Invoice Generator

What a valid invoice must show in Pakistan

An invoice is not just a request for payment — it is the document your customer relies on to claim input tax and the document you rely on if a payment is disputed or if FBR questions your turnover. A weak invoice creates problems months later, when nobody remembers the conversation.

Whether or not you are registered for sales tax, a complete invoice should carry the following. Where you are registered, the Sales Tax Act prescribes most of these as mandatory particulars of a tax invoice.

• A serial number from a sequence that does not repeat or reset arbitrarily, and the date of issue.
• Your business name and address, and your NTN — plus your Sales Tax Registration Number if you are registered.
• The customer's name and address, and their NTN or STRN where they are a registered business.
• A description of each item or service, the quantity, the unit price and the line value.
• The rate and amount of sales tax charged, shown separately from the value of the supply.
• The total payable, in figures, with the currency stated if you bill overseas clients.
• Payment terms: the due date, the bank account, and what happens on late payment.

Sales tax on the invoice: what rate applies

The standard rate of sales tax on goods is set federally and is currently 18%, while services are taxed by the provinces — Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad each have their own authority and their own rate schedule, commonly in the 13% to 16% range depending on the service. Certain supplies are zero-rated, exempt, or subject to a reduced rate.

This matters because the wrong rate on an invoice is your problem, not your customer's. If you are registered, charge the rate applicable to your specific supply under the schedule that applies to you, and state it explicitly. If you are not registered for sales tax, do not add a sales tax line at all — charging tax you are not authorised to collect is a serious exposure. Our generator lets you set the tax rate yourself, or set it to zero, precisely because the correct answer depends on what you supply and where.

Withholding: why the client pays you less than the invoice

Companies, government departments and other prescribed persons are required to withhold income tax when they pay for goods or services, and to deposit it against your NTN. So an invoice for PKR 100,000 may be settled with a payment of, say, PKR 92,000 plus a tax deduction certificate for the balance.

That deduction is not lost money — it is an advance against your own income tax, claimable when you file. The practical discipline is to collect the withholding tax certificate for every such payment, because without it you are paying the tax twice: once by deduction, once on your return. Rates are higher for persons not on the Active Taxpayer List, which is one of the clearest financial arguments for filing.

Numbering, records and getting paid

Use a numbering scheme you can defend: a prefix, the year, and a sequence, such as INV-2026-014. Never issue two invoices with the same number, and never delete a number from the sequence — if an invoice is cancelled, mark it cancelled and keep it. Records supporting your turnover should be retained for at least six years, which is the general retention expectation under the tax laws.

On collection, the details that actually shorten payment cycles are mundane: an explicit due date rather than "on receipt", a purchase order or contract reference so the invoice can be matched by the client's accounts team, correct bank details including IBAN, and the name of the person who approved the work. Add a late-payment clause if your terms allow it, and send the invoice the day the work is delivered rather than at month end.

Common mistakes we see

• Charging 18% sales tax when the supply is a service falling under a provincial regime at a different rate.
• Adding sales tax while unregistered, or quoting a sales tax number that has been suspended.
• Rounding each line item and then rounding the total again, so the invoice does not add up.
• Omitting the customer's NTN, which can obstruct their input tax claim and delay your payment.
• Reusing invoice numbers across a financial year, or restarting the sequence without a year prefix.
• Issuing an invoice in a foreign currency without stating the currency or the conversion basis.

How to use this generator

Fill in your business details on the left, add your client, then add a line for each item or service with quantity and unit price. Set the tax rate to whatever applies to your supply — or zero if none does. Upload your logo if you want the invoice branded. The preview on the right updates as you type, and "Print / Download PDF" produces a clean document with the site navigation stripped out, so you can save it as a PDF or print it directly.

Everything stays in your browser. We do not receive, store or transmit your client names, amounts or logo — which also means nothing is recoverable if you close the tab, so save the PDF before you leave.

Frequently asked questions