Perfect For
This template is designed specifically for interior designers and similar professionals.
What's on Your Interior Designer Invoice
Every professional interior designer invoice should include these key components.
Interior Designer Invoice Features
Everything you need to create professional invoices for your interior designer business.
Design Fee & Procurement Split
Clearly separate your design fees from furnishing procurement costs for full transparency.
Phase-Based Billing
Invoice by project phase — concept, design development, procurement, installation, and styling.
Markup & Cost-Plus Billing
Handle trade discounts and markup structures with clear, professional documentation.
Vendor Cost Pass-Throughs
Pass through furniture, fabric, fixture, and contractor costs as itemized line items.
Professional PDFs
Generate beautiful invoices that match the aesthetic quality of your design work.
Online Payment Collection
Collect deposits and progress payments online — perfect for high-value design projects.
Interior Design Invoice Example
This is a finished interior design invoice for the last phase of a primary-suite project — a flat design fee, project management hours, and furnishings billed cost-plus at a disclosed markup. Every figure below is illustrative — swap in your own rates, markup, and tax.
Project: Rees residence primary suite, Phase 3 of 3. Phases 1 and 2 were invoiced separately; this invoice covers Phase 3 design work, project management through install day, and the furnishings procured for the room.
| Description | Qty/Hours | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design fee — Phase 3 design development and specification, per letter of agreement dated 06/14 | 1 project | $2,400.00 | $2,400.00 |
| Project management — vendor ordering, delivery scheduling, install day supervision | 9.5 hrs | $125.00 | $1,187.50 |
| Upholstered king bed frame — Ashcroft Furniture (trade cost $1,480.00 + 25% design markup) | 1 each | $1,850.00 | $1,850.00 |
| Walnut nightstands — Ashcroft Furniture (trade cost $640.00 each + 25% design markup) | 2 items | $800.00 | $1,600.00 |
| Custom linen drapery panels — Marlow Workroom (fabrication $305.00 each + 25% design markup) | 4 items | $381.25 | $1,525.00 |
| Wool area rug, 9' x 12' — Hadley Rug Co. (trade cost $1,120.00 + 25% design markup) | 1 each | $1,400.00 | $1,400.00 |
| White-glove receiving, delivery and installation — Hartley Logistics (pass-through at cost, no markup) | 1 project | $465.00 | $465.00 |
Payment due within 15 days of the invoice date. All amounts are in US dollars. Pay online using the link on this invoice, or by check to Vernay Studio Interiors LLC. Furnishings were billed at trade cost plus the 25% design markup stated in our letter of agreement; receiving, delivery and installation are passed through at cost. Furnishing orders are placed once payment clears.
How Interior Designers Bill: Four Models
Interior design is really two businesses on one invoice — a service you sell by the hour or by the project, and goods you buy on someone else's behalf. Almost every billing argument in this trade comes from mixing those two up. Pick a model per project, write it into the letter of agreement, and the invoice writes itself.
| Billing model | Best for | What goes on the invoice | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Consultations, single-room refreshes, clients who cannot describe the scope yet, and anything where the selections keep moving | Hours × your rate, grouped by what you were doing — design time, sourcing, project management, install supervision | An open-ended hourly project with no cap. Agree a not-to-exceed number in writing, and bill monthly so nobody is surprised at the end. |
| Flat design fee | Full-service projects with a defined room list, e-design packages, show homes | One line per phase — concept, design development, procurement, installation — at the agreed amount | Revisions outside the included rounds. Name how many rounds the fee covers and what another one costs. |
| Cost-plus (procurement markup) | Any project where you order furniture, fabric, lighting, or millwork for the client | Each item at your trade cost with your markup stated on the line, plus freight, receiving, and installation | Undisclosed markup. If the client finds your trade cost on a vendor site and your invoice never mentioned a markup, you have lost the room. |
| Retail method | Designers who sell furnishings at the manufacturer's retail price and keep the trade discount as their margin | Each item at retail, one price, no markup line — the discount never appears | Charging retail and a full design fee without saying so. It is legitimate; it just has to be in the agreement. |
The example invoice above uses a flat design fee plus hourly project management plus cost-plus procurement, which is the most common combination in residential work. A percentage of total project cost is a fifth model still used on large jobs — it bills the same way as a flat fee, recalculated once the furnishings budget is known.
