What a sales invoice is
A sales invoice is the document that records a sale. Since 2024 it is also the primary evidence of that sale for tax purposes — for goods and for services alike. It names the seller and the buyer, describes what was sold, shows the amounts with VAT separated out where it applies, and carries a sequential number and a date.
Two people need it. Your customer needs it to claim input VAT. You need it as the record that the sale happened at all.
Cash, charge, credit, billing, service — why none of it changes anything
This is the question that sends most people looking, and the answer is simpler than the search results suggest. The word in front describes the transaction, not a different legal document.
| What it is called | What the name is telling you |
|---|---|
| Cash invoice | Paid on the spot |
| Charge invoice | Goods or services delivered now, paid later |
| Credit invoice | The same thing, different house style |
| Billing invoice | Usually issued as work progresses or on a cycle |
| Service invoice | The sale was a service rather than goods |
| Sales invoice | The general term for all of the above |
RR 7-2024 is explicit about this. Changing a document's heading to Invoice, Cash Invoice, Charge Invoice, Credit Invoice, Billing Invoice “or any name describing the transaction” is treated as a minor change that does not require notifying your Revenue District Office. If the regulation considers the wording minor, so should you. What matters is the contents, not the heading.
Valid invoice, or supplementary document?
That is the distinction worth internalising, because it decides whether your customer can claim input VAT. An invoice is valid when it carries the contents RR 7-2024 requires:
- The VAT-registered statement, with your TIN and branch code.
- The total amount payable, with VAT shown separately from the net.
- The date, the quantity and the unit cost.
- A description of the goods or the nature of the service.
- For sales of ₱1,000 or more to a VAT-registered buyer, the buyer's name, address and TIN.
Miss those and what you have issued is a supplementary document, whatever the heading says — and a supplementary document cannot support an input VAT claim. A manual or looseleaf official receipt issued without a stamped “Invoice” falls squarely in that category.
VAT, and how to compute it
VAT is 12% of the net selling price, and the regulation wants it visible on its own line rather than folded into a single figure.
| Working forwards, from net prices | Amount |
|---|---|
| Line items, totalled (VATable sales) | ₱12,780.00 |
| VAT at 12% | ₱1,533.60 |
| Total amount due | ₱14,313.60 |
If your prices are quoted VAT-inclusive, work backwards instead: divide the gross by 1.12 to get the net, and the difference is the VAT.
If you are not VAT-registered, there is no VAT line and your invoice must not describe you as VAT-registered. Getting that wrong is expensive: a non-VAT taxpayer who issues a VAT invoice becomes liable for the VAT on that transaction under Section 106 or 108, on top of any percentage tax already owed, plus a 50 percent surcharge.
When you have to issue one
| If you are… | You must issue an invoice |
|---|---|
| VAT-registered | For every sale, regardless of amount |
| Not VAT-registered | For sales of ₱500 or more |
| Either, and the buyer asks | Always, whatever the amount |
Where to go from here
Two questions come up straight after this one, and each has its own page:
Sales invoice vs official receipt →
What the Ease of Paying Taxes Act changed in 2024, what the official receipt is still good for, and the mistake with a surcharge attached.
Sales invoice sample →
A filled-in VAT invoice with every required element, and a field-by-field walkthrough of how to fill one up.
This is general information, not tax advice. BIR rules change and how they apply depends on your registration type and your Revenue District Office. This page reflects the issuances cited below as of August 2026. Confirm with the BIR or your accountant before you commission printed invoices, reconfigure a POS or e-invoicing system, or file anything.
Sources: Republic Act No. 11976 (Ease of Paying Taxes Act); BIR Revenue Regulations No. 7-2024, effective 27 April 2024, including Section 3(B) on the required contents of an invoice and its treatment of document renaming as a minor change; Revenue Regulations No. 11-2024 on transitional provisions and the conversion of Billing Statements; Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 77-2024. Summarised from published Philippine tax-practitioner guidance rather than read from the issuances directly, so treat the regulation numbers as the thing to look up.
Issuing them without the arithmetic
Nothing above is difficult. It is just relentless: the same required fields, the VAT computed and shown separately, and a number that increments without gaps, on every document, on the busiest day of the month. That is the part worth handing to software.
Smapey Invoice does that. It does not register your business, secure your Authority to Print, or accredit a system with your RDO — those stay yours, and they come first.
Every invoice, the same every time
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