For bricklayers

Invoicing for bricklayers

Brickwork is priced by the thousand on one job and by the day on the next, and either way the main contractor takes the deduction before the money reaches you. Sendinvo carries the count and the rate onto the invoice, works the CIS deduction off the labour alone, and prints the reverse-charge wording the builder’s office is looking for.

30 days of everything, free. No card needed.

Subcontract paperwork

The invoice a builder’s office will accept

Extension brickwork to wall plate, a retaining wall in engineering bricks, block and beam, a chimney rebuild, repointing a front elevation: the work changes, the paperwork barely does. A main contractor, a deduction taken off your labour, and an accounts team that wants the figures laid out before it will pay.

Priced by the thousand, or by the day

Put the count and the rate on the line and the invoice shows its own working: 8,400 facing bricks at £520.00 per thousand, or 34 days on a day rate, whichever way the job was agreed. Materials go on a line of their own, and that split is what makes the deduction right further down the page. On private work you can price it as a quote first, and the accepted quote converts to an invoice carrying the same lines.

The deduction comes off the labour, not the bricks

Set your rate once in company settings, 20%, 30%, or 0% for gross payment status, then tick the CIS deduction on a sterling invoice and enter the labour figure. The deduction is worked out on that figure alone, so your facing bricks, blocks, ties, and sand keep their full value, and the invoice shows the full total and the net amount the main contractor actually pays. On a labour-only month, where the builder supplies everything off the pallet, leave the box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal.

The reverse-charge wording, printed for you

On CIS work between VAT-registered businesses, tick the domestic reverse charge alongside the deduction. The VAT line then reads £0.00 and the invoice carries the wording HMRC expects, so the main contractor accounts for the VAT at their end and you never have to remember the phrasing. Whether it applies to a given job is your call, not ours.

A monthly account with a regular builder

Laying for the same builder month after month? Put that account on a recurring schedule and the invoice is raised and emailed on the same date each month, with your lines and VAT rate already on it. CIS is ticked per invoice, so raise the deducted months as one-off invoices and pause the schedule when the gang moves off site. When the builder’s office asks where the account stands, download a client statement and every issued invoice for that client is on one branded page with the total still owed.

Private work, and the deposit that starts it

A garden wall for a homeowner is not subcontract work, so no deduction and no reverse charge apply to it. Take a deposit before the gang books in, or split one invoice into stages with a payment plan, foundation dug, wall up, coping on. They can settle by card once you connect Stripe, or by instant bank payment on a sterling invoice up to £10,000. Stripe takes its own fee on either route.

Chased while you are on site

Reminders run on the schedule you set, 1, 7, and 14 days past due unless you change them, and stop the moment the invoice is paid. If a sterling invoice to another business runs on, Sendinvo works out the statutory interest at the base rate you keep in settings plus 8%, adds the fixed sum the Act allows, and drafts a separate interest invoice for you to read first. If a line comes out of the job, the site supplying its own bricks say, a credit note nets it off at the rate it was billed at.

See it in action

A bricklaying gang, seeded and running

The real app, filled with a bricklayer’s work: plot brickwork for a housing developer with the deduction and the reverse charge on it, a monthly labour account with a builder on a recurring schedule, a garden wall paid in three stages, an overdue retaining wall with reminders chasing it, and a credit note for a week of scaffold that came down early. Have a click around.

sendinvo.com/invoices

A live demo seeded with a bricklaying business. Nothing you do here is saved or sent.

Worked examples

The two ways brickwork gets billed

One priced by the thousand with materials on it, one a month of day-rate labour. Both go to a main contractor, and on both the deduction comes off the labour.

Subcontract invoice to a main contractor, CIS at 20%
Labour, 8,400 facing bricks at £520.00 per thousand £4,368.00
Materials, facing bricks, blocks, ties, sand, and cement £1,890.00
Subtotal £6,258.00
VAT (domestic reverse charge) £0.00 Reverse charge
CIS deduction (20% of the £4,368.00 labour) −£873.60
Amount due £5,384.40

The deduction is 20% of the labour line, never of the £6,258.00 subtotal, so the bricks and sand keep their full value. The main contractor accounts for the £1,251.60 VAT at their end, pays the £5,384.40, and the invoice settles in full.

The other one: a month of gang labour for a builder who supplies the bricks.

Monthly labour account to a builder, CIS at 20%
Labour, two bricklayers, 34 days at £230.00 a day £7,820.00
Subtotal £7,820.00
VAT (domestic reverse charge) £0.00 Reverse charge
CIS deduction (20%) −£1,564.00
Amount due £6,256.00

Nothing but labour on this one, so the labour box stays empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal. A month carrying a deduction goes out as its own invoice, because a recurring schedule carries no CIS and no reverse charge.

Questions

Good to know

How does the CIS deduction get onto a brickwork invoice?

Set your rate once in company settings, 20%, 30%, or 0% for gross payment status. On a sterling invoice, tick “Apply CIS deduction” and enter the labour figure, and the deduction is worked out on that alone, so the bricks, blocks, ties, and sand keep their full value. On a labour-only month leave the box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal.

Can I price a job by the thousand?

Yes. Every line carries a quantity and a rate, so 8,400 facing bricks at £520.00 per thousand goes on as 8.4 in the Qty column, £520.00 as the rate, and £4,368.00 as the line total. A day rate works the same way, with the number of days in the Qty column. Price a private job as a quote first and, once the client accepts it online, it converts to an invoice with those lines already on it.

Can the VAT reverse charge go on the same invoice?

Yes, if both businesses are VAT registered. It is its own tick box beside the CIS deduction, and ticking it drops the VAT line to £0.00 and prints the wording HMRC expects, so the main contractor accounts for the VAT at their end. Whether it applies to a given job is your call, not ours.

Can I invoice a regular builder on a monthly account?

Yes. Put the client on a recurring schedule and the invoice is raised and emailed on the same date each month, with your lines and VAT rate already on it. Recurring invoices send themselves, with no draft to approve first, and they carry no CIS and no reverse charge, so raise the deducted months as one-off invoices and pause the schedule when the gang moves off site.

A builder’s accounts team wants the whole account. Can I send that?

Yes. A client statement lists every issued invoice for that client with its status, total, and outstanding balance, plus the total still owed across them all. It downloads as an A4 PDF in your own branding, ready to pass to their office.

The builder is sitting on the money. What can I do?

Reminders keep chasing on the dates you set, 1, 7, and 14 days past due unless you change them, and the tone steps up as it runs on. On an overdue sterling invoice to another business, Sendinvo works out the statutory interest at the base rate you keep in settings plus 8%, adds the fixed sum the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows, and drafts a separate interest invoice for you to read before it goes. The invoice the builder already has is left exactly as it went out. This is general information, not legal advice.

Lay the bricks, not the paperwork.

30 days of everything, free, no card. After that it’s £20 a month for one person and £5 a month for anyone else on the account.