Print the invoice before the customer drives off
Type the VIN and the year, make and model fill themselves in from the federal database. Free, no sign-up. When you press Decode, the VIN goes to NHTSA; we do not receive or save the invoice.
The totals on this page are worked out in your browser, so it needs JavaScript switched on. With it off, the blank invoice sheet below still prints from your browser's print command: fill it in by hand and hand it over.
The vehicle
Only the VIN from this form goes to NHTSA, and only when you press Decode. Ordinary request details also accompany the request and may be logged under NHTSA's privacy policy. We do not receive or save your invoice.
What you did CoreAn exchange deposit on a rebuilt part. Whether it comes back to the customer depends on the sale and your jurisdiction. It gets its own class and its own subtotal on the sheet. SubletWork you sent out and are reselling - alignment, machine work, a tow. It gets its own class and subtotal. Whether your jurisdiction taxes it is your call, on the tax chips. FeeDisposal, hazmat, and supplies the job actually used. Write and price each line separately when your jurisdiction requires it; we add nothing you did not type.
- $0.00
Your rate and the tax
Tax rules vary by state, by county and by the kind of charge. We ship no rule - set these the way you actually bill.
Your shop
Example numbers - type yours over them.
Choose how this discount affects the taxable lines.
Add a line and the invoice builds itself.
| Description | Class | Qty | Unit | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- Labor subtotal
- Parts subtotal
- Core subtotal
- Sublet subtotal
- Fees subtotal
How the numbers are worked out
The figures on the form are an example, and we label them as one. Your rate, your prices and the tax rate you actually charge go over the top of them. We supply the arithmetic and the shape of the document, and nothing else on that sheet is ours.
The math runs in this order, because a customer will eventually check it.
Every line on its own
Hours times your rate, or quantity times your price, rounded to the cent right there on the row. Then the page adds up the rounded rows. That order matters more than it sounds. It's what makes the column add up when someone runs a finger down it with a phone calculator. Seven lines of fractional hours and quantities come to $435.54 worked that way. Add the exact products first and round once at the bottom and you get $435.53, a cent adrift from the rows printed above it.
Supplies are a line you write
Shop supplies work the same way as everything else. We don't calculate a percentage for you and we don't add anything you didn't type. Put down what the job actually used, rags, solvent, brake clean, fasteners, and separate those lines as your jurisdiction requires.
Core charges keep their own line
A core charge gets its own class and its own subtotal on the printed sheet, so the deposit is a number the customer can point at instead of hunting for.
Then tax, on the lines you say
Some free invoice tools apply one rate to the whole invoice. A repair bill isn't one thing, and whether any part of it is taxable depends on where you are and on the kind of charge. We can't know that, and we're not going to guess at it. So you tell the page which kinds of lines you tax, labor, parts, core charges, sublet work, fees and supplies, and you can override any single line afterward. The tax is computed from those flags and from nothing else.
Discount first, payments last
If you give a shop-funded, invoice-wide discount, choose its tax treatment. The page can reduce the taxable lines proportionally or leave the taxable base unchanged; it does not choose for you. The deposit and whatever the customer hands you today come off at the end. What is left is the balance due.
The vehicle block is the one part that fills itself. You type the 17 characters off the door jamb, the browser checks them before anything is sent, and one press sends that VIN to NHTSA, the only value from this form in the request. Year, make, model, trim and engine come back into fields you can still edit, because what gets printed is your name, not ours.
We don't know your jurisdiction's rules and we're not going to pretend otherwise. Run the rate, and what it applies to, past your accountant before you print a stack of these.
Questions shops actually ask
What is a repair invoice?
It's the bill you hand over when the work is done: the vehicle it was done to, what you did, what the parts cost, what the labor cost, the tax, and what's owed. The estimate is what you thought before you started. The invoice is the record of what actually happened, and it's the document that settles an argument three months later.
What has to be on an itemized auto repair invoice?
At minimum, enough that someone else can check it. The vehicle identified well enough to be sure which car it was: year, make, model, plate, VIN, odometer. Labor separated from parts, with hours and rate shown rather than rolled into a lump. Each part priced on its own line. Shop supplies and fees named and priced rather than buried in a percentage. The tax. The total. Rules vary by state, and this isn't a compliance form, so check what yours requires.
Do I have to charge sales tax on labor?
That depends on your jurisdiction, and often on the kind of charge as well. The answer for labor can differ from the answer for parts, for a core charge, for sublet work or for a supplies line, and it is set state by state rather than nationally. We don't ship a rate and we don't ship a rule, because a wrong one is worse than none. You type the rate and you switch on the kinds of lines you tax, per line if you need to. Your accountant or your state's revenue department is the answer here.
