TEMPLATES
The documents,
and what goes on them.
Free templates for the paperwork a UK small business actually has to produce: invoices, quotes, receipts, payslips, a cash flow forecast, a mileage log, a late payment letter and a statement of account — each with every field explained.
WHAT YOU GET
How these are different from a blank document.
What goes on it, and why
Each page sets out every field, whether it is legally required or merely sensible, and what goes wrong when it is missing. That is the part a blank document cannot tell you.
No email wall
Nothing here asks for your address before showing you anything. A template you have to trade contact details for is not free, it is a lead form.
UK requirements, stated plainly
Invoice numbering, VAT lines, payslip itemisation, mileage records. Where the law is specific we say so; where it is only good practice we say that instead.
Nothing that expires quietly
No rate or threshold that moves at a Budget is stated as fact. Where a figure changes we point at gov.uk rather than leaving something that becomes wrong.
WHY IT ADDS UP
Why the explanation matters more than the template.
Anyone can hand you an empty invoice. What causes the problem months later is not the layout — it is the missing invoice number, the VAT line that should have been separate, the mileage log reconstructed from a diary, the quote with no exclusions. Those are the parts that get argued about, queried by HMRC, or quietly cost you money. So each page here explains the fields first and treats the document as the easy bit.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions people ask.
Are the templates really free, or is there a catch later?
Free, with no signup and no email address, and they stay that way. The catch, if there is one, is that a template will not send itself, chase itself or file itself, which is what the rest of this site is about.
Are the templates legally valid in the UK?
They contain what UK law requires and what good practice adds, and each field is marked as one or the other. Validity depends on what you put in them, which is why the explanation of the fields takes up more of the page than the document.
Can I change them to match my own branding?
Yes. They are yours to alter: add a logo, remove what does not apply, keep the fields marked as required. The layout is the least important part of any of these documents, and the one people spend longest on.
Which template should I start with?
The invoice, because it is the one that gets paid or does not. Then the quote, so that what you charge for is what was agreed. The rest are for when the first two have generated enough work to need them.
PICK ONE