Running successful auto repair businesses (body shops) requires a great deal of knowledge, techniques, and detail-oriented skills. While you may put a lot of effort into developing these skills, there's another aspect of the business where you don't want to be under-prepared; invoicing.
When it's time to get paid for your hard work, you need a professional document to show your customers a detail of all the services provided, without spending hours creating invoices from scratch. This is why having a flawless body shop invoice template is vital for your business. Follow these quick invoicing steps to create your invoice template and you'll be ready to bill your customers in minutes, every time.
Note: Want to step up your invoicing game? Check out what Bonsai has to offer! We help you create smart invoices, send payment reminders, automatically apply late fees, and ultimately get paid faster. Start now!
Essential Elements of an Auto Repair Invoice Template
When creating your invoice template, you want to ensure all important details regarding your business as well as the auto repair work provided are clearly covered. Great invoices are the perfect combination of specialized business-specific information and easy-to-understand descriptions for your customer. Let's go over the basic and essential elements to include in your auto repair invoice template.
Auto Repair Business Information
To begin your auto repair invoice template, add a section for your business information such as your full name (or business name if it's different), address, phone number, email, and your business website. You can also include your business logo or any other auto repair graphics to make your invoice stand out and look more professional.
Additionally, you may mention any specialized auto repair services such as RV repair, fleet services, or vehicle inspections. Just a few lines that can help you promote your business.
Client Information
Next, include a section for your client's information. This can be their full name and contact information such as phone number, email address, and billing address, as well as insurance information if applicable. If you have a client database you can add a space for the Client ID number on your invoice template. This will help you track your client payments and it will also serve as reference in case they need to contact you with any complaint or clarification.
Vehicle Information
You may also add a section for your customer's vehicle information on your auto repair invoice template. This can be helpful if you are providing services for several vehicles to the same client, or if you just want to have a more detailed invoice for your own records. Include the plate number, year, make, model and color.
Invoice Number and Date
Make sure to assign a unique invoice number to all of your auto repair invoices which will help you maintain organized accounting records. Not to mention, if you are working for corporate clients, their accounts payable departments will not accept your invoices without an invoice number. Also, include the date when the invoice was sent out so you can determine the payment due date (usually 30 days after the invoice date), and apply any penalties for late payments.
Auto Repair Services
In this section you want to provide a clear breakdown of the auto repair services provided. Include a short description of each service along with unit price and total price. Make sure to separate the labor costs from any materials or the parts used for the job. If you charge an hourly rate, specify how many hours were spent on each service, the unit price, and total labor charge.
Totals
The totals section of your mechanic repair invoice template must include a separate line for the subtotal amount (sum of labor cost plus materials/parts), then add any applicable taxes, and finally the total amount due for the repair service. When providing discounts for long-time customers, high work volume, first-time customers etc., make sure to include a line explaining the reason for the discount and subtract it from the subtotal amount before you factor in the taxes.
Payment Details
Having clear payment terms and instructions can make a difference in getting paid on time, or even earlier. In the payment details section of your auto repair invoice template let your customer know of all the accepted payment methods such as cash, check, credit/debit cards, and online payments such as Stripe or PayPal. Don't forget to provide all account numbers and mailing information. This is also a great place to let your customer know about any late fees you may apply after the payment is due, as well as any discounts they could get for making an early payment.
Notes
Finally, you can add a personal note or thank you message for your customer to let them know how much you appreciate their business. You can also use this space on your auto repair invoice template to politely ask your clients for valuable referrals and let them know of any benefits they may get on future auto maintenance services or any other deal you want to offer.
Use Our Free Invoice Template
If you don't want to spend hours behind the desk creating your own invoice templates, skip the headache and download Bonsai's free invoice templates for auto repair shop owners. You'll be able to efficiently customize your invoice template in minutes to ensure you include all the clients details and guarantee professional invoices every time.
Using invoice templates will save you a lot of time, and make sure you don't miss the important information that you and your clients need when it's time to collect payment. But that's not all. Aside from invoice templates, Bonsai offers you complete invoicing and accounting software specially designed for small business owners, which can help take a lot of those daunting administrative tasks off your shoulders.
You'll be able to automatically create and send invoices, track payments, send payment reminders, apply late fees, and get read receipts for a better follow-up procedure. We also offer task and time-tracking tools, income reports, tax expense tracking and more. Take your auto repair business to the next level with Bonsai!
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