What is a core charge?
A separately stated exchange charge on a replacement part. It may be refunded when the old unit goes back, depending on the sale and your jurisdiction. It gets its own class on this invoice and its own subtotal, so the customer can see the number rather than hunting for it. Whether it's taxable is a separate question from whether the part is, which is why it has its own switch.
What is sublet work?
Work you sent out: an alignment, machine shop work on a head, a tow. You bought it and you're reselling it, so it goes on its own line with its own subtotal. Whether your jurisdiction taxes it when you resell it is a question for your accountant. The page ships it unswitched and leaves the decision with you.
Why do shops charge shop supplies?
Because the rags, solvent, brake clean, fasteners, sealant and lube on a job are real money and nobody wants a line item for four cents of thread locker. How you are allowed to bill for that is not the same everywhere. Some jurisdictions require the supplies actually used to be itemized and don't accept a blanket percentage, so this page doesn't calculate one. You write and price each required line. That keeps the charge yours to explain, which is the position you want to be in when a customer asks.
How should I number my invoices?
However you like, as long as it's consistent and you don't repeat one. This page suggests a number from the date and lets you type over it. It cannot promise the number is unique, because nothing is stored between visits: no accounts, no saved history. The numbering is your system, not ours. If you need a running sequence, keep it in whatever you already use for books.
How does the VIN fill in the vehicle?
You type the 17 characters off the door jamb. The page checks them right there in your browser. The check digit in position 9 is an arithmetic mismatch test that runs before anything is sent. Then, only when you press Decode, the VIN goes to NHTSA's vPIC database, the federal government's own catalog, as the only value from this form in the request, and the year, make, model, trim and engine come back into ordinary editable fields.
What if the VIN doesn't decode?
You type three fields you already know and carry on. It happens: NHTSA has no data at all before 1980 and reports only about 60-65% confidence for 1980 to 1994. Imports, or products whose manufacturers never submitted the required US data, may not be there, and uncertified off-road products can come back with a warning. The decode is an accelerator bolted to the side of the form, never a gate. The invoice never waits on it.
Is the decode proof of what the car is?
No, and don't treat it as one. It tells you what the manufacturer built. It doesn't know about two owners, an engine swap or a transplanted transmission. Everything it returns lands in a field you can edit, because what gets printed is your responsibility.
What actually leaves my browser?
The VIN is the only value from this form that goes to NHTSA, and only when you press Decode. Like any web request, it also carries ordinary connection and browser details covered by NHTSA's privacy policy. Not the customer's name, phone, email or address. Not the plate. Not your rates, your prices or the total. We do not receive or save the invoice, and this tool does not store it on your device.
Is this accounting software?
No. It doesn't file anything, doesn't keep books, doesn't verify a tax rate and doesn't remember this invoice tomorrow. It builds one document and prints it. Your books stay yours.
Free auto repair invoice generator with a VIN decoder
Some free auto repair invoice templates arrive as Word files or spreadsheets you fill in and re-save under a new name every job. That works right up until you drag the column one row short. This is the live version: type the work, and the labor, parts, fees, tax and balance due recalculate on every keystroke.
What makes it a repair invoice rather than a generic one is the shape of the document. A generic invoice line gives you description, quantity, rate and amount, and stops there. A repair order needs the VIN, the plate, odometer in and out, an RO number, labor as hours times a rate, parts priced individually, core charges, sublet work, shop supplies and a disposal fee. Those aren't decoration. They're the difference between a document a shop stands behind and one it retypes.
And the VIN fills in the vehicle. Type the 17 characters, press Decode, and the model year, make, model, trim and engine come back from vPIC, the federal vehicle catalog NHTSA maintains from manufacturers' own filings. It costs nothing, and there's no key and no account to set up.
It prints. That's the point: a repair order invoice template you can hand across the counter, or save as a PDF and text from a driveway. No watermark, no sign-up, no email wall in front of the download.
That header is your listing
You just typed your shop name, your phone, your address and the kind of work you do. That's a directory listing, finished, sitting across the top of an invoice.
We list shops for free, and when we say free we mean it. Drivers use our directory to find a shop, and the shop that hands over an itemized invoice with the hours and the part numbers on it is the one we want them to find. Claim your listing.
Where drivers look for you
More free tools for your shop
What should my shop charge an hour?
The rate every labor line on this invoice gets multiplied by. Working out what it ought to be is a different job, and it's the one shops guess at.
How do I ask them to approve more work?
For the moment the car is apart and the job just got bigger. Get the yes written down before the extra work reaches this invoice.
Bookmark this one before the next car comes in. Nothing is stored here, so the sheet you print is the only copy that exists.