Why invoice from Excel
Spreadsheets are good at the one thing a Word document cannot do: arithmetic. Many tradies and small firms keep a price list in Excel already, and an invoice in the same program means you can copy lines across, sort them, or add up a month of jobs.
Most free Excel invoice templates, though, are either a pretty layout with no formulas, or a tangle of formulas that break when you add a row. And none of them know your next invoice number: you still keep track of that yourself.
The file you download here is built to be reused. The formulas are simple, visible and easy to extend, and the first invoice is already filled in correctly.
How to get the Excel file
- Fill in your business, the client and the lines in the editor above.
- Set the tax rate. For Australia that is GST at 10%, and the invoice is titled Tax invoice once your ABN is filled in and GST is charged.
- Finish the invoice. On the done screen, below Download PDF, Share PDF and Print, tap Excel under Also as Word · Excel.
- Open the .xlsx in Excel. Money cells are formatted with the currency code, for example 1,234.00 AUD.
The download is free, with no account and no watermark.
How the formulas work
The item table has four columns: Description (A), Qty (B), Price (C) and Amount (D). Everything below it is calculated from those cells:
| Row | What it does |
|---|---|
| Amount, each line | Qty × Price, for example =B14*C14 |
| Subtotal | Adds up the Amount column with SUM |
| Discount | A plain number you can type over |
| Tax | (Subtotal − Discount) × rate, rounded to cents |
| Total | Subtotal − Discount + Tax |
Change 12 downlights to 14 and the line, subtotal, GST and total all update.
Two limits to know. The tax rate is written inside the Tax formula, so to change it, click the cell and edit the number in the formula bar. And if the invoice mixes tax rates (some lines taxed, some not), the tax amounts come in as fixed numbers rather than a formula, so recheck them after editing.
Adding rows without breaking the SUM
The Subtotal formula adds up a fixed range, such as =SUM(D13:D15). A row typed underneath that range is not counted. To add a line safely:
- Right-click the row number of an item in the middle of the list (not the last one) and choose Insert. Excel stretches the SUM range to include the new row.
- Copy the Amount cell from the row above into the new row, so it gets its own Qty × Price formula.
- Type the description, quantity and price.
- Click the Subtotal cell and check that the range in the formula bar covers every item.
To remove a line, delete the whole row rather than clearing the cells, and the range shrinks with it.
What Excel will not do for you
Be honest with yourself about the manual parts. Excel will not count up invoice numbers, keep a list of clients, or warn you that the due date has passed. If you reuse the file as a template, change the number, date and client every time before saving under a new name.
For many people the easiest routine is to make each invoice here, where numbering and tax are automatic, and keep the Excel download as a record. Send the client the PDF, and see the invoice number guide if you need to pick up an existing sequence.
Last checked October 23, 2026.