How to Make an Invoice in 2026: Step-by-Step Guide

#Making an invoice properly: easier than you think

Making an invoice should be as simple as filling in a form. But between legal requirements, mandatory fields, VAT rates and the new Verifactu regulation, it’s normal to have doubts.

This guide explains exactly how to make a correct invoice in 2026, step by step, with real examples. It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelancer, an SL or just starting out: by the end of it you’ll know how to make legal invoices without fearing the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT).

#The 10 mandatory fields of every invoice

According to the Spanish Invoicing Regulation (RD 1619/2012), every complete invoice must include these fields:

#Step by step: how to make your first invoice

#Step 1: Prepare your tax details

Before making your first invoice, you need your details ready:

#Step 2: Identify your customer

Ask your customer for these details before issuing the invoice:

• ✓Name or business name
• ✓NIF or CIF
• ✓Full tax address
• ✓Email (to send the invoice)

#Step 3: Describe what you sell

The description must be clear and sufficient for the Tax Agency to understand what you’ve sold or what service you’ve provided.

#Step 4: Calculate the amounts

This is where many people get confused. It’s easier than it seems:

Basic formula (without withholding):

Taxable base = Quantity × Unit price
VAT amount   = Taxable base × VAT rate
TOTAL        = Taxable base + VAT amount

Formula with IRPF withholding:

Taxable base       = Quantity × Unit price
VAT amount         = Taxable base × VAT rate
IRPF withholding   = Taxable base × Withholding rate
TOTAL              = Taxable base + VAT amount − IRPF withholding

Full example:

The customer pays you €2,120. The €300 withholding is paid directly by the customer to the Tax Agency on your behalf.

#Step 5: Number the invoice correctly

The numbering must be:

• Sequential: No gaps (001, 002, 003…)
• Unique: No two invoices can share the same number
• By series: You can use different series for different types

#Step 6: Send and store

#VAT rates in Spain (2026)

#Types of invoice: which one you need in each case

#Complete invoice (the standard)

It’s the normal invoice with all the mandatory fields. You need it for:

• Any B2B operation (between companies/freelancers)
• Significant-amount sales to individuals
• Whenever the customer requests an invoice

#Simplified invoice (the old “ticket”)

It has replaced the till receipt since 2013. You can issue it when:

Mandatory fields of the simplified invoice:

• Number and series
• Issue date
• Issuer’s NIF and name
• Description of the good/service
• Applied VAT rate
• Total amount

#Rectifying invoice

Issued to correct errors in a previous invoice. Complete guide to rectifying invoices →

#Proforma invoice

It is not an invoice — it’s a quote in invoice format. It has no fiscal validity.

Always mark “PROFORMA” clearly so it isn’t confused with a real invoice.

#Recurring invoice

If you invoice the same amount every month to the same customer (monthly fee, recurring service), you can automate the process with invoicing software that generates recurring invoices automatically.

#When am I required to issue an invoice?

Always. With very specific exceptions:

In practice: always issue an invoice. They’ll never penalise you for invoicing too much, but they will for invoicing too little.

#Deadlines: when to issue the invoice

Example: You finish a design project on 25 March. You can issue the invoice up to 15 April at the latest. But ideally you should issue it the same day or the following day.

#Invoicing abroad: the 3 situations

#1. To EU companies (intra-community)

#2. To companies outside the EU (export of services)

#3. To EU individuals

#Real example: complete invoice step by step

Imagine that María, a freelance designer in Valencia, makes a logo for a Barcelona company.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

                     INVOICE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Invoice No.: F-2026-012
Date: 18/03/2026

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ISSUER:                        CUSTOMER:
María López Fernández          Tech Solutions S.L.
NIF: 12345678Z                 CIF: B87654321
C/ Colón 42, 3ºB               C/ Aragó 255, 1º
46004 Valencia                 08007 Barcelona

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CONCEPT                     QUANTITY   PRICE      TOTAL
────────────────────────────────────────────────
Corporate logo design            1     €600.00    €600.00
(3 proposals + final
vector artwork)

Basic brand manual               1     €400.00    €400.00
(typography, colours,
permitted uses)

────────────────────────────────────────────────
                        TAXABLE BASE:    €1,000.00
                        VAT 21%:           +€210.00
                        IRPF withh. 15%:   −€150.00
                        ─────────────────────────
                        INVOICE TOTAL:   €1,060.00

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Payment method: Bank transfer
IBAN: ES12 1234 5678 9012 3456 7890
Due date: 18/04/2026

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#Verifactu and invoicing in 2026–2027: what changes

From January 2027 (companies) and July 2027 (freelancers), the Verifactu regulation requires your invoicing software to:

Complete Verifactu guide →

#Excel and Word vs. invoicing software

Making invoices in Excel is like keeping accounts in a notebook: it works until it doesn’t. And with Verifactu, it will stop working legally in 2027.

