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Shopify Developer Invoice Template

A Shopify developer invoice bills a merchant for your work on their store: setting it up, customizing a theme, configuring apps, migrating products and supporting it after launch. It is not an order invoice. Store orders are billed through Shopify itself, and InvoiceQuickly does not connect to Shopify: it cannot read orders, products or customers from a store. What makes a developer invoice easy to approve is that every line maps to something the merchant agreed: the statement of work, a milestone, or a change request with a number and an approval date. It also helps to show what is not on your invoice. A paid theme from the Shopify Theme Store is licensed to the store that bought it, and app subscriptions are charged on the merchant's own Shopify bill, so the merchant usually pays both directly rather than through you. This template adds those details to an ordinary invoice: the store's myshopify.com address, the project and SOW reference, milestone or phase, store setup tasks, theme customization by template or section, app installation and configuration hours, product and data migration counts, approved change requests, post-launch support hours, third-party costs passed through at cost, and the handover terms for code and access. The download is an editable HTML invoice with invoice number, dates, a line-item table and totals. Fill it in your browser, then print it or save it as PDF. To create invoices from an account instead, InvoiceQuickly turns a typed or spoken description into an editable invoice draft you review before saving.

Draft this invoice
Preview this editable document

Download the HTML file to edit its fields, then print or save as PDF. Totals are entered manually.

What This Template Includes

  • Store address (for example brand-name.myshopify.com) and live domain
  • Project name and statement of work or proposal reference
  • Milestone or phase being billed
  • Store setup and configuration tasks (settings, shipping, taxes, payments, domains)
  • Theme customization: theme name, templates and sections changed
  • App installation and integration hours, with app names
  • Product, customer or content migration: source platform and record counts
  • Change requests with number and approval date
  • Post-launch support hours used and hours remaining
  • Third-party costs paid on the merchant's behalf, at cost
  • Costs the merchant pays directly (theme license, app subscriptions)
  • Code ownership, handover and access removal terms

How to Create Your Shopify Developer Invoice

  1. 01

    Describe your work

    Type a plain English description of the services you provided, the client, and the amount.

  2. 02

    AI generates your invoice

    InvoiceQuickly's AI drafts the client, line items, dates, and totals for you to review before saving.

  3. 03

    Review, download, and send

    Check every detail, download the PDF, or use Pro to email the PDF directly to your client.

Recommended Payment Terms

Most Shopify builds are billed by milestone: a deposit before work starts, then an invoice when each agreed phase is delivered, for example theme build, migration and launch. Write the milestones and their amounts into the proposal, and put the milestone name on each invoice so the merchant's approval is a yes or no. Hourly work such as app configuration, change requests and post-launch support is clearer when you list the date, task and hours, and bill it monthly. Net 14 is common for small merchants, but your agreement decides. Settle who owns the custom code and when it transfers, for example on payment of the final invoice, and say so in the invoice notes. If you hold collaborator access to the store, the merchant approves that access and controls which areas you can reach, so agree in writing when it will be removed after handover.

Need help writing payment terms? Read our guide to invoice payment terms for best practices and templates.

Tax Information

For a US developer working as a contractor, a merchant business that pays you $2,000 or more for services in a year (for payments made after 31 December 2025) files Form 1099-NEC, so expect to be asked for a Form W-9 before the first payment. Whether your development services are subject to sales tax depends on the state and on what you deliver: some states tax certain software, digital products or data services, and many do not tax custom web development, so check your state revenue department before you add tax. The merchant's own sales tax on products is configured in Shopify and is separate from your invoice. InvoiceQuickly applies one tax percentage per invoice and copies saved business and client tax IDs to new invoice PDFs, so if any part of your work is taxable and the rest is not, invoice it separately and add your tax ID in the notes if your client needs it. This is general information, not tax advice.

Industry context (2026)

Three Shopify Help Center pages, accessed 28 October 2026, explain what belongs on a developer's invoice and what does not. 'Understanding licensing and transferring themes on Shopify' says a theme bought from the Shopify Theme Store is licensed exclusively to the store where it was purchased, and that an unlicensed theme can lead to temporary account restrictions and gets no support or feature updates; so the merchant should usually buy the theme on their own store. 'App charges on your Shopify bills' says recurring app subscriptions and usage-based charges are added to the merchant's Shopify bill, one-time app purchases are billed on separate invoices, and some developers bill external charges directly, which do not appear on the Shopify bill. 'Client transfer stores and collaborations' says the merchant approves a Partner's collaborator access and controls which areas of the store the collaborator can reach, which is why handover terms belong in your agreement and invoice notes. For US contractors, the IRS 1099-NEC instructions (revised December 2026) set a $2,000 reporting threshold for nonemployee compensation for tax years beginning after 2025.