Writing the Interior Design Invoice, Line by Line
The order below is what clients, bookkeepers, and builders expect to see. Work top to bottom:
- Your studio name and address. If your state requires a registration or title registration number for interior designers, put it here — requirements vary by state, so check your own state's licensing board rather than assuming.
- Invoice number and date. Sequential, never reused. InvoiceBloom numbers invoices
for you in the format
INV-0042. - Bill-to and the project address. On second homes, rentals, and renovations these are two different addresses, and the invoice follows the person who pays, not the room.
- The project and the phase. One line: what you are billing and where it sits in the project. "Rees residence primary suite, Phase 3 of 3" tells the client instantly that this is not a duplicate of last month's invoice.
- Design fee. Flat for the phase, or hours × rate. If you bill hourly, split the hours by activity rather than sending one 40-hour line — design time and shopping time look very different to a client reading a bill.
- Project management and install supervision. Vendor chasing, delivery windows, the day you stand in the room directing movers. This is the most under-billed work in the trade.
- Furnishings, one line per item. Name the piece, name the vendor, and state the basis — "trade cost $1,480.00 + 25% design markup" or "at retail". Grouping six chairs and a sofa into "Furniture — $9,400.00" is the single fastest way to get a procurement invoice queried.
- Freight, receiving, and white-glove delivery. Warehouse receiving and inspection is a real cost on every large order. Pass it through at cost or with your stated markup, and say which on the line.
- Trade labor pass-throughs. Workroom fabrication, upholstery, painters, wallpaper installers, electricians hanging your fixtures.
- Subtotal, sales tax, total due. Whether design services are taxable, and who owes tax on furnishings you resell to a client, is a state-by-state question — designers who buy for resale usually register for a resale certificate and charge the client tax on the sale instead of paying it at purchase. Check your own state's revenue department, because getting this backwards is expensive.
- Due date and payment instructions. A date is not optional: an invoice with no due date cannot be late. Put your late fee policy here too, before you need it.
InvoiceBloom carries one tax amount for the whole invoice, not a tax rate per line. If your state taxes the furnishings but not your design service, work out the tax on the furnishing lines yourself and enter that figure — which is exactly what the example above does. Every line takes a description, a quantity, a unit from a fixed list (hours, days, projects, items, each, and a few more), and a rate, so put the count in the quantity field and the detail in the description.
Disclosing Markup Without Losing the Client
Trade pricing exists because you carry the account, the sourcing time, the ordering, the damage claims, and the freight chase. Clients accept that once they see it named. They do not accept finding it themselves.
Two sentences protect the whole relationship. The first belongs in the letter of agreement: which model you use, and the markup percentage or the retail basis. The second belongs on every procurement invoice, in the payment instructions — one line stating that furnishings are billed at trade cost plus your stated markup and that freight and receiving are passed through. A designer who writes those two sentences almost never has the conversation; a designer who leaves the markup implied has it on every project.
Damage, backorders, and discontinued fabric are the other half of this. Say in the agreement what happens when a vendor discontinues a selection mid-order and a replacement costs more — it happens on most large projects, and the answer is much easier to agree before it does.
Deposits, Phases, and What Invoicing Software Does Not Do
Interior design runs on money collected before work happens: a retainer against the design fee, and furnishing costs collected in full before an order is placed. That shape is a sequence of separate invoices, and it is worth being precise about how software handles it.
InvoiceBloom will produce and send each of those invoices with an online payment link, and show you which are draft, sent, paid, or overdue. It does not track a project balance, a deposit, or a furnishings budget across invoices, and it does not produce estimates, quotes, or purchase orders. So send the retainer as its own invoice, each procurement round as its own invoice when the order is ready to place, and keep the running project total in your own project sheet or accounting software. For a monthly design retainer or an ongoing e-design subscription, InvoiceBloom can send the same invoice automatically on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly schedule.
Six Things Interior Designers Forget to Bill
- Sourcing time. The hours spent finding the right chair — not the hour spent presenting it — are billable on an hourly model and swallowed by everyone on a flat fee that was priced too thin.
- The measure-and-photograph visit. Field measuring a room, a stair, or a window wall is a trip and an hour, in every other trade.
- Vendor chasing. Backorder calls, freight claims, and re-scheduling a delivery the client missed are project management hours, not goodwill.
- Install day. Standing in the room directing movers, unwrapping, placing, hanging, and styling is a full day of skilled labor that quietly disappears into the design fee.
- Returns and reselections. A client who changes their mind after the order is placed generates restocking fees, freight both ways, and a new round of your time.
