A bakery's paperwork gets messy fast. A wedding client wants a deposit invoice today, a café is asking for a Net 30 statement, and the retail counter is running on receipt-tape stubs. Copy the bakery invoice template below, then use the retail, wholesale, and custom-order steps to set payment terms, collect deposits, and handle sales tax more clearly.

What does a bakery invoice need to include?

To invoice a bakery order, list each product with its quantity and unit price, apply sales tax based on the item type and your state's rules, and set payment terms such as Net 15, Net 30, or due on receipt.

Every bakery invoice should carry these fields:

• Your business info. Legal name, address, phone, email, and EIN if you have one.
• Customer info. For wholesale, use the buyer's accounts-payable email and delivery address (they are often different).
• Invoice number, issue date, and due date. Sequential numbers matter for audits.
• Line items. Product name, quantity (dozens, trays, sheet size), unit price, and line total.
• Sales tax. Charge it on prepared and hot items and on individual slices sold for on-site eating. Check your state's rule for whole cakes and grocery-style items. New York, for example, exempts a whole unsliced cake sold to-go, but taxes the same cake once you slice it for the customer.
• Payment terms and methods. Net 15 or Net 30 for wholesale, due-on-receipt for custom retail orders. Spell out ACH, card, and check options.
• Notes. Delivery date, PO number, allergen callouts, and any deposit already paid.

Copy-ready bakery invoice template

BAKERY INVOICE

[Your Bakery Name]
[Street Address, City, State ZIP]
[Phone] · [Email] · EIN: [XX-XXXXXXX]

BILL TO:                             SHIP TO:
[Customer / AP contact]              [Delivery address]
[Company name]                       [Contact on site]
[AP email]                           [Phone]

Invoice #: [YYYY-####]
Issue date: [MM/DD/YYYY]
Due date:   [MM/DD/YYYY]
PO #:       [If required by buyer]

-----------------------------------------------------------------
ITEM                              QTY     UNIT PRICE     LINE TOTAL
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Croissants, butter (dozen)         6         $30.00        $180.00
Sourdough boule, 1.5 lb           12          $7.50         $90.00
Sheet cake, half, vanilla          1         $85.00         $85.00
Delivery fee                       1         $15.00         $15.00
-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                            Subtotal:      $370.00
                              Sales tax (see notes):         $0.00
                              Deposit received:            -$0.00
                                               TOTAL:      $370.00

Payment terms: Net 30
Accepted: ACH (preferred), Visa/MC/Amex, check payable to [Bakery]
Late fee: applied per invoice terms where state law permits

Notes: Wholesale resale — CA resale cert on file (exp. 12/31/25).
Return stales credited on next invoice.

Tip: Paste the template into a spreadsheet and add formulas for subtotal, sales tax, and total. Keep a second tab that lists each invoice number, customer, issue date, due date, and payment status. That tab can serve as a simple accounts-receivable tracker.

Downloadable bakery invoice template vs. sending invoices from your bank

A Word doc or PDF template is fine for a one-off wedding cake. The problem starts at ten to twenty invoices a month, when you're chasing payment in one tool, watching your account in another, and reconciling by hand.

When a downloadable template is enough:

• You send fewer than about five invoices a month.
• Most customers pay by check or in person.
• You don't need automatic reminders.

When to send invoices from your business checking account:

• You have recurring wholesale accounts on Net 15 or Net 30.
• You want the pay-now link and the deposit to land in the same place.
• You need a running record for tax time without exporting from a third tool.

Sending invoices from a business checking account (like Novo) means the pay-now link and the deposit land in one place, so you skip the CSV export and the manual match.

For custom orders, add these fields to your template: a deposit line (25–50% at booking, non-refundable), a balance due date (usually one to two weeks before delivery), and a small product photo of the design so there's no dispute at delivery. Put your logo top-left, keep colors to two, and leave a notes field for allergens.

How do you invoice wholesale accounts (cafés, restaurants, grocers)?

Wholesale bakery customers such as cafés and grocers typically expect Net 15 or Net 30 payment terms and often require a purchase order (PO) number on every invoice.

Standing orders vs. one-offs. If a café takes the same order every Tuesday and Friday, invoice weekly on a fixed day (say, every Friday) covering that week's deliveries. For one-off catering runs, invoice per delivery.

Net 15 vs. Net 30. Independent cafés usually accept Net 15. Larger buyers may request Net 30 or longer terms, so decide whether the account volume justifies the cash-flow gap before you agree. Longer terms affect cash flow because you pay for ingredients and labor before the customer pays the invoice.

