Mark a customer as a CIS contractor once, and it remembers. Their invoices carry the CIS deduction on the labour and, if you’re both VAT registered, the reverse-charge wording. The homeowner’s invoice for the same week looks like a homeowner’s.
iPhone. First month free, no card.
Tools Down: Done. Harris pays £3,360 after CIS.
Jones extension
Harris Construction Ltd
Amount due£3,360
Heard on the forums
Getting the subbie work and doing the subbie work is the easiest bit. Getting paid is often the hardest part.
Same week, a householder
Mrs Morgan is a householder, so her invoice carries VAT and no CIS, and it’s due on receipt. How you’ve marked each customer decides what their invoice carries.
Morgan extension
Mr and Mrs Morgan
Amount due£7,200
What matters on your jobs
You say: Invoice the Morgans 40% now the walls are up.
A deposit to book, then each stage as a percentage of the quote or an amount, with what’s left to bill shown. The final invoice takes every one off, “Less Stage 1 (INV-0003)”, and asks for the balance.
You say: Morgans want the doorway moved, £450, agreed today.
Saved on the job at that price, the day it’s agreed, and on the final invoice as an extra. When “you said it would be X” comes up, the record is there.
You say: Show me the footings at the Morgans’.
Footings, the steel, the DPC, the cavity: filed on the job as you take them, for building control and for the conversation that comes later.
You say: Export everything.
A ZIP of CSV files, with the CIS deduction on each invoice, plus the PDFs, photos and chats. Expenses also export as a CSV in Xero’s or FreeAgent’s layout, or plain for QuickBooks and Sage.
Price and the free plan
£29.99 a month including VAT, or £24.99 if you reclaim VAT. One person, no minimum, no setup fee, no training.
Tools Down for iPhone
Coming soon on the App StoreFirst month free, no card.
Straight answers
Yes. Mark a customer as a CIS contractor and their invoices carry the CIS deduction on the labour, extras included unless they’re materials; a householder’s don’t, because householders are outside CIS (HMRC: CIS 340).
Yes. Invoice each stage as a percentage of the quote or an amount, and you see what’s left to bill. The final invoice takes any deposit and every stage off and asks for the balance.
A registered subcontractor has 20% deducted, an unregistered one 30%, and gross status none; there’s no deduction on VAT or on materials you paid for directly (GOV.UK: what you must do as a CIS subcontractor).
Between VAT-registered businesses for construction services reported under CIS, unless the customer is an end user; never to a private householder (GOV.UK: VAT domestic reverse charge).
On business-to-business debts, statutory interest is 8% plus base rate, with a fixed £40 to £100 recovery charge (GOV.UK: late commercial payments).
On a construction contract, a “pay when paid” clause is ineffective unless the payer’s payer is insolvent (s113). A contract with a homeowner who lives there is outside those rules (s106).
Export everything: your invoices come out as a CSV with the CIS deduction on each, alongside the PDFs. Expenses export as a CSV too.
Paperwork and rules
Information, not advice. Open a rule to read it, with its source; check the source for your own job.
A contractor must deduct 20% from a registered subcontractor’s payments, 30% if not registered, and nothing with gross payment status. There’s no deduction on VAT or on materials the subcontractor paid for.
Private householders aren’t counted as contractors, so they’re outside the scheme.
Applies to most construction services between VAT-registered businesses that are reported under CIS. A private domestic customer is outside it, and so is a customer who tells you in writing that it’s an end user.
On a construction contract lasting 45 days or more, a party is entitled to stage or periodic payments, and “pay when paid” clauses don’t work unless the payer’s payer is insolvent. None of this covers a contract with a homeowner who lives there.
Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, s109s113s106
Statutory interest on a late business-to-business payment is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery sum of £40, £70 or £100.
Full plans get a decision within 5 weeks, or 2 months with your consent; a building notice lets work start 2 days after it’s submitted.
For a domestic client, the client’s duties normally pass to the contractor on a single-contractor project, or to the principal contractor where there are more.
Your work
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