Free market grower invoice template
Bill restaurants by the flat, run the Saturday stall through the till, and stop chasing chefs for last month's greens.
Growing is the easy half. The money side of a small farm splits three ways and each one behaves differently: the market stall is cash and card across a table with no paperwork at all, the CSA is paid up front in February for produce you deliver in July, and the restaurants are net 30 whether you agreed to it or not. Chefs are not trying to stiff you, but their accounts payable runs on invoices, so a delivery with no invoice attached is a delivery that gets paid whenever someone remembers. Print one with the drop, keep the stall on a till, and reconcile both in one place on Sunday night.
Lines a grower actually bills for
| Line | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Microgreens — sunflower, 10-day, per flat | $22–$40 per flat wholesale |
| Pea shoots — half flat | $12–$22 per half flat |
| Salad mix, per pound | $7–$14 per pound wholesale |
| Eggs, per dozen | $5–$9 retail, $4–$6 wholesale |
| Raw honey, 1 lb jar | $10–$18 retail |
| CSA share — full season, weekly box | $450–$900 for 18–22 weeks |
| Standing weekly restaurant order | $100–$400 a delivery |
| Delivery to the kitchen door | $0–$35 depending on distance |
What to include on a market grower invoice
- Your business name, phone number and email — and your license number if your state puts one on the paperwork
- The customer's name, the service address, and a phone number or email you can actually reach them on
- An invoice number and the date the work was done
- What you actually dropped, in the units the chef buys in — flats, half flats, pounds, dozens
- The delivery date and who signed for it at the kitchen door
- Your wholesale price against your market price, so nobody mixes the two lists up
- Any short on the order, and whether you are crediting it or making it up next week
- Standing order weeks covered, if you invoice a restaurant monthly instead of per drop
- Your farm name, and your cottage food or egg handler registration number if your state requires it
- Subtotal, sales tax if you charge it, and the total due
- Any deposit or payment already taken, and the balance still owed
- The due date, and what happens if it goes past it
- How they can pay — card, bank transfer, check or cash
Market Grower invoicing questions
How do I invoice a restaurant that pays whenever it feels like it?
Put terms on the paper and start the clock at delivery. Net 14 is normal for produce and defensible — you carry the growing cost for weeks before the drop. Send the invoice the day you deliver, not at month end, because a kitchen pays the invoice that is sitting in the folder and forgets the one that arrives three weeks after the greens were eaten.
Should I invoice per drop or once a month?
Per drop for a new chef, monthly once they have proved good. Per-drop invoices are harder to argue with because the delivery is still fresh in everyone's memory, and if a restaurant goes quiet you are out one week, not four. When you switch to monthly, list every delivery date as its own line so the total is checkable at a glance.
Do I need an invoice for the farmers market stall?
Not for a customer buying a clamshell. Ring the stall up on a till so you get a real total at the end of the day, and stick a QR code on the sign for the people who show up with a phone and no cash. Save the invoice for wholesale, CSA and anything a chef's bookkeeper is going to want.
How do I bill a CSA share that's paid in advance?
Invoice the whole share in the winter with the delivery window written on it, and take a deposit if a member wants to pay in two or three parts. The share is a promise for the season, so the paperwork should say how many weeks, roughly what a box holds, and what happens in a bad year. That last sentence is the one that prevents an awkward email in August.
What if I short an order because the crop didn't come in?
Say it on the invoice, don't quietly bill the full amount and hope. List what you dropped, then a credit line for the short. Chefs plan a menu around your Tuesday delivery, and the ones who keep buying from you are the ones who found out about the short from you rather than from an empty crate.
Is this free, or free until I hit a limit?
Free, with no cap on invoices or estimates and no trial clock. Paid tiers are there if you want them — $9.99 a month for Starter, $24.99 for Pro — and they cover the parts that cost us money each time: scanning your seed and soil receipts, sending from our email domain, your farm logo on the invoice, more than one person on the account. Otherwise we earn 0.5% when a chef or a market customer pays by card. Cash in the box at the stall costs you nothing.
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