Virtual Assistant Invoice and Retainer Template
A virtual assistant's invoice should bill a prepaid hour block or monthly retainer in advance, show hours used and remaining against the block, and itemize overage at your hourly rate, rush or out-of-hours work, and any subscriptions or ad spend passed through at cost. ShowTheReceipts bills the retainer automatically each month against a card on file and keeps every rate as a reusable line.
Header block
- Your business name, address, tax ID
- Client business name and billing contact
- Period covered, retainer reference
- Invoice number, due date, terms
Service lines
- Monthly retainer / hour block — hours reserved, billed in advance
- Hours used and remaining — shown against the block
- Overage hours — at your hourly rate
- Rush / out-of-hours — 1.25–1.5× uplift
- Project work — flat, outside the retainer
- Pass-throughs — subscriptions, ad spend, at cost
- Late fee — stated, applied after the due date
Retainer terms
| Item | Standard |
|---|---|
| Payment | In advance, monthly |
| Blocks | 10 / 20 / 40 hours |
| Rollover | None, or capped at one month |
| Overage | Hourly, stated rate |
You’re not selling hours. You’re selling reserved capacity — which is why unused hours don’t roll forward.
Show the hours on the invoice
Put “18 of 20 hours used” on the invoice itself. It ends the two conversations VAs have most often: whether the retainer is worth it, and whether the overage was real.
Scope drift is the real risk
Inbox and calendar work quietly becomes bookkeeping, then social posting, then customer support. Name the categories the retainer covers on the invoice, and bill anything new as project work until you decide it belongs in the block.
What not to do
- Don’t bill in arrears for a retainer
- Don’t roll unused hours forward indefinitely
- Don’t answer out-of-hours at your standard rate
- Don’t put a client’s subscriptions on your own card
Frequently asked questions
Should a VA bill hourly or on a retainer?
Retainer, once the work is steady — a prepaid block of 10, 20, or 40 hours a month billed in advance. Hourly means re-selling yourself every month and absorbing the gaps; a retainer books the capacity and gets paid before the month starts.
Should unused retainer hours roll over?
Usually not, and the invoice should say so. Hours are reserved capacity — you held the calendar whether or not the client used it. If you do allow rollover, cap it at one month so you're never carrying 60 banked hours from a client who went quiet.
How do I bill for work outside normal hours?
As its own line at an uplifted rate — commonly 1.25–1.5× for evenings, weekends, or same-day turnaround. Without a stated rate, 'quick favour at 9pm' becomes the default working relationship inside about a month.
How do I handle subscriptions or ad spend I pay for?
Pass them through as itemized lines at cost, or better, put them on the client's own card. Fronting a client's software and ad spend on your personal card makes you their lender — and it's the most common reason a VA's month is cash-negative while fully booked.