A proforma invoice template should carry the fields a border needs and the sentence that stops an accounts team booking it as revenue. Both get forgotten when the document is written from scratch under time pressure.
Fix these once
- Your business name, address and any exporter registration number.
- The word Proforma in the title.
- Your standard delivery terms, if you usually ship on one Incoterm.
- Your standard validity period.
- The line stating that this is not a demand for payment.
- Your bank details, since advance payment is a common reason for sending one.
Leave these blank
The buyer, the consignee if different, the number, the dates, the lines, the origin and the values. Origin especially, because it varies by line and a carried-forward default will eventually be wrong.
A template to copy
[Your business name]
[Address] · [phone] · [email]
[Exporter registration number, if applicable]
PROFORMA INVOICE No. PI-____
Date: ____
Valid until: ____
Bill to Ship to
[left blank] [left blank]
Delivery terms [e.g. CIF ____]
Currency ____
Description Origin Qty Unit Amount
______________________ ______ ___ ______ ______
______________________ ______ ___ ______ ______
Subtotal ______
Freight ______
Total ______
This is a proforma invoice, not a demand for payment.
A commercial invoice will follow on despatch.
Payment
[Bank name] · [Account name] · [Account number] · [SWIFT]The columns
Proformas need more columns than most documents. Add Unit and an origin column from the column bar, and keep Qty and Rate.
If you ship in cases, state the unit explicitly. “20” meaning twenty cases rather than twenty items is the kind of ambiguity that gets a shipment inspected.
Variants
Export. Full customs fields, origin per line, Incoterm, SWIFT details.
Advance payment, domestic. Simpler. No origin, no Incoterm, but keep the validity date and the not-a-demand line.
Each is a saved file, written to your own disk with Save as file.
Currency
Set it in the template and check it before sending. The picker opens on the currency of your own country, which is rarely the one an export proforma should be in.
Whatever you choose, state it in words as well as symbol somewhere on the document. A dollar sign alone is ambiguous across several currencies.
A check before saving
- Does the title say Proforma?
- Is the not-a-demand line present?
- Is the validity field there and blank?
- Are the values blank?
- Are your bank details current?
What it will not do
The template cannot tell you the import requirements of the destination country, and those are the things that hold shipments. Your freight agent can, and the detail is in proforma invoices for customs.
The proforma invoice format
The format mirrors a commercial invoice deliberately, because the people reading it, banks releasing payment and customs officers classifying goods, are checking it against one. Seller and buyer in full, a document number and date, each item described plainly with quantity, unit value and currency, and the total.
Two things the format must make unmissable: the words Proforma Invoice as the title, since a proforma is not a demand for payment and must not be filed as one, and the currency against every value. See proforma for customs for what a broker looks for.
A worked proforma invoice example you can copy
A sample proforma invoice for an export shipment:
PROFORMA INVOICE PFI-0007
Description Qty Unit Amount
Cotton canvas tote bags, 200 USD 6 USD 1,200
printed, 340gsm
Sample swatch book 1 USD 0 USD 0
Country of origin: Kenya
Reason for export: sale
Total value: USD 1,200The example shows the habits that clear customs quickly: the goods described in words an officer can classify, not a product code; the zero-value sample still listed with a value of nought rather than omitted; and the origin and reason stated. When the shipment is invoiced for real, the numbers should match this document or someone will ask why.
Next
For what the document is, see what is a proforma invoice. For the bill that follows, see how to make an invoice. Or open the proforma invoice generator.