PO numbers. Many grocery chains reject invoices without a PO, so ask for the PO before you bake and include it on every invoice. Send the invoice to the AP email, not the store manager.

Returns and stales. Decide up front: do you take stale product back for credit, or is it sold firm? If you credit stales, add a "Stale credit" line on the next invoice rather than issuing a separate refund. It keeps reconciliation clean.

Delivery slip vs. invoice. The driver leaves a delivery slip (products and quantities, no prices) with the store. The invoice (with prices and terms) goes to the accounts-payable email. Store staff don't need to see your wholesale pricing.

How do you invoice custom orders: cakes, weddings, and catering?

Many bakeries use a non-refundable deposit of roughly 25–50% at booking, with the balance due one to two weeks before the event.

The three-invoice structure most bakers use:

1. Deposit invoice at booking — 25–50%, non-refundable. This holds the date and covers your specialty ingredients.
2. Second invoice about two weeks before the event — brings the customer to roughly 75% paid.
3. Final invoice on delivery day for the balance, including any change orders.

Change orders. If the customer changes the flavor, adds a tier, or wants a sugar-flower topper two weeks out, issue a change-order line on the second or final invoice. Bill for the change order and include this policy on the deposit invoice: "Design or flavor changes requested within 14 days of the event are billed at time and materials."

Cancellation language. Put it directly on the deposit invoice, not in a separate contract that gets lost:

Deposits are non-refundable. Cancellations more than 30 days before the event may receive a store credit at the baker's discretion. Cancellations inside 14 days forfeit all payments made to date.

Break out fees as separate lines so the customer sees what they're paying for: tasting fee, design consultation, delivery, on-site setup, cake stand rental, cutting fee if you're staying to serve. Bundling everything into "wedding cake $850" invites haggling. Itemizing shows the work. If you also handle food service for the event, borrow the itemization habits from a good invoice template for Catering Businesses — staffing, rentals, and gratuity get their own lines.

What sales tax should bakeries charge on baked goods?

In many states, whole baked goods sold unheated for off-site consumption are treated as non-taxable groceries, while sliced or heated items sold for immediate consumption are taxed as prepared food. Get this wrong and you either overcharge customers or owe the state at audit.

The classification that matters: grocery (usually exempt or reduced-rate) vs. prepared food for immediate consumption (usually taxable at the full rate).

The same product can be either. A whole unsliced sheet cake sold to-go often reads as a grocery item. Slice it and sell it on a plate, and it reads as prepared food.

A state example:

• New York. A whole unsliced cake sold to-go is generally exempt as a grocery item. Once it's sliced for the customer, or served for on-premises eating, it's taxable prepared food.

Rules vary widely by state, so check your state department of revenue for the definitions that apply where you sell.

Wholesale sales are different. Wholesale sales to resellers are exempt from sales tax when the bakery keeps a valid resale certificate on file from the buyer. Get the certificate before the first delivery, note the expiration date, and re-collect when it expires. If you can't produce the certificate at audit, the state will bill you the tax you didn't charge.

Catering and delivery fees. Many states tax the delivery fee when the underlying food is taxable, even if the food itself is exempt. Check your state's rule and, when in doubt, itemize the delivery fee on its own line so the tax treatment is transparent.

What payment methods work best for bakery invoices?

ACH for recurring wholesale. ACH transfers move funds directly between bank accounts under Nacha rules. ACH may cost less than card payments depending on your provider, so compare your processor's fees before setting payment terms. If your card processor charges 2.9% + $0.30, a $1,200 card payment costs $35.10 before any other fees.

Cards for retail and custom. For a $500 wedding deposit, the customer wants to swipe. Factor the card processing fee into your price, or add a card-processing surcharge line if your state allows it.

A common split: take the deposit by card (customer convenience on the smaller number), take the final balance by ACH or wire (lower fee on the big number). On a $4,000 balance, the difference between a 2.9% card fee and a flat ACH or wire fee can be close to $100 saved.

Overdue follow-up cadence that works for most bakeries:

• Day 3 past due: Send a friendly email: "Just following up on invoice #2025-114. Let me know if you need me to resend it."
• Day 10: Send a firmer email cc'ing the owner or manager, with a copy of the invoice attached.
• Day 15: Call. If it's a wholesale account, mention you'll need to pause the next delivery until the balance clears.
• Day 30: Apply a late fee only if your invoice terms and state law allow it, and stop deliveries until the account is current.

