Self-billing invoices

  1. What are self-billing invoices for self-employed staff?
  2. Self-billing invoice format
  3. Allow your self-employed staff to review their shifts before paying
  4. Creating and sending the self-billing invoices to self-employed staff
  5. Download all self-billing invoices in bulk for back office

What are self-billing invoices for self-employed staff?

During the payroll process, you are able to create self-billing invoices for your self-employed staff for the shifts they have worked with in any payroll batch.

This means that you don't need to wait for self-employed staff to send you the invoices for payment, instead they are created automatically upon running a payroll batch.

A self-billing arrangement is a formal agreement between a supplier and a customer. With regards to contracting, self-billing is agreed between a staffing or recruitment agency and a contractor’s limited company or umbrella company provider. The benefit of self-billing is that, as a contractor, they do not have to worry about generating invoices for their services and forwarding them to your agency (neither does your accountant – if invoicing is normally included in their service).

Instead, the contractor simply checks in and out of their shift (creating timesheets) and submits any rechargeable expenses via the staffarea. The agency will then both produce and pay the invoice. The invoice will include the contractor's name, company name, registered office address, and VAT registration number (if applicable). It is also mandatory by law that all self-billing invoices raised are marked with the reference ‘SELF-BILLING’.

This set-up is a legal arrangement and will be agreed by your limited company, or umbrella company provider, and your employer.

Self-billing invoice format

A typical invoice will have all the relevant information:

  • Billed to: Your company and address
  • Staff name/company and address
  • Date of issue: date the payroll batch was run
  • Due date: 1 month after the date of issue
  • Bank details
  • The invoice number is in this format
    • Payroll Batch Number
    • Date in format: YYMMDD
    • Incremental invoice number within the payroll batch
  • All shifts listed within the payroll batch include
    • Date/start time
    • Job name
    • Role
    • Total shift time
    • Rate
    • Total rate
    • Subs/Per diems
    • Expenses
    • Additionals/Extras
    • Deductions
    • Total
  • Total to pay, which will include VAT if they have added a VAT number
  • Company name, company number, UTR number, VAT number
  • Bank name, Sort code, Account number, NI number

A typical self-billing invoice example will look as follows

Allow your self-employed staff to review their shifts before paying

Before you commit to sending self-employed staff their self-belling invoices and paying them, you can send them a list of their shifts and total pay for them to review and dispute if required. To do this:

  • Ensure you have run a payroll batch as detailed in Running payroll/payrun
  • Go to Payroll > Payroll batches
  • Go to Actions > Email staff
  • The communication dialogue will now appear
    • Select the template Please review your shift details
    • Select the type as Work and job-related
    • Review the email and make adjustments
      • You can change the default email template in Message Center > Manage email templates > Custom tab >  Please review your shift details > Edit
    • Press Send
  • If staff require changes to their shift rates you will need to cancel the payroll batch to make the amendments
  • When ready to pay and send the invoices you can re-run the payroll batch. See Running payroll/payrun

Creating and sending the self-billing invoices to self-employed staff

  • Ensure you have run a payroll batch as detailed in Running payroll/payrun
  • Go to Payroll > Payroll batches
  • Mark the shift as paid by clicking here
  • Press OK
  • You must not ensure the following is added to the 'Shift marked as paid' email template
    • [[invoice_links]] will produce a link for staff to download the invoice in their email
      • You can update the main email template in Message Center > Manage email templates > Auto tab > Shifts marked as paid > Edit
    • The text below the tag informs the staff this invoice can also be downloaded from their staffarea under My Jobs > Paid Jobs. The link can be located here under the 'Processed on' column:
  • Only staff that are self-employed in the payroll batch will be able to view and download the invoice

Download all self-billing invoices in bulk for back office

Under Payroll > Payroll batches you can download all self-billing invoices for the self-employed staff with a given batch here