Weekly vs monthly invoicing for tradesmen

The short answer

If you're on a day rate and the client will accept it, invoice weekly. You get paid sooner, each invoice is small and easy to check, and a dispute holds up one week's money, not a month's. Monthly invoicing suits clients who only pay once a month, long contracts with a fixed monthly fee, or arrangements where your contractor insists on it. You should agree which it is before you start.

Side by side

A cash flow example

This is an illustration with simple assumptions, not a forecast. Suppose you earn £950 a week for four weeks. With weekly invoices on 14-day terms, each week's work is invoiced on average about 3.5 days after it's done, then paid 14 days later, so you wait about 17.5 days on average. With one invoice at the end of the month on 30-day terms, the average wait from the day the work was done is roughly 15 days to month end plus 30 days, so about 45 days. On £3,800 of work, that is a few weeks of extra waiting for the same money.

Payment terms matter more than the invoice cycle

GOV.UK says that if you agree a payment date between businesses, it must usually be within 60 days, and a longer period must be fair to both businesses. If you don't agree a date, the law says a payment is late 30 days after either the customer gets the invoice or you provide the service, if that's later. Putting a clear due date on every invoice avoids any dispute about when payment was due. See invoice due dates explained and payment terms and late payment. Statutory interest, if you claim it, is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, unless your contract sets another rate.

CIS: weekly or monthly, the statement is monthly

However often you invoice, a CIS contractor reports payments monthly, by the 19th after each tax month (6th to 5th), and must give you a payment and deduction statement within 14 days of the end of that tax month. Weekly invoices therefore fit neatly into one statement per month. See the monthly return explained. If you invoice monthly, it's worth keeping each month's invoice on the same cycle as the tax month.

VAT timing

If you're VAT registered, HMRC's VAT Notice 700 says you normally issue a VAT invoice within 30 days of the tax point arising. A monthly invoice for work done in the first week therefore needs to be raised in good time, and weekly invoices make this simple. Check the notice for the rules that apply to you, as the tax point rules have exceptions.

How to choose

• Weekly if you're paid by the day, work for an agency or contractor who pays weekly, or want to keep cash flowing.
• Monthly if the client only pays monthly, you're on a retainer, or the work is small and spread out.
• Per job for fixed-price work, with stage payments where the job is long. See deposits and stage payments.

Start from a layout that fits: the weekly timesheet invoice template and the monthly invoice layout are both free to copy.