- Photography and styling for your own portfolio. Not billable to the client — but the styling props and the day it takes belong in the price you set, not in your evenings.
Is This Interior Design Invoice Template Really Free?
Yes. Copy the layout above by hand into any document, or create an account and build the same invoice in InvoiceBloom — unlimited invoices, every feature included, no credit card required. InvoiceBloom is free forever and supported by ads on content pages like this one. The one charge anywhere in the product is a 0.5% platform fee on payments a client makes online through a connected Stripe account, on top of Stripe's own processing fees. Invoices you send and get paid by check or bank transfer cost nothing at all. All amounts are in US dollars.
Getting the Interior Design Invoice Paid
High-value invoices settle faster when paying takes one tap. With a connected Stripe account, InvoiceBloom puts a card payment link directly on the invoice; when the client pays, the invoice flips to Paid and the client is emailed a payment confirmation automatically. On the check and bank-transfer path — still common on five-figure procurement invoices, where card fees matter — you mark the invoice paid yourself, and nothing is emailed to the client.
Two habits do the rest. Put a late fee policy on the invoice before you need it: the late fee calculator and the guide on how much late fee to charge will tell you what is reasonable and enforceable in your situation. And chase on a schedule rather than a mood — InvoiceBloom shows you what is sent, paid, or overdue, but it never emails your client a reminder for you, so the follow-up is yours to send. The payment reminder email templates are written to be copied and sent as-is. On commercial and builder-led projects, expect Net 30 terms and a purchase order number on the face of the invoice.
If your studio also takes graphic or branding work, the guide on invoicing as a graphic designer covers licensing and revision limits, and the photographer invoice template follows the same layout for shoot-day billing.
Interior Designer Invoicing FAQs
How do interior designers typically bill clients?
Common models: hourly ($100-$500/hr), flat design fee, cost-plus (markup on furnishings, typically 20-35%), or a hybrid. Many designers charge a flat design fee plus cost-plus on procurement. Be transparent about your model.
Should I disclose trade discounts to clients?
This depends on your billing model. With cost-plus pricing, you typically disclose trade costs and add your markup. With retail pricing, you sell at retail and keep the trade discount. Whatever you choose, be clear in your contract.
How should interior designers handle deposits?
Collect 50% of the design fee upfront and 100% of procurement costs before ordering. For large projects, use milestone billing: deposit, design approval, procurement, and installation/final.
How do I invoice for furniture procurement?
List each item separately with description, vendor, quantity, unit cost (at your billing rate — trade or retail), sales tax, and delivery/installation fees. Track orders and delivery dates for client visibility.
What payment terms work for interior design?
Design fees: 50% upfront, 50% at concept approval. Procurement: 100% before ordering. Project management: monthly billing. For large projects, create a payment schedule tied to milestones.
How do you write an invoice for an interior designer?
Work top to bottom. Put your studio name and address at the top, then the invoice number and date, then the client and the project address — on a renovation these are often two different addresses. Add a one-line description naming the project and the phase you are billing. Then the lines themselves, grouped: design fee first (flat or hours × rate), project management next, then every furnishing on its own line with the vendor named and your markup stated. Finish with the subtotal, one sales tax amount, the total due, a due date, and payment instructions. The filled example on this page shows all of it for a primary-suite project.
What does an interior design invoice look like?
It looks like a normal invoice with the procurement separated out. The top half is your studio, the client, and the project. The body splits into two groups a client reads differently: your services (design fee, project management, install supervision) and the goods you bought on their behalf (furniture, fabric, rugs, lighting), each with the vendor named and priced at trade cost plus your stated markup, or at retail if that is your model. The bottom is subtotal, sales tax, total due, due date, and how to pay.
Should design fees and furnishings go on the same invoice?
They can, as long as they are visibly separate groups of lines — that is what the example above does. Many studios split them instead: the design fee on its own invoice on your own schedule, and each procurement round as a separate invoice sent when the order is ready to place. Splitting is usually cleaner, because furnishing money is the client's money passing through you and it moves on the vendor's timetable, not your billing cycle.
How do you invoice for e-design or a flat-fee room package?
Bill it as one line with a flat rate — quantity 1, unit "projects" — naming what the package includes, and say what a revision beyond the included round costs. E-design packages are usually paid in full before the concept boards are delivered, so the invoice goes out first and the work follows. If you sell a recurring monthly design retainer, InvoiceBloom can send the same invoice on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly schedule automatically.
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