Template

Free freelance contractor invoice template that survives every office suite

Built and tested 11 November 2026 · DOCX, no macros, system fonts only

In short

This invoice template uses only Calibri, Arial and Georgia, sets every table column width explicitly, and avoids floating text boxes — the three things that make a document drift when it moves between WPS Office, Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Fill in the shaded fields and send it as a PDF.

1. Download the template

The file is a plain .docx — no macros, no external links, no embedded fonts. It opens in WPS Office, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and Pages.

Download invoice-contractor.docx (37 KB)

2. What is in the file

Five blocks, in the order a client reads them. Every block is a table with hidden borders rather than a floating text box, which is what keeps the layout stable.

Header

A two-column table: your details on the left, invoice number and dates on the right. Hidden borders keep it from looking like a grid.

Bill to

Client name and address. Kept short — a client's full legal entity name belongs here, not their trading name.

Line items

Four columns: description, quantity, rate, amount. Column widths are set explicitly, so the amount column cannot collapse when the description gets long.

Totals

Subtotal, tax rate, tax amount, total due. Right-aligned and bold on the final row so the number a client looks for is the most prominent thing on the page.

Payment block

Bank name, account number, sort or routing code, and a payment reference that matches the invoice number.

3. Why this template does not break

Most free invoice templates on the internet look fine in the thumbnail and fall apart when someone else opens them. Three specific design decisions prevent that here:

Only Calibri, Arial and Georgia. All three ship with Windows, macOS and most Linux distributions, and WPS licenses metric-compatible equivalents. No web font is used anywhere, so no substitution can shift a line break.
Every column width is fixed in centimetres. Not "auto-fit", not dragged by eye. Auto-fit is calculated by each application's own font engine, which is why the same table arrives a centimetre wider in a different suite.
No floating text boxes. Addresses and signature blocks are tables with hidden borders. A floating box is anchored to a paragraph, so if that paragraph reflows, the box jumps.

One thing to check when you edit it: if you paste in your own logo, place it in a table cell rather than as a floating image. A floating image anchored to a paragraph is the single most common cause of a logo landing half off the page in a client's inbox.

4. Filling it in

Replace the placeholder header with your own business details. Keep it to four lines — anything longer pushes the line-item table down.
Number invoices sequentially and never reuse a number. 2026-001 is more useful than 1 because it sorts correctly in a folder.
Add one row per item. If you have ten items, add ten rows — do not compress them into one paragraph, which makes the invoice impossible to query later.
Set payment terms explicitly. "Net 14" or "Due 25 December 2026" — not "on receipt", which gives a client nothing to diarise.
Export to PDF before sending. A DOCX arrives differently on every machine; a PDF does not. See how to export without layout drift.

5. What a valid invoice actually needs

Requirements vary by country, but the common core across the US, UK and Canada is:

The word "Invoice" and a unique invoice number
Your business name and address (and VAT or tax registration number where registered)
The client's name and address
The date of issue and the payment due date
A description of what was supplied, the quantity, the unit price and the total
Any tax charged, shown separately from the net amount

This template covers all of those. It does not cover country-specific requirements such as reverse-charge VAT notes or Canadian GST/HST breakdowns — add those yourself if they apply.

6. Method and limits

Generated with python-docx; every column width set explicitly in the XML, not inherited.
Rendered and inspected in WPS Office 12.1.2 Free on Ubuntu 24.04, 11 November 2026.
Tax and legal requirements stated as general guidance, not as jurisdiction-specific advice.

What the template contains

Header block: Your name, business name, address, emailTwo-column table, hidden borders
Invoice details: Invoice number, issue date, due dateRight-aligned, fixed widths
Line items: Description, quantity, rate, amount4 columns, explicit widths, repeating header
Totals: Subtotal, tax, total dueRight-aligned, formula-ready
Payment: Bank details and payment referenceFixed block, never floats

Check current WPS plans and pricing

Opens the official WPS site. The template opens in the free build.