For marketing agencies · Updated August 25, 2026
Free Marketing Agency Invoice Generator
Who holds the ad account decides most of this invoice. When Google and Meta charge the client's card directly, you bill fee lines only; when your card funds the accounts, the media rides on your invoice and you are financing it until the client pays. Fee lines first, media lines below at the number the platform actually invoiced you, prefunds and late credits applied where the client can trace them. Free, no signup, PDF in minutes.
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Management fees, fronted media and performance lines
| Model | Line item looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage of media | "Fee — paid media management, 15% of $28,400.00 platform-invoiced media, Aug 1–31 — $4,260.00" | Budgets that move month to month. Write the base and the period on the line so the client can rebuild the number without emailing you |
| Flat monthly management fee | "Fee — paid search and paid social management, August 2026 — $3,200.00" | Steady budgets, and agencies who would rather not take a pay cut every time they kill wasted spend |
| Fronted media, at cost | "Media (at cost) — Google Ads, Aug 1–31, platform-invoiced total — $18,600.00" | Your card funds the platform account and you pass through exactly what the platform billed you, statement behind it |
| Fronted media, stated markup | "Media (gross-up) — Meta Ads, Aug 1–31: $9,800.00 platform cost plus 15% — $11,270.00" | The media-commission model, still ordinary in plenty of shops. Fine when the contract says so and the line says so |
| Performance bonus, in arrears | "Fee — performance bonus, July: cost per qualified lead under $42 (actual $38.10, measured through Aug 31) — $1,000.00" | An agreed metric, an agreed source, and a period whose attribution window has actually closed |
The generator computes one subtotal for the whole document, so the fee-versus-media split lives in the lines, not in the totals block. Prefix every description ("Fee — …" and "Media (at cost) — …"), put the fee lines first, and restate the two figures in Notes, which is free text. Every label is editable, so Amount paid can print as "Media prefund received". Where the client's finance team codes media and services to different accounts, two invoices with matching references usually read better than one. The full field checklist is in what an invoice should include.
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Ad account ownership, the float and the lines that get questioned
- Who holds the ad account decides most of the invoice. If Google and Meta bill the client's card directly, there is no media line on your invoice at all — fee lines only, with the managed spend quoted as the basis for any percentage and a note saying media is billed to the client by the platform, so nobody downstream counts the same spend twice. If your card funds the accounts, the media rides on your document and the money is out of your bank before theirs arrives. Where the client prefunds, that payment goes in the Amount paid field and the balance due prints itself. See prefunds and deposits.
- Fronting media is lending, and the float is the number nobody puts on the invoice. Platforms charge at billing thresholds or on their own monthly cycle; the client pays on your terms. Front $28,400 against a $25,000 prefund on Net 14 and you are carrying roughly $3,400 unsecured for weeks — more if a threshold trips mid-month and Google bills you twice before the invoice even goes out. The usual defences: a prefund sized to the month's cap before campaigns go live, a written spend cap tied to payment history, and a clause covering media already committed if the relationship ends mid-flight. A client who cannot prefund is a client whose ad accounts belong on their own card. See payment terms.
- At cost or marked up, but never a markup dressed as cost. Passing media through at cost with the platform statement behind it is one model; a stated gross-up — the 15% media commission, or any agreed percentage — is another, and both are ordinary. Your contract says which. The line that cannot be defended is a marked-up figure printed next to the words "at cost". Say which number you are passing through, too: platforms add jurisdiction-specific surcharges and digital services taxes on top of spend in many countries, so the platform's invoiced total is not the spend figure in the ads UI. Pick one, name it on the line, and use that same number as the base for a percentage fee.
- Credits and adjustments land after you have already invoiced. Invalid-click credits, refunded budget and billing corrections arrive weeks late by design. Put them on the next invoice as a negative media line naming the invoice they came from — "Media credit — Google invalid-click credit issued Aug 22, originally billed on INV-0038 — −$412.50" — instead of quietly netting them into the current month, where neither month reconciles again. Same reason to date the invoice after both platform statements close rather than on the first: a fee calculated from a statement that is still moving is a fee you will be restating. See invoice numbering.
- A performance bonus needs a named source and a closed window. Metric, threshold, actual result, and the system that decides: "cost per qualified lead under $42, actual $38.10, source: client CRM, 30-day attribution window". The window is the part people get wrong. A lead generated on Aug 31 has until Sep 30 to qualify, so August's real cost per qualified lead is not knowable on September 1 — bill the bonus a period in arrears, on the invoice that goes out after the window shuts. Bonuses invoiced from your dashboard and disputed from theirs are the most avoidable argument in agency billing, and the fix sits in the contract, not the invoice.
