The main contractor pays what the invoice says less the deduction, and if that deduction is worked out on the wrong figure the invoice comes straight back. Sendinvo takes it off your labour and leaves your materials alone, prints the gross total and the net amount due on the same page, and adds the reverse-charge wording when you and the contractor are both VAT registered. When the contractor pays the net, the invoice settles in full.
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Price the package as a quote the contractor’s surveyor can accept on their phone, and it converts to a draft invoice carrying the same lines and rates.
Day rate or priced work on one line, materials, plant, and hire on their own. That split is what makes the deduction lower down the page correct.
Tick the CIS deduction and, if you are both VAT registered, the domestic reverse charge beside it. Both print on the invoice, worked out for you.
Reminders chase the contractor’s accounts team while you are back on site. They can settle by card once you connect Stripe, or by instant bank payment on a sterling invoice up to £10,000.
When a contractor runs past the term, one click drafts a separate statutory interest invoice for you to read first. The CIS invoice they already hold is left as it went out.
A CIS invoice comes back from a contractor’s office for the same three reasons every time: the deduction has been taken off the materials as well as the labour, there is only one total on the page so nobody can see what will actually be paid, or the reverse-charge line is missing. Sendinvo does all three on the document itself.
Your rate lives in company settings, under “I’m a CIS subcontractor”, and stays there: 20%, 30%, or 0% for gross payment status. Tick “Apply CIS deduction” on a sterling invoice and Sendinvo works the figure out at the rate you set. Which rate you are on is settled between you, the main contractor, and HMRC. Sendinvo does the arithmetic. It doesn’t pick the rate for you.
Put your labour on its own line and the materials, plant, and hire on theirs, then tell Sendinvo which figure is the labour. The deduction is worked out on that figure alone, so a skip, a week of hire, and a van of first fix materials all reach you at full value. On a labour-only invoice, where the contractor supplies everything off the pallet, leave the labour box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal.
The invoice carries the full gross total, then the deduction, then the net amount due, and the headline at the top names the deduction and states the cash the contractor sends. Their accounts team can see where every figure came from without ringing you, and you have nothing to reconcile in a spreadsheet afterwards. When they pay that net amount, the invoice settles in full: Sendinvo books the deduction as a non-cash settlement, so a deducted invoice isn’t left on your list looking half paid at year end.
Tick the domestic reverse charge inside the same CIS block and the VAT row reads £0.00, with the wording HMRC expects printed underneath and the VAT figure the contractor accounts for at their end. That figure is worked out on the full net, labour and materials together, which is a different amount from the one the deduction comes off. Whether the reverse charge applies to a particular job is your call, not ours. Where a job mixes rates, you can set VAT per line instead.
A CIS invoice carries no deposit and no payment plan, because the deduction would have to be split across the stages. So each application for payment goes out as its own CIS invoice, numbered and dated, and Sendinvo chases that one. Deposits and stage payments are there for the work you invoice direct, a homeowner’s bathroom rather than a main contractor’s package.
Sign-off sheets, delivery notes, and a copy of your CIS registration letter ride out with the invoice email, sharing a 10 MB budget with the invoice PDF itself. They stay attached to the email rather than printing on the invoice, so the document the contractor’s accounts team files is a clean invoice. When they ask where the account stands, download a client statement and every issued invoice for that contractor is on one branded page with the total still owed.
Sendinvo is the invoice, not the return. It works out the deduction, shows the net, and prints the wording, and that is where it stops. It doesn’t verify subcontractors, produce payment and deduction statements, total the deductions suffered across a tax year, or send a CIS300. Your accountant does that, from the invoices you have sent, and a CSV export hands them the lot. If a second person raises invoices while you are on site, add them as a paid seat, and a Viewer who only needs to look is free. See team seats.
This is the demo seeded with a building firm, so what is loaded into it is private work rather than subcontract invoices carrying a deduction. A rear extension and a loft conversion on stage plans, a garage conversion booked in with a deposit, a credit note for client-supplied kitchen units, and a maintenance retainer with a developer. It is the same app and the same invoice screen, with the same CIS block you would tick on a contractor’s package. Have a click around.
A live demo seeded with a building business, not a subcontract account. Nothing you do here is saved or sent.
First fix mechanical for a main contractor, both firms VAT registered, so the deduction and the reverse charge land on the same invoice. Two figures, and they are worked out on two different amounts.
Halloran Mechanical Ltd
Unit 9, Kirkstall Trading Estate
Leeds LS5 3BF
Registered in England and Wales
Company number 08214760
VAT GB 214 5567 04 1
Pennine Build Group Ltd
8 Sovereign Street
Leeds LS1 4BJ
£5,080.00 due 2 October 2026, after the £830.00 CIS deduction 2
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Labour, first fix pipework and carcassing 3 | £4,150.00 |
| Materials, pipe, fittings, and insulation | £1,760.00 |
Reverse charge: customer to account for VAT to HMRC at 20% (£1,182.00). 6
The same package, and the only thing that moves is your rate.
Every rate bites on the £4,150.00 labour alone, so the £1,760.00 of materials reaches you whole whichever line you are on. Gross payment status shows the deduction row at £0.00 and leaves the amount due at the full total.
The other invoice a subcontractor sends: a month of day-rate labour, with the contractor supplying everything.
Nothing but labour here, so the labour box stays empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal. The reverse-charge VAT the contractor accounts for is £954.00 as well, because on a labour-only month both figures are 20% of the same £4,770.00. On the package above they were not, and that is the sum people get wrong.
No. The deduction is worked out on the labour alone. On a labour-plus-materials invoice you enter the labour figure and Sendinvo takes the deduction from that, so your materials, plant, and hire reach you at full value. On a labour-only invoice, where the main contractor supplies everything, leave the labour box empty and the deduction is taken on the whole subtotal.
Yes. Your rate is a setting on your company, 20%, 30%, or 0% for gross payment status, and Sendinvo uses the one you set on every invoice you tick the deduction on. At 0% the deduction line reads £0.00 and the amount due is the full total. Which rate you are on is settled between you, the main contractor, and HMRC, not by Sendinvo.
Yes. The invoice shows the gross total, then the deduction, then the net amount due, and the line at the top of the document states that net figure and names the deduction. When the contractor pays it, the invoice settles in full, because Sendinvo books the deduction as a non-cash settlement rather than leaving the invoice looking short.
No. They are two figures on one invoice, worked out on two different amounts. The CIS deduction comes off your labour and lowers the cash the main contractor sends you. The reverse charge is worked out on the full net, labour and materials together, and moves the VAT onto the contractor to account for. Sendinvo prints both, with the wording HMRC expects.
No. Sendinvo works out the deduction, shows the net amount due, and prints the reverse-charge wording, all on the invoice itself. It doesn’t verify subcontractors, produce payment and deduction statements, total up the deductions suffered across a tax year, or send a CIS300. Your accountant files the return, from the invoices you have sent, and you can hand those over as a CSV export.
Reminders carry on chasing on the dates you set and step up in tone as the invoice 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 compensation 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. The CIS invoice the contractor already holds is left exactly as it went out, deduction and all. This is general information, not legal advice.
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