How to invoice a recruitment agency weekly in the UK

First: check whether you should be invoicing at all

Before you create a single invoice, find out how the agency has engaged you. There are three common set-ups, and only some of them involve you raising invoices:

• You're paid through an umbrella company. The umbrella company is your employer and pays you through PAYE. You submit timesheets; the umbrella (not you) invoices the agency. You don't need your own invoices. See our guide to umbrella vs self-employed invoicing.
• The agency uses self-billing. The agency raises the invoice for you from your approved timesheet. HMRC's self-billing guidance says a supplier who agrees to self-billing must not also issue their own VAT invoices for the same supplies, so check before you send anything.
• You invoice the agency yourself. This is common for sole traders and limited company contractors. The rest of this guide is about this situation.

Your contract or "terms of engagement" with the agency should say which applies. If it doesn't, ask the agency's payroll or contractor-care team in writing. It's a two-minute email that can save weeks of confusion.

How the weekly cycle usually works

Most agencies run on a fixed weekly rhythm. The details vary, but the pattern is nearly always the same:

1. You work the week (often Monday to Sunday).
2. You submit a timesheet, on paper or in the agency's online portal, showing the days or hours you worked.
3. The end client approves it. Agencies usually won't pay unapproved time.
4. You send your invoice for the approved time, matching the timesheet exactly.
5. The agency pays on its payment run, often a set number of days after it receives a valid invoice.

The single most common reason for late payment is a mismatch between the timesheet and the invoice: a different number of hours, the wrong week-ending date, or a rate that doesn't match the contract. Make the invoice mirror the approved timesheet line for line.

What to include on your weekly invoice

GOV.UK lists what every invoice must include. For a weekly agency invoice, that translates to:

Agencies often ask for extra details too: your bank details (so they can pay you), a purchase order or placement reference, the candidate or worker ID they gave you, and the end client's name. Adding them costs nothing and helps your invoice get matched quickly.

Daily rows vs one total line

You could write one line ("40 hours @ £20.625"), but a row per day is easier for the agency to check against the timesheet, and it makes overtime and weekend rates clearer. A typical weekly invoice for an hourly-paid worker looks like this:

In that example the worker's day rate is £165 for 8 hours, so the hourly rate is £20.625. Overtime and Saturday are paid at 1.25 times that. Rates are shown to 2 decimal places but calculated in full, so a full 8-hour day comes to exactly £165.00. Our guides on converting a day rate to an hourly rate and overtime rates explain the maths.

Timesheet and invoice deadlines

Agencies usually have a weekly cut-off, such as "timesheets approved by Monday 12:00 are paid on Friday". Miss it and your money slips a week. Practical habits that help:

• Submit your timesheet on the last working day of the week, not the following week.
• Nudge the person who approves your time if it's still pending the next morning.
• Send the invoice as soon as the timesheet is approved, quoting the timesheet or placement reference.
• Save each invoice as a PDF named consistently, e.g. "Your Name – Agency – Invoice 57.pdf", so you can find it in seconds if there's a query.

Payment terms with agencies

Your contract with the agency normally sets the payment terms (for example, weekly in arrears, or 14 days from a valid invoice). Put the due date on every invoice anyway. Under UK late payment law, if no payment date has been agreed, a business payment becomes late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice or after you provide the service, whichever is later. Agreed terms between businesses are usually expected to be no longer than 60 days unless they're fair to both sides. Our payment terms and late payment guide covers interest and compensation if an agency pays late.

Common mistakes that delay payment

• Hours don't match the approved timesheet. Even a half-hour difference can send an invoice back to you.
• Wrong legal entity. Billing "ABC Recruitment" when the contract is with "ABC Recruitment Group Ltd".
• Missing references. Agencies paying hundreds of contractors match invoices on references. Without one, yours may sit in a queue.
• Duplicate invoice numbers. If you resend a corrected invoice, either keep the same number and mark it as a replacement, or issue a credit note and a new invoice. Don't quietly create a second invoice with the same number.
• Charging VAT when you aren't registered. You can only charge VAT if you're VAT registered.

Keep good records

Keep a copy of every timesheet and invoice. If you're self-employed, GOV.UK says you must keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. A PDF per invoice, plus the approved timesheet, is usually enough to answer any query from the agency or HMRC.