Invoice template for Australian small business: what to include, line by line

Updated 20 August 2026 · By the Badger team

Every Australian invoice needs the same dozen things, whether it's built in Word, Excel or an app. Here's the full layout, line by line — and then the honest arithmetic on when a template stops being the cheap option.

General information, not tax advice — check ato.gov.au or your accountant for the rules as they apply to your business.

What goes on the invoice, line by line

• The heading. "Tax invoice" if you're registered for GST; plain "Invoice" if you're not. This isn't a style choice — the ATO's tax invoice rules hang off it.
• Your business identity. Trading name, logo if you have one, and your ABN — always. Contact details so queries come to you, not to a dead end.
• A unique invoice number. Sequential, never reused. Customers' payment systems key off it, and so will you when you're chasing.
• Issue date and due date. Spell the due date out ("Due 3 September 2026"), don't make the customer compute "net 14". Shorter terms genuinely get paid faster — see our payment terms guide.
• The customer's name — and for invoices of $1,000 or more (including GST), their identity or ABN is required on a tax invoice.
• Line items. What you did or sold, quantities, unit prices. Enough description that the person approving payment recognises the job without ringing you.
• GST, shown correctly. Registered: GST as its own line (or "Total price includes GST" where it's exactly one-eleventh). Not registered: no GST anywhere.
• The total, unmissable.
• How to pay. Bank account name, BSB and account number; PayID if you use it; a card-payment link if you take cards. Ask for the invoice number as the payment reference — future-you will be grateful at reconciliation time.
• Payment terms and any late-payment clause you've agreed — noting that late-payment interest only sticks if it was agreed before the work.

Template vs app: the honest comparison

A Word or Excel template is fine at low volume, and plenty of businesses run on one for years. But be clear-eyed about what it can't do:

• Numbering. Templates duplicate and skip numbers the moment two invoices are open at once. Apps can't.
• Arithmetic. A template does the GST maths right until the one time someone edits a formula. An app does it right every time.
• Delivery. A template makes a document; you still have to attach, address and send it. An app emails the invoice from your business with the PDF attached — and tells you when it's been opened, which changes the "it must be lost in the mail" conversation entirely.
• Repetition. Monthly maintenance invoices from a template mean retyping. Apps repeat them on schedule.
• Memory. A template has no idea what's outstanding. An app knows who owes what, which is where getting paid actually starts.

The traditional trade-off was that templates were free and software cost money. That trade-off has expired: genuinely free invoicing software now exists, so the comparison is "free and manual" versus "free and automatic".

If you'd rather skip the template altogether

Badger Invoices generates everything above for you, free forever: GST-correct tax invoices (or plain invoices if you're not registered) with your ABN and logo, sequential numbering, due dates, bank, PayID and card payment details on every PDF, and recurring invoices for regular work. No card to sign up, no ads, no invoice cap. Your next invoice can be out in about a minute — which beats formatting a table in Word on both speed and accuracy.