Whether you are a multi-company freelancer or a business that plans to extend a line of credit to its clients, you will need an invoice. Creating a custom invoice in Excel is not difficult. You will be ready to submit your invoice and receive payments in no time.
Using an invoice template
Creating a simple invoice in Excel is relatively easy. Create some tables, set up some rules, add some information and you’re done. In addition, there are many websites that provide free invoice templates created by real accountants. You can use them instead, or even download one to use as inspiration for your own.
Excel also provides its own library of invoice templates that you can use. To access these templates, open Excel and click the File tab.
Here select «New» and type «Account» in the search bar.
Press Enter and a collection of invoice templates will appear.
Browse through the available templates to find the one you like.
Create a simple invoice in Excel from scratch
To make a simple invoice in Excel, we need to first understand what information is required. To keep things simple, we will create an invoice using only the information needed to receive payment. Here’s what we need:
- Seller Information
- name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Buyer Information
- Company name
- Address
- Invoice date
- Account number
- Description of the product (service or product sold)
- The price of a product (an individual product or service)
- Total amount payable
- Payment method
Let’s start.
First, open a blank Excel sheet. The first thing we want to do is get rid of the grid lines, giving us a blank Excel sheet to work with. To do this, go to the «View» tab and uncheck «Gridlines» in the «Show» section. » chapter.
Now let’s resize some of the columns and rows. This will give us extra space for some longer information such as item descriptions. To resize a row or column, click and drag.
The default height for rows is 20 pixels and for columns is 64 pixels. Here’s how we recommend setting up your rows and columns for optimal customization.
Rows:
- Row 1: 45px
Speakers:
- Column A: 385px
- Column B: 175px
- Column C: 125px
Line 1 will have your name and the word «Invoice». We want this information to be immediately understandable to the recipient, so we give a little extra space to increase the font size of this information so that it grabs the recipient’s attention.
Column A contains most of the important (and potentially lengthy) information in the invoice. This includes information about the buyer and seller, a description of the item, and the payment method. Column B contains the specific dates of the items listed, so it doesn’t take up much space. Finally, column C will contain the invoice number, invoice date, the individual price of each item in the list, and the total amount due. This information is also short, so it doesn’t take up much space.
Go ahead and set up your rows and cells according to the suggested specifications, and let’s get started by adding our information!
In column A, line 1, enter your name. Give it a larger font size (about 18pt font) and highlight the text so it stands out.
In column B, line 1, enter «Invoice» to immediately understand what kind of document it is. We recommend a 28pt font, using all caps. Feel free to give it a lighter color if you like.
In columns A, lines 4, 5 and 6 we will enter our address and phone number.