For flooring fitters

Invoicing for flooring fitters

Engineered oak, LVT, carpet supply and fit, screed and latex, stair nosings. On a supply-and-fit floor the boards are the big number and the fitting is the small one, so it matters where the CIS deduction lands. Put materials and labour on their own lines, tell Sendinvo which figure is the fitting, and the deduction comes off that alone. On the work you invoice direct, ask for the materials up front.

30 days of everything, free. No card needed.

Supply and fit

What a flooring invoice has to do

“The deduction shouldn’t touch the boards.”

Materials and labour on their own lines

On a supply-and-fit floor the oak, the underlay, and the adhesive can be two-thirds of the invoice. Set your CIS rate once, tick the deduction on a sterling invoice, and enter the fitting as the labour figure. It comes off the labour alone, your materials keep their full value, and the main contractor sees the gross total and the net amount they actually pay.

CIS invoices

“The floor is paid for at the merchant before it’s laid.”

A deposit that covers the boards

Engineered oak and LVT are ordered weeks ahead, and they sit on site acclimatising while the merchant waits to be paid. On the work you invoice direct, ask for a deposit as a percentage or a fixed amount with its own due date, and it is chased ahead of the balance.

Deposits and payment plans

“Void properties come round again and again.”

Repeat work that bills itself

A letting agent turning voids around is the same invoice on the same rhythm, month after month: cushioned vinyl to the kitchen and bathroom, carpet to the bedrooms and landing. Put the agent on a recurring schedule and each invoice is raised and sent on its own dates. Recurring invoices always send themselves, so nothing waits in drafts for you.

Recurring invoices

Around those three: a supply-and-fit quote is accepted online, and “Convert to invoice” opens a pre-filled invoice for you to check and save. If you and the main contractor are both VAT registered, tick the domestic reverse charge alongside the deduction, and the invoice carries the wording HMRC expects instead of a VAT charge. Sign-off sheets and photos of the laid floor go out as email attachments, alongside the invoice PDF rather than printed on it.

Reminders switch on the moment you send and run at 1, 7, and 14 days past due unless you change them, and statutory interest on an overdue sterling invoice is worked out from the base rate you keep in settings and drafted as its own invoice for you to review. When a client supplies their own underlay, or drops a room from the spec, a credit note nets that value off at the rate it was billed at. Connect Stripe and every invoice carries a pay link, payable by card or straight from their bank, with Stripe’s own processing fees applying.

See it in action

A flooring business, seeded and running

The real app, filled with a fitter’s work: a whole-house LVT quote out with a homeowner, a materials deposit paid with the balance still open, a commercial carpet tile fit-out on four stages, and a letting agent’s voids on repeat. Have a click around.

sendinvo.com/invoices

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

Worked examples

Where the deduction lands

One invoice is subcontract work for a fit-out contractor, with the deduction taken off the fitting alone. The other is a job you bill direct, where the money up front is the boards.

Supply and fit for a fit-out contractor, CIS at 20%
Materials, engineered oak, underlay, and adhesive £5,598.00
Labour, glue-down fitting, 76 m² £2,128.00
Total £7,726.00
CIS deduction (20% of labour) −£425.60
Amount due £7,300.40

The deduction is 20% of the £2,128.00 fitting, never the boards. Taken off the whole £7,726.00 it would have been £1,545.20, nearly three quarters of what the fitting is worth. Both firms are VAT registered here, so the invoice charges no VAT and carries the wording HMRC expects, and the contractor accounts for the VAT on the full £7,726.00 at their end.

The other one: a whole-house LVT job for a homeowner, where you order the floor before you lay it.

Payment plan for whole-house LVT, supply and fit
Materials deposit, boards on order £4,052.00 Paid
Balance on completion £2,256.00 Due
Total £6,308.00

The deposit is the materials to the penny: £3,572.00 of LVT and £480.00 of ply and adhesive. The balance is the fitting at 94 m², chased on its own date once the floor is down.

Questions

Good to know

Does the CIS deduction come off the boards as well as the fitting?

No. It is worked out on the labour alone. Labour defaults to the whole subtotal, so a fitting-only job needs no extra step. On a supply-and-fit invoice, put the boards, the underlay, and the adhesive on their own lines, enter the fitting as the labour figure, and your materials keep their full value.

How do I set the rate the deduction uses?

Once, in your company settings: 20% for a registered subcontractor, 30% if you are not registered, or 0% for gross payment status. Tick “Apply CIS deduction” on a sterling invoice and Sendinvo works the figure out at that rate. The invoice shows the gross total and the net amount the contractor pays, and when they pay that net amount it settles in full.

Do you decide whether a floor falls under CIS?

No. You tell Sendinvo which invoices carry a deduction, and it works the figures out from the rate you set. Whether a particular floor counts as a construction operation, and which rate applies to you, are questions for you and your accountant. Sendinvo does not verify subcontractors with HMRC, produce payment and deduction statements, or file a CIS300.

Can I bill for the boards before I lay them?

Yes, on the work you invoice direct. Ask for a deposit as a percentage or a fixed amount, with its own due date, and it is chased ahead of the balance. A quote cannot carry one, so the deposit request goes on the invoice. A CIS invoice cannot carry a deposit or a payment plan, so a deposit belongs on the jobs you bill direct.

Can a commercial fit-out be split into stages?

Yes. While the invoice is still a draft, split it into a payment plan of two or more stages, each with its own amount and due date, adding up to the invoice total: materials deposit, subfloor prep, fitting, then completion once the snagging list is signed off. Once you send it the schedule is fixed, and Sendinvo chases the stage that is due rather than the whole fit-out. A stage above £10,000 has to go on the card, because Stripe caps instant bank payment there.

I fit for a letting agent every month. Can that repeat?

Yes. Put the agent on a recurring schedule and each invoice is raised and sent on its own dates, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Recurring invoices always send themselves, so there is no draft waiting for your approval.

Can I send photos of the finished floor with the invoice?

Yes, on the email. Attach photos of the laid floor and they arrive alongside the invoice PDF, up to 10 MB across everything the message carries, the PDF included. They ride with the email rather than printing on the invoice, so the document the accounts team files stays a clean invoice.

A fit-out contractor is 60 days late. What can I do?

Reminders keep chasing on the dates you set, and the tone steps up as the invoice runs on. On an overdue sterling invoice to another business, Sendinvo shows the statutory interest accrued and the fixed compensation the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows, from £40 on a debt under £1,000, and one click drafts a separate interest invoice for you to read before it goes. The invoice the contractor already has is left exactly as it went out. This is general information, not legal advice.

Split the boards from the fitting, and the deduction lands where it should.

30 days of everything, free. No card needed. After that it’s £20 a month for one person, plus £5 for each extra person on the account.