Two rules most invoicing tools don't model
The reverse charge and CIS, on the document
On a real subcontract invoice these two very often appear together — and that combination is exactly where hand-editing a template goes wrong.
VAT domestic reverse charge
Where it applies you charge no VAT — the customer accounts for it themselves. Most software handles that by deleting the VAT line, which leaves the customer with nothing to work from.
OnPoint works out the VAT that would have been charged, keeps it on the document as a stated memo figure, and takes it out of what's payable. The memo is the point: your customer needs to know the amount they're accounting for.
CIS deduction
Every line on the invoice is either labour or materials. The deduction applies to the labour, because materials are exempt — so what the customer actually pays is the total minus the CIS withheld.
All three figures are on the invoice: what the work came to, what's being withheld, and what lands in your bank. Nobody has to reverse-engineer the middle one.
Late payment interest
A legal right most trades never exercise
Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, a business owed money late by another business can charge statutory interest at the Bank of England base rate plus 8%, plus a one-off fixed sum. Almost nobody does, because working it out by hand is miserable.
Debt under £1,000
£40
fixed compensation
Under £10,000
£70
fixed compensation
£10,000 and over
£100
fixed compensation
It accrues on what's actually owed, day by day
This invoice went 60 days late and the customer paid 80% of it on day 30. Interest steps down from that day, because from that day only £414 was outstanding. Total × rate × days would have charged the full balance for the whole period — easy to write, impossible to defend the first time a customer checks it.
£1,656 paid on day 30 · interest charged on £414 from day 31, not on £2,070
Every charge can be broken down day by day, so when a customer asks how you got to the number, you can answer.
Invoices on an agreed payment plan don't accrue interest on top. The customer is already paying to a schedule, which is what interest exists to encourage.
OnPoint calculates VAT, CIS and interest to help you invoice correctly. It is not tax or legal advice, and whether the reverse charge or CIS applies to a given job remains your judgement.
The care taken
Six decisions that make the number defensible
A charge your customer can pick holes in is worse than no charge at all. Each of these exists because the obvious implementation is wrong in a way that only shows up in an argument.
01
The right base rate, not today's
The Act fixes the base-rate component in six-month reference periods: the rate in force on 31 December governs January to June, and the rate on 30 June governs July to December. Looking up today's rate would change what's owed on invoices already issued every time the Bank moved.
02
Your terms freeze when the invoice goes out
Raise your rate next month and invoices already with customers keep the terms they were sent under. You can't retroactively charge someone more than the invoice they were given said.
03
It never charges for today
Interest accrues up to yesterday, so someone who pays this morning isn't billed for the day they settled.
04
Simple interest, not compound
Statutory interest is simple interest on the unpaid debt. Interest already charged never becomes principal.
05
It won't chase pennies
Set a minimum and anything under it is never applied automatically. An invoice reopened for 43p reads as pettiness, and costs you more goodwill than it collects.
06
Working shown
Every charge breaks down day by day — balance, rate, days, amount. The conversation ends with a table rather than an assertion.
Private customers are different, and OnPoint treats them differently
Unconfigured, it charges nobodyThe 1998 Act is business-to-business only, so a private customer can never be charged statutory interest.
Charging a homeowner interest at all requires an express clause in terms they were given before the work — so OnPoint asks you to confirm that on the record, storing who confirmed it and when, before it will charge any consumer.
It flags a rate that would read as a penalty rather than compensation on a consumer invoice. An excessive rate is an unfair term under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and unenforceable anyway.
Seven ways it arrives
However the customer wants to pay it
OnPoint takes no percentage of any of it. Stripe's own fees, on card payments, are the only fees.
Card, from the invoice
The customer opens the invoice and pays. Processed by Stripe, into your own Stripe account.
Bank transfer, matched
Connect your account through open banking and incoming payments are pulled in and matched to open invoices — put in front of you to confirm, not applied silently.