#The 5 most common mistakes when making invoices

#❌ Mistake 1: Numbering with gaps or duplicates

If your last invoice is number 047, the next one is 048. Not 050, not 047-bis. The Tax Agency checks this.

#❌ Mistake 2: Not including the customer’s NIF

On complete invoices, the customer’s NIF is mandatory. Without a NIF, the invoice isn’t valid for the customer to deduct VAT.

#❌ Mistake 3: Vague descriptions

“Professional services” isn’t a valid description. The Tax Agency wants to know what you did, not that you did “something”.

#❌ Mistake 4: Applying withholding when it doesn’t apply

IRPF withholding only applies between professionals (activities in IAE group 8xx) and to companies. If you invoice an individual, no withholding applies.

#❌ Mistake 5: Issuing the invoice late

If you provide a service in March and issue the invoice in June, you have a problem. The maximum deadline is the 16th day of the following month.

#FAQ — Frequently asked questions

#Can I make invoices without being self-employed?

No, except in very specific cases. To issue invoices on a regular basis you need to be registered as self-employed (RETA) and with the Tax Agency (forms 036/037). There’s debate about “occasional activities”, but the Tax Agency does not officially recognise this exception.

#Is it mandatory to include the IBAN on the invoice?

It’s not legally mandatory, but highly recommended. It makes payment easier and removes excuses.

#Can I invoice in another currency (dollars, pounds)?

Yes, but you must indicate the equivalent in euros and the exchange rate used. The declaration to the Tax Agency is always in euros.

#Which IRPF withholding rate do I apply?

• 15% — general rate for professional freelancers
• 7% — first 3 years of activity (new freelancers)
• 0% — if you’re not in professional activities (IAE group 8xx) or you invoice individuals

#Is an invoice by email legal?

Yes, completely. The electronic invoice (PDF by email) has the same validity as a paper one.

#Can I cancel an invoice?

No. Invoices are not cancelled or deleted. If there’s a mistake, you issue a rectifying invoice. See guide →

#How long must I keep invoices?

Minimum 4 years (tax statute of limitations). If there are intra-community operations or deductions on capital goods, it can be longer.

#Do I have to print the invoices?

No. Digital invoices have been perfectly valid for years. In fact, with Verifactu it will be the norm.

#What if I make a mistake on an invoice already sent?

Issue a rectifying invoice indicating the original invoice you’re correcting. Don’t modify the original.

#Do I absolutely need invoicing software?

In 2026, technically no (yet). In 2027, yes: Verifactu requires certified software. But even today, using a program saves you mistakes, time and problems with the Tax Agency.

#How to make invoices with BeeL in 3 steps

With BeeL.es you can make your first invoice in less than 2 minutes:

Step 1: Create your account → Enter your tax details (only the first time)

Step 2: Add a customer → Name, NIF, address. Saved forever.

Step 3: Create the invoice → Choose customer, describe the service, set the price. BeeL calculates VAT, IRPF and numbering automatically.

• ✓Send the invoice as PDF in one click
• ✓Automatic and sequential numbering
• ✓VAT, IRPF and totals calculated without errors
• ✓100% Verifactu compatible
• ✓From €4.90/month (and yes, it's a deductible expense 😉)

Start free with BeeL.es →

#Checklist: your invoice is correct if it has…

• ✓Sequential and unique number
• ✓Issue date (within deadline)
• ✓Your full tax details (name + NIF + address)
• ✓Full customer details (name + NIF + address)
• ✓Clear and detailed description of the service/product
• ✓Quantity and unit price
• ✓Taxable base
• ✓VAT rate and amount
• ✓IRPF withholding (if applicable)
• ✓Total amount
• ✓Payment method (recommended)
• ✓Due date (recommended)

#Summary: the essentials of making an invoice