How long should bakeries keep invoice records?

The IRS expects small businesses to keep supporting records, including invoices, for at least three years from the date the return was filed. Some situations (understated income, worthless-security losses) push that to six or seven years. Save every invoice, every deposit slip, and the resale certificates you collect from wholesale buyers.

Reconcile weekly, not yearly. Match invoices to deposits in your business checking account every Friday morning. Ten minutes a week beats a lost weekend in April. If you're still running everything through one account, using business sub-accounts to bucket money for sales tax, wedding deposits, and payroll makes weekly reconciliation faster and keeps you from spending tax money by accident.

Separate accounts. Small businesses should separate personal and business finances, including using a dedicated business checking account, to simplify recordkeeping and tax filing. It also matters for liability protection if you're an LLC.

Track COGS against invoiced revenue. A $200 birthday cake invoice looks great until you count the $60 of imported chocolate, the four hours of decorating labor, and the $8 box. Log flour, sugar, butter, packaging, and labor against each large custom job so you know real margin, not gut-feel margin. Our bakery business expenses guide breaks down which of those costs are deductible and how to categorize them.

1099-K considerations. If a wholesale customer pays you through a third-party platform, you may get a 1099-K for those payments. It does not change what you owe because you already reported the revenue on your invoices, but you still need to reconcile the platform totals with your books so the income is not counted twice.

How can bakeries use Novo for wholesale invoices and wedding-cake deposits?

Novo business checking has a $0 monthly fee and no minimum balance, lets small businesses send invoices and accept ACH and card payments from the dashboard, includes no-fee incoming wires, and integrates with Stripe, Square, and Shopify, but Novo does not accept cash deposits.

What that means in practice for a bakery:

• All-in-one invoicing. The pay-now link and the deposit land in the same place, so a Net 30 café invoice paid on day 28 shows up in the same dashboard where you sent it.
• No-fee incoming wires. Useful when a venue or corporate catering client pays a large balance by wire. If your current bank charges incoming wire fees, compare that cost before choosing how to collect the final payment.
• Stripe, Square, and Shopify sync. Retail-counter card sales and online cake-order form payments flow into the same checking account.
• The honest tradeoff. Novo does not accept cash deposits. A cash-heavy retail counter needs a plan — a separate cash-accepting account at a nearby bank, or a cash-handling service that deposits on your behalf. If your bakery is 80% wholesale invoices and card sales, this is a non-issue. If you take half your revenue as cash at a farmers' market booth, plan around it. For a fuller comparison across features and fees, see our guide to the best bank for bakeries.

Bakery invoicing FAQs

Do I charge sales tax on a wedding cake? It depends on your state and whether the cake is sliced or served on-premises. A whole cake delivered uncut is often treated as a grocery item and exempt; the same cake sliced or served with utensils becomes taxable prepared food in most states. Check your state's rule.

What payment terms should I offer a new café account? Start at Net 15 for the first two or three months. If they pay on time, extending to Net 30 is a reasonable request. Ask for a PO number on every order from day one.

How much deposit should I take on a wedding cake? Most bakers charge 25–50% non-refundable at booking, half of the remaining balance about two weeks before the event, and the final balance on delivery.

Can I invoice a wholesale customer without charging sales tax? Yes, if you keep a valid resale certificate from the buyer on file. Collect it before the first delivery and re-collect when it expires.

How long do I have to keep bakery invoices? The IRS baseline is three years from the date the return was filed, with longer periods for specific situations. Most bakers keep seven years to be safe.

Does Novo work for a cash-heavy bakery? Partially. Novo has a $0 monthly fee, sends invoices, accepts ACH and card payments, and includes no-fee incoming wires, but does not accept cash deposits. A cash-heavy retail bakery needs a companion account or a cash-handling service.

Disclosures

Novo Platform Inc. ("Novo") is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services provided by Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A., Member FDIC. The Novo Debit Card is issued by Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A., and the Novo Business Credit Card is issued by Continental Bank, pursuant to licenses from Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard is a registered trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated and can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted. The Novo Merchant Cash Advance is offered by Novo Funding LLC. Your eligibility for Novo products and services is subject to final Novo determination.

The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. Sales tax rules, IRS recordkeeping requirements, 1099 reporting, and liability protections vary by state and by business situation. Consult a qualified attorney, CPA, or state tax authority for guidance on your specific circumstances.