How to invoice as a 1099 contractor

"1099 contractor" is shorthand for someone a business pays without putting them on payroll. Nobody withholds income tax or Social Security from your payments, and the client may report what it paid you on Form 1099-NEC after the year ends. That puts two jobs on you: getting paid, and keeping records good enough to report every dollar yourself. A clear invoice does both.

What to put on the invoice

No federal rule sets the layout of a freelance invoice. The IRS does expect you to keep documents that back up your gross receipts, and it lists invoices among them in Publication 583. An invoice that holds up for the client's accounts payable team and for your own records has these parts:

• Your legal name or business name, address and email. If you use a business name (a DBA), show it and keep it consistent with what's on your W-9.
• The client's company name, billing contact and address. Ask who approves invoices; it's often not the person you work with.
• A unique invoice number. Sequential numbers (2026-014, 2026-015) make it easy to spot a missing payment.
• Issue date and due date. Write the date, not just "net 30", so nobody has to count.
• Line items: what you did, the quantity (hours, pages, sessions) and the rate. Add the date range for hourly work.
• Subtotal, any sales tax your state requires, and the total due.
• How to pay: a card payment link, ACH details or a check address, plus any late fee your contract allows.
• A purchase order or project code if the client gave you one. Large companies often reject invoices without it.

An example with real numbers

Here's a website project billed in two parts: a fixed fee for design and hourly development. The client has a purchase order and net 15 terms.

Lee Studio (Jordan Lee)
512 Pine St, Portland, OR 97204 | [email protected]

INVOICE 2026-014
Issued: October 1, 2026     Due: October 16, 2026 (net 15)
PO: 88231

Bill to: Harbor Coffee Co., Accounts Payable, 40 Dock Rd, Seattle, WA 98101

Discovery workshop (Sept 3)           1 x $600.00      $600.00
Homepage and 4 inner page designs     1 x $3,000.00  $3,000.00
Development, Sept 8 to Sept 30       32 h x $95.00   $3,040.00

Subtotal                                             $6,640.00
Total due                                            $6,640.00

Pay by card or ACH: [payment link]
Late payments: 1.5% per month on the unpaid balance after the due date, as agreed in our contract dated Aug 28, 2026.

Two details in that example save you emails later: the PO number and the date range on the hourly line. Sales tax is left off because whether services are taxable depends on your state and on what you sell; check your state revenue department's site before you add or skip it.

Pick payment terms before the work starts

Payment terms belong in the contract or proposal, then get repeated on every invoice. The common choices are due on receipt, net 15 and net 30. Shorter terms get you paid sooner, but large clients often have a fixed payment cycle and won't change it for one vendor, so ask about it on the first call. For fixed-price projects, a deposit of 25% to 50% before you start is normal and keeps you from financing the client's project.

Some states set rules here. New York's statewide Freelance Isn't Free Act, in effect since August 28, 2024, requires a written contract when a client hires a freelancer for $800 or more (alone or over 120 days) and payment by the agreed date, or within 30 days of completing the work if no date was set. Illinois' Freelance Worker Protection Act applies to contracts of $500 or more taking effect after July 1, 2024, with a similar 30-day default. New York City has had its own version since 2017.

The W-9 step

Before the first payment, most US clients send you a Form W-9. It gives them your legal name, tax classification and taxpayer identification number (your SSN or an EIN) so they can file a 1099 if they need to. Fill it out, sign it and send it back through a secure channel, since it carries your tax ID. If you'd rather not hand out your Social Security number, a sole proprietor can get a free EIN from the IRS in a few minutes. Our W-9 guide for freelancers walks through each line.

What changed with Form 1099-NEC

For years the rule was simple: a business that paid you $600 or more for services in a calendar year sent you a 1099-NEC. Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025, raised that threshold to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025, and the IRS says it may be adjusted for inflation starting in 2027. So for work paid during 2026, a client that paid you $1,500 in total doesn't have to send a 1099-NEC at all.

• The client furnishes your copy and files with the IRS by January 31 of the following year. When that date lands on a weekend, the deadline moves to the next business day.
• Payments a client makes to you by credit card or through a payment network are reported by the processor on Form 1099-K, not on 1099-NEC, so you won't get both for the same money.
• Payments to a corporation, including an LLC taxed as a C or S corporation, are generally exempt, with exceptions such as legal and medical services.
• Under the restored Form 1099-K rules, payment apps and marketplaces report payments for goods and services above $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year. Your state may set a lower threshold.

A missing 1099 doesn't make income tax-free. You report all of your self-employment income on Schedule C, whether or not anyone sent you a form. Your invoices are the record that tells you what that total is.

A billing routine that holds up at tax time

1. Agree on rate, deposit, payment terms and late fee in writing before you start.
2. Collect the client's billing contact, AP email and any PO number during onboarding.
3. Send the invoice the day the milestone is done or the billing period closes. Waiting a week delays payment by a week.
4. Describe the work in words the person approving the invoice understands, not your internal task names.
5. Make paying easy: a card link next to ACH details gets more clients to pay on the day they open it.
6. Follow up on a schedule (a few days before the due date, then a few days after) rather than when you happen to notice.
7. When money arrives, mark the invoice paid and file it with the year's records. In January, compare any 1099s you receive with your own totals.

Your invoices also tell you what to set aside. Paste the year's net profit into the self-employment tax calculator to see the Social Security and Medicare part, then read quarterly estimated taxes for freelancers for the payment dates.

If your contract has a late fee, the invoice late fee calculator counts the days past due and works out the amount.

Doing it in SoloWOS

In SoloWOS Invoicing, numbers run in sequence with a prefix you choose, and each invoice has line items, tax, a due date and a PDF copy. Connect your own Stripe account and clients pay by card on the invoice link; the payment marks the invoice Paid on its own. Optional reminders go out 3 days before the due date and 3 and 7 days after it while the invoice is unpaid. Paid invoices feed the Expenses report, so you can see income, costs and profit by month. For a one-off invoice without an account, use the free invoice generator.

SoloWOS doesn't file 1099s, calculate your taxes or replace an accountant. Solo includes 50 invoices a month. This guide is general information, not tax advice.