Discover a car rental invoice template with a clear and professional sample to help you bill vehicle rentals easily and efficiently.
The management of the invoice of a vehicle rental is essential for a car rental company in how it deals with its customers. Above all, the invoice makes it possible to materialize the financial transaction related to the rental and constitutes a supporting document for accounting and tax purposes. In this article, you’ll find the key elements to understand the legislation and organization surrounding invoicing in the vehicle rental industry, along with our tips to optimize your rental invoicing using a car rental management system.
What is car rental invoice sample?
A car rental invoice sample is a preformatted document that makes it easy to bill a customer for a rental service. It includes all the essential information: rental company and customer details, vehicle information, rental period, applied rates, and the total amount due. A car rental invoice is regulated by law and must follow specific rules. In fact, vehicle rental billing must meet several legal requirements, including:
- The obligation to issue an invoice for the rental
- Making the invoice accessible to the customer
- Using invoicing software
- Including mandatory information on the invoice
- Keeping records of car rental invoices
Invoicing is mandatory in vehicle rental, whether it is the rental of a passenger car, utility vehicle, truck, motorcycle or scooter, in short, medium or long term leases. Make sure to keep a clear record of every vehicle rental and car rental invoice to stay on top of your finances.
It is possible to outsource your vehicle rental invoice template to someone else who can then issue them in your name and on your behalf. The rental invoice must be issued once the rental service is completed as it is not uncommon to have fuel, mileage or extra days that need to be billed to the customer. The invoice must be issued in duplicate: one copy of the invoice to be given to the customer and a second copy to be kept for the vehicle rental company.
What is the best car rental invoice format?
The car rental invoice format can be used in either paper or electronic form, depending on your needs and the tools you use. Electronic invoicing is permitted if the vehicle rental company uses electronic signature and sends them online. In addition, the invoices that you draw up in the context of vehicle rental must include several mandatory items of information, under penalty of legal sanction if the information is missing.
Here is the list of mandatory information that must appear on a car rental invoice:
- Invoice date and number
- Rental company details (business name, address, VAT number)
- Customer details (name/business name, address, VAT number if applicable)
- Rental date or rental period
- Description of the service (vehicle, duration, additional services)
- Unit price excluding VAT, total excluding VAT, applicable VAT, total including VAT
- Payment terms (deadlines, late penalties, recovery fee)
- Specific mentions depending on the situation (VAT exemption, reverse charge, car sharing, etc.)
Managing the invoice of a vehicle rental is also evolving in order to keep up with the digital transition of businesses. It is therefore now mandatory to use management software that meets the conditions of inalterability, security, conservation and archiving of data for invoicing. This is great timing, there is a software tool specially designed for vehicle rental, we will come back to this later.
How to use your rental car invoice template?
Using a rental car invoice template involves a complete process—from creating the invoice to tracking its payment. First, clearly define when a customer should be billed. Keep in mind that the sooner the customer is billed, the sooner a vehicle rental company will receive payment. Next, clearly define the billing process: who is in charge of billing the vehicle rental? How is the billing information communicated to the customer? How is the invoice passed on to the customer? How do you track the usage and consistency of your invoice template for car rental?
It is also necessary to clearly define the invoicing follow-up procedure for the vehicle rental. Following up on the payment of the issued invoices and reminding customers of payment delays are important and difficult tasks for the vehicle rental company. It is necessary to clearly define this process to optimize customer collections and thus the cash flow of the vehicle rental company. Customer recontacts must be carried out quickly as soon as you notice that payment is overdue. Do not hesitate to contact the customer to check with him if, after several reminders, you still have not receive payment for your invoices. These last two points are crucial for managing the rental cars invoice properly.
How to choose your car rental invoice generator?
To save time and increase efficiency, it is strongly recommended — and in some cases even mandatory — to use a car rental invoice generator. Many reliable software manufacturers offer solutions to establish invoices that comply with the current laws while obtaining the necessary updates with each change in legislation. It is strongly recommended to use a software adapted to the car rental business. Thanks to its experience in rental and development, hitechsoftware has created the myrentcar vehicle rental software to optimize the management of the rental and invoicing.
Myrentcar meets the requirements of inalterability, security, conservation and archiving of data. Accessible on computer, tablet and smartphone to meet the mobility needs of rental companies and fleet managers, the myrentcar web-based vehicle rental solution allows you to manage your rental and your fleet simply via an intuitive schedule. The tool thus covers all stages of the rental process, from booking and generating the PDF car rental contract template to invoicing and transferring the invoices to the accounting system. Thanks to its numerous functionalities and customizable options, myrentcar facilitates and greatly optimizes invoice in car rental, but also financial management and customer management.
You can download a sample invoice for car rental directly from myrentcar to get a clear idea of how your future invoices will be generated and structured. The myrentcar vehicle rental management ERP is also compatible with our comprehensive solution for electronic invoicing. The electronic invoice will then enable you to reduce the cost of processing an invoice, automate tasks and store, secure and archive your data to optimize the management of a vehicle rental invoice. To explore the topic further, check out our blog for car rental businesses.