Business Documents
Proforma Invoice Generator
Create a proforma invoice showing the goods, price and terms a buyer should expect: widely used for advance payments, customs paperwork and international orders.
Overview
Why use a free proforma invoice generator?
This free proforma invoice generator creates the document a seller sends before a sale is confirmed. It sets out the goods, the price and the terms a buyer should expect, with the export details customs asks for, and downloads as a print-ready PDF.
A proforma looks exactly like an invoice and is not one. It is not a demand for payment, it does not go into your accounts as revenue, and a buyer cannot reclaim tax against it. Those three facts are why the document says so on its face: a buyer's accounts department that files it as payable causes problems in both directions.
It also takes its reference from its own series rather than your invoice numbering. A proforma is not a sale, so borrowing a number from the invoice sequence leaves a gap where an invoice should be: exactly the pattern an audit looks for, and one of the most common mistakes made with these documents.
Nothing is uploaded. The proforma is built in your browser and never transmitted; your business and export details are remembered locally, and buyer details and prices are not stored at all.
Background
What a proforma invoice is, and what it is not
A proforma invoice is a seller's statement of what an order will cost, issued before the goods ship or the work is done. It is formatted as an invoice deliberately, because the people who need it (banks arranging finance, buyers raising purchase orders, customs officers assessing a shipment) all expect that shape. What it does not carry is any of an invoice's legal weight.
That distinction has three practical consequences. It is not a demand for payment, so no debt exists and no due date applies. It is not revenue, so it does not belong in your books as a sale. And it is not a tax invoice, so a buyer cannot reclaim input tax against it; a claim made on a proforma will be rejected, and the buyer will need the commercial invoice that follows.
The numbering follows from the same logic. Because a proforma is not a sale, taking a number out of your invoice sequence records a transaction that did not happen and leaves a hole in the run when the number is never used. A separate series (commonly prefixed PI) keeps both sets of records intact, and costs nothing to maintain.
For international orders, the proforma is often the document that actually moves the shipment. Customs authorities use it to assess duty before a commercial invoice exists, which is why country of origin, delivery terms and a per-item classification matter here in a way they do not on a domestic invoice. A shipment held at a border for a missing origin costs far more than the minute it takes to type.
The last thing worth understanding is that the figures on a proforma are estimates and should be labelled as such. Freight and duty depend on the carrier, the route and the destination's tariff treatment, none of which is settled at this point. Presenting a forecast as a fixed price is how the eventual commercial invoice ends up disputed, and the dispute is entirely avoidable by saying 'estimated'.
Not to be confused with
- A commercial invoice
- The real document, issued after the sale is agreed. It creates a debt, records revenue, and carries the right to reclaim tax. The proforma is what precedes it; converting one into the other is the normal sequence, and the invoice takes a fresh number from its own series.
- A quote
- Very close in substance and different in use. Both state a price before delivery. A quote invites acceptance; a proforma is formatted as an invoice so it can satisfy a bank, a purchasing system or a customs officer. Where a document has to clear a border, it needs to be a proforma.
- A purchase order
- The buyer's side of the same conversation. A proforma often exists precisely so a buyer can raise a PO against it: the seller states the price, the buyer authorises the spend, and the commercial invoice follows once goods move.
- A commercial invoice for customs
- Required once goods actually ship, and it must match what was declared. A proforma can get an assessment started, but a mismatch between the two at the border is a common cause of delay and inspection.
- An advance payment request
- What a proforma is frequently used for in practice: giving a buyer something to pay against before work begins. Worth being clear in the payment instructions that settling it triggers the order, since the document itself is not a demand.
- A packing list
- Travels with the shipment and describes what is physically in each carton, without prices. Different document, often required alongside, and not something a proforma replaces.
Reference
What belongs on a proforma invoice
Most of it mirrors an invoice, and the differences are the whole point. The fields most often left blank are the export ones, and they are the fields that hold shipments at borders.
The words 'proforma invoice'
Prominently, and ideally a line saying no payment is due and no tax can be reclaimed. Everything else about the layout says 'invoice', and a hurried accounts-payable clerk will act on the shape rather than the small print.
Required
Its own reference
From a separate series, never the invoice sequence. A proforma is not a sale, so an invoice number spent on one records revenue that did not happen and leaves a gap that has to be explained later.
Required
A validity date
How long the quoted price holds, not a due date, because nothing is owed. Thirty days is the usual default, shorter where freight, materials or exchange rates are moving.
Required
Line items with prices
What is being supplied, in what quantity, at what price. These become the commercial invoice, so an optimistic figure here is a conversation later.
Required
Country of origin
Where the goods were made, which is not necessarily where they ship from. Customs uses it to determine tariff treatment, and its absence is one of the more common reasons a consignment is held for questions.
