Free Invoice Builder for Estonian companies

How to make an invoice

Making an invoice takes a few minutes. The form is split into five parts, filled in from top to bottom.

1. 1

   Enter the sender and the recipient

   Type in your company details and your customer's. The recipient can be a company or a private person.

2. 2

   Add the invoice lines

   For each product or service: a description, quantity, unit, price and VAT rate. Totals and VAT are worked out for you.

3. 3

   Print the PDF

   Choose how the customer pays, check the summary and print the invoice as a PDF. The invoice can be in Estonian or English.

What an Estonian invoice must contain

What an invoice must contain comes from two laws. The Value-Added Tax Act says what an invoice from a VAT-registered business must show. The Accounting Act says what every accounting source document must contain, including when you are not VAT-registered.

An invoice from a VAT-registered business must show (Value-Added Tax Act § 37 subsection 7):

• the invoice's sequential number and date of issue
• the seller's name, address and VAT number
• the buyer's name and address
• the buyer's VAT number, where the buyer is liable for the tax
• the name of the goods or service and the quantity or volume
• the date of delivery or of the service, where it differs from the invoice date
• the price without VAT, and any discount not already in the price
• the taxable amount per VAT rate, with the rates applied
• the VAT payable, in euros

If you are not VAT-registered, the Accounting Act § 7 asks for the time of the transaction, a description of it and its figures (quantity, price, amount). An invoice to another business must also carry an invoice number and details identifying both parties.

Every one of these fields is on this form.

The invoice number

An invoice must carry a sequential number (Value-Added Tax Act § 37 subsection 7 clause 1). The simplest way is one running sequence, such as 2026-001, 2026-002 and so on, never skipping or repeating a number.

With a free account Erpilo offers the next number for every new invoice, so the sequence holds even when several people send invoices.

VAT on the invoice

If you are VAT-registered, give every line its VAT rate. The invoice must show the taxable amount per rate, with the rate, and the VAT payable in euros (Value-Added Tax Act § 37 subsection 7 clauses 9 and 10). The form works these out and shows them in the summary.

If you are not VAT-registered, leave the VAT ID empty and choose 0% on the lines. No VAT is then added to the invoice.

Invoicing a private person

When you sell to a private person for their own use, the Value-Added Tax Act does not require an invoice with every detail listed above (§ 37 subsection 3, with a few exceptions). The invoice is still your own accounting source document, so making one is still sensible.

Choose Individual as the recipient: the buyer's name is then enough, and you add an address or personal ID code only when you need them.

Deadlines and e-invoices

A VAT-registered business must issue an invoice within seven calendar days of shipping the goods or providing the service (Value-Added Tax Act § 37 subsection 1). An invoice may be issued on paper or, with the buyer's consent, electronically (§ 37 subsection 6).

If the buyer has registered in the Business Register to receive machine-readable invoices only, you must send them an e-invoice (Accounting Act § 7¹ subsection 3). A PDF invoice is fine otherwise. With a free account every invoice can also be downloaded as an e-invoice.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions people ask most often when making an invoice.