How to invoice in South Africa (with a free template)

Most small businesses invoice from a document someone copied years ago and edits every time. It works until it does not: a wrong number, a missing detail, a client who says the invoice was never valid. This is what a South African invoice actually needs, and a template you can adapt today.

Invoice or tax invoice?

The first thing to get right is which document you are issuing.

If your business is not VAT-registered, you issue an ordinary invoice. There is no VAT line and you must not add one. Charging VAT when you are not registered is a real problem with SARS, so keep it simple: your price is your price.

If your business is VAT-registered, you issue a tax invoice, and SARS is specific about what it must contain. A full tax invoice is required for supplies of R 5 000 or more; below that an abridged tax invoice is allowed, and for very small amounts no tax invoice is needed at all. These thresholds and the exact field list change from time to time, so confirm the current requirements on the SARS website before you finalise your template.

What every invoice should contain

Whether or not you charge VAT, a clean invoice carries:

• Your business name and contact details, and your registration number if you have one.
• A unique, sequential invoice number. Never reuse or skip numbers, because your books and your accountant rely on the sequence.
• The invoice date, and a separate due date.
• The customer’s name and details.
• A clear line for each item: description, quantity, unit price and line total.
• The subtotal and the total due, in rand.
• Your banking details and accepted payment methods.
• Your payment terms in plain words, for example “payable within 14 days”.

A VAT-registered business adds the words “tax invoice”, its VAT registration number, the VAT rate and amount, and the customer’s VAT number on a full tax invoice. Again, check the current SARS list.

A template you can copy

Here is a plain structure. Drop your details in and keep the field order.

[YOUR BUSINESS NAME]
[Address, email, phone]
[Registration / VAT number if applicable]

INVOICE

Invoice number:  INV-0001
Date issued:     20 Jul 2026
Payment due:     03 Aug 2026

Bill to:
[Customer name]
[Customer address / email]

-------------------------------------------------------------
Description                 Qty     Unit price      Line total
-------------------------------------------------------------
Consulting, June            10      R 850,00        R 8 500,00
Setup fee                   1       R 1 500,00      R 1 500,00
-------------------------------------------------------------
                                    Subtotal        R 10 000,00
                                    Total due       R 10 000,00

Banking details: [Bank, account name, account number, branch]
Terms: Payment within 14 days. Reference your invoice number.

If you are VAT-registered, add a VAT line between the subtotal and the total, and the extra fields above.

Getting paid, not just invoicing

A tidy invoice is half the job. The other half is making it easy to pay and hard to forget.

• Put a payment link on the invoice. A South African customer who can tap a link and pay by card or instant EFT pays sooner than one who has to open banking and type in your account number.
• Number and date everything consistently, so a follow-up is a two-line email, not an archaeology dig.
• Send reminders on a schedule, not when you happen to remember. A polite nudge at 7, 14 and 30 days recovers more than one angry call at 60.
• Reconcile as you go. If the payment, the invoice and your books are the same record, month-end is not a reconstruction.

This is exactly what Core Invoice does. Every invoice carries a Paystack, NjiaPay or PayFast pay-link, reminders go out automatically, and each document posts to a real ledger the moment you issue it, so your books are current without a second capture. It imports from Zoho, Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, and it is R 99 a month with unlimited invoices and users, no VAT on top.

Start with one invoice and see how it feels: core.randcore.co.za.