A paid-media invoice example
Invoice INV-0043 · Media period Aug 1–31, 2026 · Issued Sep 8, 2026, after both platform statements closed · Due Sep 22, 2026 (Net 14)
Northline Media Co. · billing@northlinemedia.example
Cascade Outdoor Supply · Attn: Accounts Payable · PO #4471-AUG
- Fee — paid media management, 15% of $28,400.00 platform-invoiced media, Aug 1–31 — $4,260.00
- Media (at cost) — Google Ads, Aug 1–31, platform-invoiced total — $18,600.00
- Media (at cost) — Meta Ads, Aug 1–31, platform-invoiced total — $9,800.00
- Media credit — Google invalid-click credit issued Aug 22, originally billed on INV-0038 — −$412.50
- Fee — SOW-02 amendment: TikTok Ads account setup and first creative set, approved by email Aug 12 — $1,150.00
- Fee — performance bonus, July: cost per qualified lead under $42 (actual $38.10, window closed Aug 31) — $1,000.00
Subtotal $34,397.50 · Media prefund received −$25,000.00 · Balance due $9,397.50
Notes: Agency fees $6,410.00 · Media at cost, net of the August credit, $27,987.50 · Prefund applied to media first, leaving $2,987.50 of media and $6,410.00 of fees outstanding · Google Ads and Meta statements for the period emailed with this invoice · Bonus measured in the client CRM, 30-day window · September media cap $30,000.00 across both platforms · No tax charged: Northline buys media as the client's agent under the MSA, which varies by state and country — check your local requirements
One subtotal, one prefund, one balance due — the split that matters is carried by the line prefixes and restated in Notes. From this page a controller can see what the agency earned ($6,410.00), what was media moving through its account ($27,987.50 after the credit), which platform statement each media figure came from, why a July credit is appearing on the August invoice, and exactly what the prefund left outstanding.
Marketing agency invoicing FAQ
Should the fee and the ad spend go on the same invoice?
They can, but be clear about what the document does. The generator computes a single subtotal across all line items, so you cannot print separate "agency fees" and "pass-through media" subtotals — you group by prefixing the descriptions, ordering fee lines first, and restating both figures in Notes. What you should not do is fold your fee into the media line: when the client is reading media efficiency, a blended line overstates their cost per acquisition and understates return on ad spend (fully-loaded numbers that include your fee are a deliberate, common way to measure — just not the same number). If their finance team codes media and services separately, issue two invoices with matching references. There are no document caps here, so the second one costs you nothing but a second pass through the editor.
Percentage of media, flat fee, or a markup?
A percentage scales with the account and is easy to justify while budgets grow, but it pays you less every time you cut wasted spend. A flat fee decouples your income from the media and makes forecasting easier on both sides. A stated markup on fronted media is the old commission model and still ordinary — it just has to be disclosed as a markup, never printed as "at cost". A common middle ground is a flat base plus a percentage above an agreed budget threshold, with a monthly floor. Settle three things in the contract before they bite: whether the percentage runs on billed spend or booked budget, whether it runs on the platform's invoiced total including surcharges or on raw spend, and what happens in a month the client pauses everything on the 9th.
The client is billed directly by Google and Meta — what does my invoice look like?
Fee lines only, with no media line at all. Quote the managed spend as the basis for any percentage fee and add a note such as "Media billed directly to client by Google Ads and Meta — not included in this invoice". Without that note, someone downstream eventually books the same spend twice. The upside is that you carry no float on that account, which is often worth more than the fee arithmetic suggests.
How do I bill work the SOW does not cover?
As its own dated line referencing the approval, not as a quietly fatter management fee: "Fee — SOW-02 amendment: TikTok Ads account setup and first creative set, approved by email Aug 12 — $1,150.00". The extra channel, the extra deck, the quick landing page — each one gets written approval before it is built and its own line when it is billed. Padding the retained fee to absorb them trains the client to expect the padding, and gives them a reason to reopen a fee they had already agreed to.
Do I charge tax on media I pass through, and what about cross-border clients?
It depends on where you are and whether your contract has you acting as an agent buying media on the client's behalf or as a principal reselling it — the answer differs by state and country, and your contract governs. Confirm it with your accountant. One practical constraint: the generator applies a single tax rate to the whole subtotal, as a percentage or a fixed amount, so if your fees are taxable and the pass-through media is not, that is a strong argument for splitting them into two invoices. Rename the tax label to whatever your jurisdiction calls it. If the media was bought in one currency and billed in another, the contract should name the rate, the date and who carries the difference — the generator handles 159 currencies with correct formatting, and every label on the document is editable, so the invoice can read in the client's language.
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