction, 1% for ACH bank transfers (max $10).
For most contractors, the processing fee pays for itself in reduced collection time and eliminated bad debt.
Screenshot: FreshBooks invoice as seen by the client showing a "Pay Now" button prominently, with credit card and bank transfer options
Set Up Recurring Billing for Service Contracts (15 minutes)
If you have commercial clients on maintenance contracts (quarterly HVAC service, monthly landscaping, annual inspection contracts), set up recurring invoices. FreshBooks creates and sends them automatically on schedule.
Go to Invoices → New Invoice, fill in the details, then click Make Recurring. Set the frequency, start date, and whether it runs indefinitely or for a set number of periods. You'll never think about these invoices again.
He set up FreshBooks with deposit invoices (50% upfront for all residential jobs), same-day invoicing after job completion, and automatic reminders. Within 60 days, his outstanding receivables dropped from $34,000 to $8,200. He paid off his line of credit. Cash flow became the non-issue it should have always been.
Ready to get your receivables under control?
Set up FreshBooks this afternoon. First automated invoice in under an hour.
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