For groundworkers

Invoicing for groundworkers

Groundworks gets paid against sign-offs: the dig, then the drainage, then the slab. Put those stages on one invoice, each with its own amount and its own due date, and Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due while the gang is already on the next one. Work you take on for a main contractor goes out as its own invoice, with the deduction worked out on the labour figure you enter and the reverse-charge wording printed for you.

30 days of everything, free. No card needed.

The shape of a dig

From priced dig to slab signed off

Quote accepted

The dig, the muck away, the drainage, and the slab each get their own priced line on a quote the client accepts on their phone. Converting it opens a draft invoice with those lines and prices already in.

Deposit before the plant lands

Machine hire starts the morning it comes off the low-loader, so the deposit is the first stage of the payment plan, with a due date ahead of it.

Stage payments

Reduced level dug, drainage in and tested, slab poured: each stage falls due on its own date and the client settles that stage alone, by card once you connect Stripe or by bank transfer.

Subcontract valuations

Groundworks for a main contractor goes out as a CIS invoice, the deduction taken off your labour figure and the domestic reverse charge wording printed underneath.

Overruns

The stage that has run on is chased for you, and if a main contractor sits on a sterling invoice, one click drafts a separate statutory interest invoice for you to read first.

Dig, drains, and the paperwork

Money that moves at the pace of the sign-offs

The stages, set to the sign-offs

While the invoice is still a draft, split it into the stages the job actually runs to: deposit, dig and muck away, drainage in and air tested, slab poured, then completion. Each stage takes its own amount and its own due date, and together they have to add up to the invoice total. Once you send it the schedule is fixed. Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due, then re-points to the next one as the money lands. See deposits and payment plans.

The deduction comes off the labour, not the muck away

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. Sendinvo works the deduction out on that figure alone, so the grab lorries, the tipping, the stone, and the pipe cross the invoice at full value, and the contractor sees the full total and the net amount they actually pay. On a labour-only week, where the site supplies everything to the gate, leave the box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal. What belongs in the labour figure on a given job is your call, not ours.

The reverse charge on subcontract groundworks

Work you take on for a main contractor is the invoice that gets read line by line before anyone pays it. Between two VAT-registered businesses, the domestic reverse charge is its own tick box beside the deduction: tick it and the VAT line reads £0.00, the wording HMRC expects prints underneath, and the contractor accounts for the VAT at their end. You never have to remember the phrasing, and you never type it.

Deeper than the survey said

The ground decides the price in the end: another metre of dig, a seam of rock, a connection nobody drew on the drainage layout. Extra work goes out as its own invoice at the rate you agreed on the day. Work that comes back out of the package, the client putting their own grab lorries on it say, goes back as a credit note that nets off the balance at the rate it was billed at, so nobody argues the difference at the final valuation.

Tickets, tests, and dockets

Weighbridge tickets, waste transfer notes, the drainage air test, the concrete delivery dockets: attach them to the invoice email, 10 MB across up to 10 files, the invoice PDF counted in. They ride alongside the invoice rather than printing on it, so the document the contractor’s office files is still a clean invoice. See email attachments.

Where the account stands, on one page

A developer’s office asks what is outstanding across four plots at once, not what one invoice says. Download a client statement and every issued invoice for that client is on one A4 page in your own branding, with its status, total, and outstanding balance, and the total still owed at the foot.

See it in action

The real app, seeded and running

There is no groundworks demo yet, so this is the builder’s one: a rear extension and a loft conversion on stage plans, a garage conversion booked in with a deposit, a credit note for client-supplied units, and a maintenance retainer with a developer. The stage plans and the CIS invoice are the parts a groundworker will recognise. Have a click around.

sendinvo.com/invoices

A live demo seeded with a building business, not a groundworks one. Nothing you do here is saved or sent.

Worked examples

One stage plan, one subcontract valuation

The first is a package you invoice direct, split against the sign-offs. The second goes to a main contractor, with the deduction already worked out.

Payment plan for a self-build groundworks package
Deposit, before the excavator lands £4,500.00 Paid
Dig, reduce level, and muck away £9,200.00 Paid
Drainage in and air tested £6,800.00 Next due
Slab poured and power floated £8,500.00
Completion, after the inspector signs it off £3,000.00
Total £32,000.00

Each stage is chased on its own date, and the client settles that stage alone rather than the whole package. A stage above £10,000 has to go on the card, because Stripe caps instant bank payment there.

The other one: a valuation for the groundworks package on someone else’s site, where the deduction comes off you.

Subcontract valuation to a main contractor, CIS at 20%
Labour, dig, drainage, and slab £7,900.00
Muck away, grab lorries and tipping £2,150.00
Materials, type 1 stone, drainage pipe, and concrete £3,460.00
Subtotal £13,510.00
VAT (domestic reverse charge) £0.00 Reverse charge
CIS deduction (20% of the £7,900.00 labour) −£1,580.00
Amount due £11,930.00

You told Sendinvo the labour was £7,900.00, so the deduction is 20% of that figure and never of the £13,510.00 subtotal, and the muck away and the stone cross at full value. Both firms are VAT registered here, so the invoice charges no VAT and carries the wording HMRC expects, the contractor accounts for the £2,702.00 VAT at their end, and paying the £11,930.00 settles the invoice in full.

Questions

Good to know

Can I bill a groundworks package in stages?

Yes. While the invoice is still a draft, split it into a payment plan: the deposit first, then a stage per sign-off, dig, drainage, slab, each with its own amount and its own due date, adding up to the invoice total. Once you send it the schedule is fixed, and Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due rather than the whole package. A CIS invoice can’t carry a plan, so on subcontract work raise an invoice per valuation instead.

Does the CIS deduction come off the muck away and the stone?

Only if you put them in the labour figure. Tick “Apply CIS deduction” on a sterling invoice and enter the labour, and Sendinvo works the deduction out on that figure alone, leaving every other line at its full value. Leave the box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal, which is what a labour-only week wants. What belongs in the labour figure on a given job is your call, not ours.

Does the reverse-charge wording go on the invoice for me?

Yes. On a sterling invoice between two VAT-registered businesses, the domestic reverse charge is its own tick box beside the CIS deduction. Tick it and the VAT line drops to £0.00 and the invoice carries 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 send the weighbridge tickets and the air test with the invoice?

Yes. Attach them to the invoice email, 10 MB across up to 10 files, counting the invoice PDF itself. They ride alongside the invoice rather than printing on it, so what the contractor’s office files is still a clean invoice, with the paperwork that backs it up in the same message.

Does Sendinvo track a retention, or the CIS I have suffered?

No. The CIS deduction is the only figure Sendinvo takes off an invoice total. It doesn’t hold a retention back, add up the deductions suffered over a year, verify subcontractors with HMRC, or file a CIS300. When a retention falls due for release, invoice for it like any other work and let Sendinvo chase it; the returns stay with your accountant.

A main contractor is 60 days past due on a stage. 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, from £40 on a debt under £1,000, and drafts a separate interest invoice for you to read before it goes. On a deducted invoice the interest runs on the net amount still outstanding, not the gross. This is general information, not legal advice.

Get paid at every sign-off, not at the end.

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