Free Invoice Generator

What a Nigerian invoice must contain

There is no single prescribed invoice form in Nigeria, but the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and the VAT rules together make a short list of fields non-negotiable if the invoice is to be valid for tax. Miss one and your client cannot recover the VAT on it, which is the fastest way to be asked for a reissue.

• Your business name, address and Tax Identification Number (TIN).
• The client’s name and address, and their TIN if they are a business.
• A unique, sequential invoice number and the invoice date.
• A description of each product or service, with quantity and unit price.
• The net amount per line, the VAT rate applied (7.5%, zero-rated or exempt) and the VAT amount, shown separately from the net.
• The total payable, the currency, and your payment details.
• Payment terms: the due date, and what happens if it is missed.

If you are not VAT-registered — taxable supplies of ₦25,000,000 or less in twelve months — you must not charge VAT at all. Leave the VAT rate at zero and say so on the invoice; charging VAT you are not registered to collect is an offence, not a rounding error.

Invoice, receipt, proforma, quote: which one you need

Nigerian businesses often use one word for four documents. They are not interchangeable, and sending the wrong one delays payment because the client’s accounts team cannot process it.

The generator produces an invoice. For a proforma, add the word to the invoice number — PRO-0001 — and state that it is not a tax invoice. For a receipt, note the payment date and method on a copy of the invoice, or use ereQa, which issues one automatically when the payment lands.

Numbering, dates and records

Invoice numbers must be unique and should be sequential. Gaps and duplicates are what an auditor looks for first, because they are what a business that is hiding sales produces. INV-0001, INV-0002 and so on is enough; a prefix per year (2026-0001) helps once you pass a few hundred.

How long to keep invoices

Keep every invoice issued and received for at least six years. The Nigeria Tax Administration Act allows assessments to be reopened within that window, and a VAT reclaim with no invoice behind it is disallowed. A PDF in a dated folder is fine; a photograph of a handwritten one is not.

Invoice date versus due date

VAT falls due in the month the invoice is issued, not the month it is paid. If you invoice on 28 March and are paid on 15 May, the 7.5% belongs on your March return, filed by 21 April. Businesses that forget this fund their clients’ VAT for weeks; set the due date short enough that you are not.

Payment terms that get paid in Nigeria

The due date on the invoice is the single field that most affects when you are paid. “Due on receipt” is treated as a suggestion; a specific calendar date is treated as a deadline. Thirty-day terms are a habit imported from markets where the client’s bank will pay on day 30 automatically. Here, nothing pays automatically.

• New client, project work: 50% on signing, 50% on delivery. Put both milestones on the first invoice.
• Repeat client, services: 7 or 14 days, dated. Not “net 30”.
• Goods: payment before dispatch, or on delivery with a payment link the driver can show.
• Always include a bank account name that matches the business name on the invoice, or a payment link. A mismatch between the invoice name and the account name is the commonest reason a corporate client holds payment.

Late fees are contractual in Nigeria, not statutory, so state them if you intend to charge them: “2% per month on overdue balances” is enforceable only if it was on the invoice or the contract the client accepted.

Invoicing in other currencies

The generator supports Naira plus the Cedi, Shilling, Rand, Pound, Dollar and Euro. Two rules when you invoice a foreign client from Nigeria: state the currency explicitly on every amount, and decide who carries the bank charges. An invoice for $1,000 that arrives as $955 after intermediary fees was underpaid by your own silence.

VAT on exports of services is zero-rated, so a Nigerian consultant invoicing a client in London charges 0% — but still shows the VAT line, at zero, and still reports the sale on the monthly return. The country pages for Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and the UK cover what the client expects at their end.

Why a free generator, and when to stop using it

The generator is free and asks for no account because the first invoice should not require a decision about software. It is also deliberately limited: it produces a PDF and remembers nothing. The moment you need to know which invoices are unpaid, send a reminder, record a part-payment or hand a list to an accountant, you are keeping a second system in your head.

An ereQa free account keeps the invoices, adds a link showing your bank details with an “I’ve paid” button for your client, chases the overdue ones automatically and gives you the numbers at the end of the month. It costs nothing until you pass five invoices a month, which is roughly the point at which the PDF folder stops working anyway.