Deposits up front
A fixed amount or a percentage, taken before the work starts.
Payment plans
Weekly or monthly instalments, with interest if agreed, collected by bank transfer, a payment link, or automatically on a saved card.
Credit on account
Money paid before there's an invoice to put it against sits on the customer's account and gets allocated later.
Refunds
Recorded as money going out — and a refunded invoice stops being chased, which sounds obvious until you've been chased for money you were just paid back.
Cash and cheque
Recorded like anything else, against the invoice they settle.
And nothing to us
OnPoint takes no cut of any payment. The bank connection reads transactions in — it never moves money out.
Then the chasing
A real due date, and a settled test that counts everything
Invoices carry a due date set when they're sent, and go overdue on their own against that date — not against “days since we sent it, recalculated with whatever the settings say today”. It's the date the customer was actually given.
And the test for whether something is settled counts payments, credit notes and the CIS the customer was never going to hand over in the first place. Anyone who's been chased for a balance that was only ever a withheld deduction knows why that matters.
See how the chasing itself works — it runs overnight, whether or not anyone remembers.
A test that only counted payments would have chased this customer for £570 they don't owe.
Straight answers
On the tax, the interest and the fees.
01Does OnPoint handle the VAT domestic reverse charge?
Yes. Where it applies, no VAT is charged and the amount is taken out of what the customer pays. Whether it applies to a given job remains your judgement — OnPoint models the rule, it doesn't decide that for you.
02Does it show the reverse-charge VAT amount for the customer's own records?
Yes, as a stated memo figure on the invoice. It works out the VAT that would have been charged and keeps it on the document, so the customer knows the amount they're accounting for. Deleting the line and showing nothing gives them nothing to work from.
03Does it deduct CIS on invoices?
Yes. Every line is labour or materials, the deduction applies to the labour, and the invoice shows what the work came to, what's withheld and what's payable.
04Is CIS deducted on materials?
No. Materials are exempt. The deduction is calculated on the labour lines only.
05Can I charge late payment interest, and at what rate?
Yes. Between businesses, the statutory rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 is the Bank of England base rate plus 8%, and OnPoint uses the base rate fixed for the relevant six-month reference period rather than today's. Interest accrues day by day on the balance that actually stood, up to yesterday.
06What is the fixed compensation?
A one-off sum banded on the size of the debt: £40 under £1,000, £70 under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 and over.
07Can I charge a private customer interest?
Never statutory interest — the 1998 Act is business-to-business only. Charging a consumer interest at all requires an express term in the terms they were given before the work, so OnPoint asks you to confirm that on the record, storing who confirmed it and when, before it will charge any consumer. It also flags a rate that would read as a penalty rather than compensation, since an excessive rate is an unfair term under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Unconfigured, it charges nobody. This isn't legal advice.
08Is the interest compound?
No. It's simple interest on the unpaid debt — interest already charged never becomes principal.
09Can customers pay by card, and does OnPoint take a percentage?
Yes to card — the customer pays from the invoice, processed by Stripe into your own Stripe account. OnPoint takes no cut of any payment; Stripe's own fees are the only fees.
10Can I take a deposit, or set up instalments?
Both. Deposits as a fixed amount or a percentage up front, and payment plans splitting an invoice into weekly or monthly instalments — with interest if agreed — collected by bank transfer, a payment link, or automatically on a saved card. An invoice on a plan doesn't accrue late payment interest on top.
11Does it import payments from my bank?
Yes, through open banking. Incoming payments are pulled in and matched to open invoices, and the matches are put in front of you to confirm rather than applied silently. The connection reads transactions in — it never moves money out.
12What does it cost?
£19 for the first seat and £9 for each seat after. All of this is on every plan — there's no higher tier. See pricing.
Raise one subcontract invoice and check the arithmetic.
14 days free, no card. Put a labour line and a materials line on it, turn the reverse charge on, and see whether the three figures at the bottom are the ones you'd have worked out by hand.