Land Surveying Invoice Template
A land surveying invoice should state the survey type, the parcel identification and legal description, the field crew hours or agreed flat fee, research and monumentation charges, and any recording or filing fees passed through at cost. Long projects should bill in progress stages rather than at delivery. ShowTheReceipts saves those lines and handles staged progress invoices against one agreed scope.
Header block
- Firm name, PLS license number and state, phone
- Client, and whether they’re the owner, attorney, lender, or builder
- Parcel number, address, and legal description
- Project or file number
- Invoice number, terms, progress stage
Service lines
- Survey type — boundary, ALTA/NSPS, topographic, mortgage inspection, subdivision, elevation certificate
- Deed and record research — hours or flat
- Field crew — hours × crew rate (state crew size)
- Monumentation — pins, caps, markers set
- Drafting and plat preparation
- Certification and sealing
- Recording / filing fees — pass-through at cost
- Revisions or re-staking — beyond original scope
- Expert testimony — separate hourly rate
Progress billing block
| Stage | Typical billing |
|---|---|
| Engagement | Retainer |
| Research complete | Progress payment |
| Fieldwork complete | Progress payment |
| Plat delivered | Balance |
Delivering a sealed plat before you’ve been paid is the one avoidable risk in this profession. Bill in stages.
Terms
Net terms as agreed, retainer applied, and a scope note stating what a revision costs. Re-staking after a contractor removes your pins is new work, so say so on the invoice, ahead of time.
What not to do
- Don’t invoice without a legal description or parcel ID
- Don’t mark up recording fees
- Don’t deliver a long project unbilled until the end
- Don’t absorb re-staking as a courtesy without saying it’s a courtesy
Frequently asked questions
Should surveys be flat-fee or hourly?
Flat fee for known scopes — residential boundary, mortgage inspection, simple ALTA — and hourly or flat-plus-hourly for anything with unknown record conditions. Deeds with 19th-century calls are research time you cannot estimate honestly in advance.
How should a long project be billed?
In stages: retainer at engagement, progress billing at research complete and fieldwork complete, balance at delivery. Surveying projects can run for months, and delivering a plat before any payment arrives is a risk with no upside.
What has to identify the property?
Parcel number, address, and the legal description or lot and block. The invoice frequently ends up in a title file or a closing package, and the property has to be identifiable without the surveyor's own records.
How should recording fees be handled?
Pass-through at cost, on their own line, labeled as county or recorder fees. They're public amounts and they aren't your revenue — presenting them as your charge helps nobody.