Painters and decorators
What belongs on a painting and decorating invoice
Four things that decide whether a painting and decorating invoice gets paid or gets a phone call. The generator further down opens with the lines already in it.
Price by room or by elevation, not by the job. A single figure for “decorate house” cannot be reduced without renegotiating everything; a room-by-room invoice lets a customer drop the box room and keep the rest, which is a sale you keep.
Preparation is the work and it is the line customers do not see. Filling, sanding and priming a hallway is most of the labour and none of the visible result, so it goes on its own line with its own hours or it will be assumed to be free.
State the number of coats. It is the single most common dispute in the trade, and it costs one word on a line.
Paint supplied by the customer changes the job and the guarantee. Put “customer-supplied paint” on the line, so that the conversation about coverage happens before the second coat and not after it.
Where furniture was moved, floors were protected and a room was put back, that is labour and it took an hour of the day. It does not need its own price, but it needs its own line, because it is the part of the job the customer never sees you do and would notice immediately if you had not.
The lines below are real work at plausible quantities, and deliberately carry no prices. A price is a local fact about a local market, and a made-up one would be worse than none.