Restaurant Invoice Template & Guide: Billing Accounts and Events

Most restaurant transactions end with a card tap and a receipt, not an invoice. But the moment a restaurant takes a corporate account, hosts a private function, or bills a company for a booked event, it needs to invoice properly. That is where the money gets bigger and the paperwork gets real, because accounts-payable teams will not pay against a till receipt.

This guide covers how a restaurant invoices corporate accounts and events: itemising food and drink, handling service charge and gratuity, charging tax correctly, and taking deposits. It includes a sample restaurant invoice and applies to venues in the US, UK, Australia, and beyond.

When a restaurant needs to invoice

A receipt confirms a payment that already happened. An invoice requests a payment that has not. Restaurants need invoices in a few specific situations:

• Corporate accounts. A local company runs a monthly tab and pays on account rather than per visit.
• Private functions and events. A booked party, set menu, or venue hire billed to one payer.
• Catering and large group bookings where a deposit and a balance are involved.
• Supplier-style billing when you provide food to another business on terms.

In each case the payer is usually a business that needs a proper invoice for its own books. If you are unsure whether to issue an invoice or a receipt, our invoice vs receipt vs bill guide clears up the difference.

What a restaurant invoice should include

• Your venue's name, address, and contact (plus your VAT or GST number if registered)
• The client's name and billing address (the company, not just the guest)
• A unique invoice number, issue date, and due date
• The event or account reference and date of service
• Itemised food and drink, or a set-menu line with a per-head price
• Service charge shown separately if you apply one
• Subtotal, tax, and the total due
• Deposit already paid and the remaining balance
• Payment methods

For the full anatomy of an invoice, our invoice format and layout guide walks through every section.

Sample restaurant function invoice

Here is an invoice for a booked company dinner with a set menu, drinks, service charge, and a deposit already taken.

Description	Qty	Unit price	Amount
Set dinner menu (3 courses)	30	$45.00	$1,350.00
Wine and beverage package	30	$22.00	$660.00
Room hire (private dining)	1	$250.00	$250.00
Subtotal			$2,260.00
Service charge (10%)			$226.00
Tax (GST 10%)			$248.60
Total			$2,734.60
Less deposit paid			-$500.00
Balance due			$2,234.60

Per-head pricing keeps a function invoice clean: the client agreed a price per guest, so the invoice confirms it rather than listing every dish. Service charge and tax sit on their own lines, and the deposit is deducted clearly at the bottom.

Service charge, gratuity, and tips

Service charge is the area clients query most, so be transparent. A discretionary or mandatory service charge should be a clearly labelled line, not baked into the food price. State the percentage and whether it is discretionary.

Tax treatment of service charge varies: in some jurisdictions a mandatory service charge is taxable, while a genuinely voluntary gratuity may not be. Charge tax correctly on the elements that require it, and keep gratuity separate where the rules treat it differently. When in doubt, check your local tax authority's guidance, because misapplying tax is one of the most common and costly invoicing errors, covered in our common invoice mistakes guide.

Tax on food and drink

Food and beverage tax is rarely simple:

• In the UK, restaurant meals eaten in are standard-rated for VAT, but the rules around hot and cold takeaway food differ.
• In Australia, GST applies to restaurant meals, and a valid tax invoice with your ABN is required for business customers.
• In the US, prepared-food and meal taxes vary by state and even by city, sometimes on top of normal sales tax.

The safe approach: only charge tax you are registered to collect, show it on its own line, and put your tax number on the invoice for business clients who need to reclaim it.

Deposits for functions and events

For any booked function, take a deposit. It protects you against no-shows and covers the cost of ordering in for a set headcount. A common structure is a deposit on booking (often 20 to 50 percent), with the balance invoiced after the event.

Show the deposit clearly on the final invoice as a deduction, so the client sees the full value, what they have paid, and the balance. For more on deposits, staged payments, and chasing balances, our payment terms guide has the detail.

Running a corporate account

A corporate account is one of the most reliable forms of restaurant revenue: a local business runs a tab and settles it monthly rather than paying per visit. To bill it cleanly, log every visit against the account with a date, the covers, and the amount, then issue a single monthly invoice that lists each visit as a line.

Set clear terms up front: a credit limit, payment terms (often Net 14 or Net 30 for businesses), and what happens if the account falls behind. A monthly statement listing the unpaid invoices helps the client's accounts team reconcile quickly. The upside is steady, predictable income from a client who eats with you regularly; the discipline is simply issuing the invoice on the same day each month and following up promptly if it is not paid. For chasing overdue accounts, our payment terms guide covers the tactics that work.

Common restaurant invoicing mistakes

• Issuing a till receipt instead of a proper invoice to a business that needs one for its books.
• Burying the service charge in the food price instead of showing it separately.
• Forgetting the deposit deduction, leading to a disputed final balance.
• Charging the wrong tax on food, drink, or service.
• Missing the company billing details, so accounts payable cannot process it.

Make a restaurant invoice in 60 seconds

You do not need hospitality software to invoice an account or a function. Invoicara's free invoice generator lets you itemise food and drink or use a per-head line, add service charge and tax, deduct a deposit, and export a clean PDF for the client's accounts team. No sign-up, no watermark, free forever.

For a related hospitality niche, see our catering invoice guide, and for the fundamentals our complete guide on how to make an invoice covers every field. Invoice your accounts and functions properly, show the deposit, and the bigger bookings pay on time.