Optional
Delivery terms
Who pays for carriage and insurance and where risk passes. State the Incoterms edition alongside the code: the meanings have changed between versions, and an unqualified term is what turns into a dispute.
Optional
HS codes
The Harmonised System classification for each item, which determines the duty rate. Getting one wrong is a customs problem rather than a paperwork one, so take them from your own product data rather than guessing.
Optional
Estimated shipping and duties
Labelled as estimates, because that is what they are at this stage. A buyer who was shown a fixed figure and later receives a different one has a reasonable complaint.
Optional
Payment instructions
How to pay when the order is confirmed, including bank details where an advance payment is expected. This is frequently the reason the buyer asked for the document at all.
Optional
Your tax registration number
Include it if your commercial invoices carry one. Buyers and customs both use it to identify the seller, and its absence on an export document raises questions that are easier to prevent than to answer.
Optional
Who it helps
Who needs a proforma invoice?
Anyone selling internationally
Customs, freight forwarders and buyers' banks all expect a proforma before goods move. It is often the single document that unblocks a shipment, and the export fields on it are the ones that matter.
Sellers asking for payment up front
New customers, custom manufacturing and large orders all justify payment before delivery. A proforma gives the buyer something concrete to pay against without you having booked a sale that has not happened.
Anyone selling to a business with a PO process
Larger buyers cannot raise a purchase order against a conversation. A proforma gives their purchasing system the document it needs, in the shape it expects, so the order can actually be placed.
Small manufacturers and wholesalers
Orders that take weeks to produce need a price agreed before production starts and confirmed again when it ships. The proforma covers the first half, the commercial invoice the second.
Freelancers working with overseas clients
A client whose finance department needs an invoice-shaped document before releasing funds is asking for a proforma, whether or not they call it one. Issuing one avoids the mistake of raising a real invoice months before the work is done.
Bookkeepers and accountants
Proformas sitting in the sales ledger as revenue, and invoice numbers spent on documents that were never sales, are two recurring cleanup jobs. A client who keeps the two series separate creates neither.
Do it properly
Best practices
Label it unmistakably
The title and an explicit line saying no payment is due. Everything else on the page looks like an invoice, and the label is the only thing preventing it from being treated as one by somebody in a hurry.
Keep a separate reference series
PI-0001 upward, entirely apart from your invoices. It costs nothing, keeps the invoice sequence unbroken, and prevents revenue being recorded against a sale that has not happened.
Set a validity date and mean it
A price left open indefinitely is a price you will have to honour when your costs have moved. Thirty days is normal; shorter where freight or materials are volatile.
Fill in the export fields for anything crossing a border
Country of origin, delivery terms and classification codes. These are what customs reads, and a shipment held for a missing field costs far more in delay than the minute it takes to complete.
State the Incoterms edition
Write 'DAP (Incoterms 2020)' rather than 'DAP'. The definitions have changed between editions, and an unqualified three-letter code is precisely what two parties later disagree about.
Call estimates estimates
Freight and duty are not settled when a proforma is issued. Labelling them clearly is the difference between a buyer expecting a range and a buyer disputing the commercial invoice.
Issue the commercial invoice when the order is confirmed
The proforma has done its job at that point. The real invoice takes a fresh number from the invoice sequence, records the revenue, and is the document the buyer can reclaim tax against.
Avoid these
Common mistakes
Numbering a proforma from the invoice sequence
Use a separate series. An invoice number spent on a document that is not a sale leaves a gap in the run and records revenue that never happened: two problems that surface together at a year end.
Recording a proforma as revenue
It is not a sale. Nothing goes into the sales ledger until the commercial invoice is raised, and booking a proforma early overstates income for a period and then has to be reversed.
Letting a buyer reclaim tax against it
Say on the document that it is not a tax invoice. A buyer who claims input tax against a proforma will have the claim rejected, and the resulting conversation is one neither side wanted.
Sending a proforma when a commercial invoice is required
Check which the recipient actually needs. Once goods have shipped, customs and the buyer's accounts both need the real invoice, and a proforma at that point delays payment rather than enabling it.
Leaving the export fields blank
Complete country of origin, delivery terms and classification for anything crossing a border. These are the fields that determine duty, and an incomplete document is a shipment sitting somewhere with questions attached.
Quoting incoterms without an edition
Always write the year. 'FOB' has meant different things in different editions, and a term neither side has pinned to a version is a dispute waiting for a delivery to go wrong.
Presenting estimated freight and duty as fixed
Label them estimated. They depend on carrier, route and tariff treatment, none of which is settled yet, and a buyer shown a firm figure will reasonably expect the invoice to match it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
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