Worked example

Worked example (illustrative fees from this developer's own proposal, not market rates): Sam Rivera, a freelance Shopify developer, is rebuilding the store for Lumen Candle Co (lumen-candle.myshopify.com) under a proposal dated 1 September 2026 with three milestones. The deposit was billed on INV-0024 and paid. INV-0031, issued 4 November 2026, due net 14 on 18 November 2026, for milestone 2 of 3. Line 1: Theme customization on the merchant's licensed theme: product page template, cart drawer and a new bundle section, fixed fee per proposal: 1 at $2,400.00. Line 2: Product migration from WooCommerce CSV export, 312 products with variants and images, checked against the source: 312 at $2.50 = $780.00. Line 3: App installation and configuration, subscriptions app and product reviews app, 21 to 28 October: 6.5 hours at $95.00 = $617.50. Line 4: Change request CR-04, wholesale price list page, approved by email on 22 October: 3 hours at $95.00 = $285.00. Total $4,082.50. No sales tax: Sam has checked that their state does not tax this service. Notes: 'Theme license and app subscriptions are on Lumen's own Shopify bill and are not included here. Milestone 3 (launch and 10 hours of post-launch support) will be billed on go-live. Custom code transfers to Lumen Candle Co on payment of the final invoice; collaborator access will be removed 30 days after launch unless a support plan is agreed.' The merchant can approve line 1 against the proposal, check line 2 against their product count and see that CR-04 was agreed before it was built.

Common mistakes to avoid

Reselling the theme or apps without saying so

If you buy a theme on your own account or add app costs to your invoice, the license and billing sit in the wrong place. Let the merchant buy on their store, or list anything you paid at cost with the receipt.

'Development work: $4,082.50'

A single line gives the merchant nothing to approve. Tie each line to a milestone, a change request or dated hours.

Unapproved change requests

Building extra pages on a chat message and billing them later starts a dispute. Number change requests, get approval in writing and quote the approval date on the invoice.

No handover terms

Without a line on code ownership and access removal, the merchant may not know when they own the work, and you may keep store access you no longer need. State both in the notes.

Using an order invoice layout

Shopify's order invoices and printed order templates are for product sales. Your development work needs a service invoice with hours, milestones and terms.

Invoicing Tips

  • 1Put the store's myshopify.com address on every invoice. Agencies and merchants with more than one store need it to match your work to the right one.
  • 2Name the theme and the templates or sections you changed ('Dawn: product template, cart drawer, new bundle section'), not just 'theme customization'.
  • 3Bill each change request on its own line with its number and approval date, so scope growth is visible and agreed.
  • 4Leave the theme license and app subscriptions off your invoice unless you really paid them. Shopify bills app subscriptions to the merchant's own Shopify bill.
  • 5For migrations, give the source platform and the record counts (312 products, 1,480 customers), so the merchant can check them against the new store.
  • 6Show support hours used and remaining each month if the merchant bought a support block, so the next top-up is not a surprise.

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a Shopify developer invoice include?

Your and the merchant's details, an invoice number, issue and due dates, the store's myshopify.com address, the project and SOW reference, the milestone being billed, each task with hours or a fixed fee (setup, theme work, app configuration, migration, change requests, support), third-party costs at cost, the total, payment instructions and your code handover terms.

Should I charge a Shopify client hourly or a fixed price?

Many developers quote a fixed fee per milestone for well-defined work such as a theme build or a migration, and bill by the hour for app configuration, change requests and support, where the scope is hard to predict. Whichever you choose, put it in the proposal and repeat the basis on each invoice line.

Who pays for the Shopify theme and apps?

Usually the merchant. A theme bought from the Shopify Theme Store is licensed to the store that bought it, and app subscriptions and usage charges appear on the merchant's own Shopify bill. If you buy something for the client outside Shopify, list it at cost on its own line with the receipt reference.

Can InvoiceQuickly create invoices from my Shopify orders?

No. InvoiceQuickly does not connect to Shopify, so it cannot import orders, products or customers. It is for invoices you write yourself, such as billing a merchant for development work or invoicing a sale agreed outside your store.

How do I invoice a deposit for a Shopify build?

Send a separate invoice for the deposit before work starts, with the project name and the milestone it secures. On the later milestone invoices, reference the deposit invoice number in the notes so the merchant can see what has been paid. InvoiceQuickly has no deposit field, so a separate invoice is the clean way to do it there too.

Can I make a Shopify developer invoice in InvoiceQuickly?

Yes. Type or say something like 'Invoice Lumen Candle Co for milestone 2: theme customization fixed fee $2,400, product migration 312 products at $2.50, app setup 6.5 hours at $95, change request CR-04 3 hours at $95, net 14' and InvoiceQuickly drafts an editable invoice you review before saving. Free includes 5 invoices and 3 AI drafts; Pro ($9 a month) adds unlimited invoices, email delivery, estimates and payment links through your own Stripe or PayPal account.