Free tool · Excel · Built for CIS subcontractors

Get the CIS deduction right, every time.
Free. No catch.

A free Excel spreadsheet built for construction subcontractors. It splits labour from materials, works out your CIS deduction automatically, and keeps a running record of everything you've had deducted, ready for when you submit to HMRC.

Not paid under CIS? Get the standard free invoice tool instead →
Prefer we email the CIS tool to you instead? Get in touch and we'll send the link over.

CIS deduction basics

What is a CIS deduction?

Under the Construction Industry Scheme, a contractor deducts tax from what they pay you and sends it to HMRC on your behalf, before you ever see the money. The rate depends on your CIS status, and it only applies to the labour part of what you're charging, materials are excluded. Our full guide to how MTD works for CIS covers the rest.

CIS statusDeduction rateWhat it means
Gross payment status0%No deduction, you're paid the full amount and handle your own tax.
Registered20%The standard rate for subcontractors registered with HMRC for CIS.
Unverified30%Applies if a contractor can't verify you with HMRC, usually because you're not registered.
Try it: work out a CIS deduction

Enter your labour and materials for one invoice and pick your status.

Total invoice£650.00
CIS deduction-£100.00
Net payable£550.00

This is exactly how the free CIS invoice tool works it out, download it to do this automatically on every invoice, with a full record kept for your tax return.

Why it's free

Built for subcontractors who are sick of doing this bit by hand.

No email address, no account, no features held back for later. Download it, add your details, and it's yours to keep.

Splits labour and materials automatically, so the deduction's only ever worked out on the right amount.
Keeps a running total of every deduction you've suffered this tax year, by contractor.
Already need to submit to HMRC? suiteSheets already supports CIS income, record the gross, and we'll take it from there.
Free toolReal output from the tool
An example CIS invoice showing the labour and materials split and the CIS deduction
Genuinely free
No account needed
Splits labour & materials
Feeds straight into suiteSheets
What's inside

Everything you need to invoice as a CIS subcontractor.

Fill in the yellow boxes, ignore the rest. Everything else, including your deduction, works itself out from what you've typed.

Your details, UTR and bank details

Add them once on the Settings sheet, including your Unique Taxpayer Reference, and they carry through to every invoice.

Labour and materials, split automatically

CIS only deducts from labour, materials are kept separate so you're never taxed on them by mistake.

Your CIS deduction, worked out for you

Set your status once, gross payment (0%), registered (20%), or unverified (30%), and every invoice calculates the right deduction automatically.

Net Due calculated automatically

See exactly what your contractor will actually pay you, after the deduction, before you even send the invoice.

A running ledger

Every invoice, every deduction, in one place, no digging through old paperwork.

Payments, including part payments

An invoice's only marked paid once the full net amount is in.

A CIS Summary, built automatically

Total deductions suffered this tax year, broken down by contractor, ready whenever you need the figure.

For CIS subcontractors

You're exactly who suiteSheets was built for.

Making Tax Digital counts your gross income, what you were paid before CIS deductions, not what actually landed in your bank account. That means your deductions don't need to be untangled from your income first, you just record the gross and keep the deductions alongside. suiteSheets already works this way. Your CIS Summary from this tool gives you exactly the figures you need, gross income and deductions suffered, no extra work to translate them.

CIS invoice tool
CIS Summary
Copy → Paste
suiteSheets
MTD template

No new account and nothing to connect, it's a plain copy and paste between two spreadsheets. If your gross qualifying income is over the Making Tax Digital threshold, this is the bridge between what you're already recording and what HMRC needs, and it works the same way whether you're paid gross, registered, or unverified.

Making Tax Digital thresholds
April 2026£50k
April 2027£30k
April 2028£20k
Watch how it works

See the whole thing in under a minute.

A quick walkthrough from a blank spreadsheet to a paid, CIS-deducted invoice, captions on, no sound needed.

What's in the sheet

Every sheet in the tool, before you download.

Real screenshots, taken straight from the tool itself. Click between the tabs to see each sheet.

The Settings sheet in the suiteSheets CIS invoice tool, including UTR

Add your business details and UTR once, and every invoice picks them up automatically.

Creating a customer list in the suiteSheets CIS invoice tool

Add a contractor once, then pick them from a dropdown on every invoice after that.

Invoice line items split into labour and materials

Split what you're charging into labour and materials, CIS only deducts from labour.

A finished CIS invoice showing the deduction and net payable

Your finished invoice, deduction and net payable worked out for you, ready to save as a PDF.

Recording payments and deductions suffered in the suiteSheets CIS invoice tool

Record what you were paid and what was deducted, side by side.

The Ledger sheet showing CIS status, deduction and net due

Every invoice, its CIS status, deduction and net due, all in one place.

The CIS Summary sheet showing total deductions suffered by contractor

Total deductions suffered this tax year, by contractor, ready for your tax return or suiteSheets.

An overview of all unpaid and partially paid CIS invoices by contractor and age

See every unpaid and partially paid invoice, by contractor and by age.

Before you download

Worth checking these first, so you don't end up with the wrong tool.

Built for
  • Subcontractors invoicing contractors under CIS, whatever your status, gross payment, registered or unverified.
  • Anyone currently working out the labour/materials split and the deduction by hand, or guessing.
  • Anyone who wants one place that shows exactly how much CIS tax they've had deducted this year.
  • Complete beginners, you don't need to know what a formula is to use it.
Not right now
  • Contractors, not subcontractors. This tool is for the side being paid and having deductions taken from them, not for working out deductions to pay to others.
  • VAT registered businesses. There's no VAT number field and no VAT line on the invoice.
  • Older Excel, or Excel for the web. It's only been tested on the newest version of Excel. Google Sheets isn't supported.
  • Not paid under CIS? Skip the complexity, get the standard invoice tool instead.
Getting started

Four steps, and you're invoicing.

01
Download the file

Open it in Excel. Nothing to install, nothing to enable.

02
Add your details

Business details, UTR and your default CIS status on the Settings sheet, they'll carry through automatically.

03
Raise your first invoice

Split it into labour and materials, the deduction and Net Due work themselves out.

04
Log payments as they land

Watch your CIS Summary build itself as you go, ready for suiteSheets when it's time to submit.

Full instructions are built into the file if you get stuck along the way.

Splitting labour from materials shouldn't need software you pay for.

Getting a CIS deduction right by hand means separating labour from materials, applying the right rate for your status, and keeping a running total for the end of the year, easy to get wrong, tedious to do every time. This tool does all three automatically.

If you want the fuller picture of how Making Tax Digital actually works for CIS subcontractors, we've written a full guide: how MTD works for CIS →

Questions

About the CIS invoice tool

Still stuck? Our Help Centre has more guides, including how MTD works for CIS, or email us and we'll help you out directly.

Yes. No email address, no account, no trial that runs out. Download it and it's yours.
This version is built specifically for CIS subcontractors: it splits labour from materials, calculates your CIS deduction automatically, and keeps a running CIS Summary for the tax year. If you're not paid under CIS, the standard invoice tool is simpler and does everything else the same way.
Subcontractors. It's built for invoicing a contractor and having a CIS deduction taken from what you're paid, not for a contractor working out deductions to pay to others.
It applies your CIS status to the labour total on each invoice only, materials are never included in the deduction, matching how CIS actually works.
These are the three CIS deduction rates HMRC sets: gross payment status means 0% is deducted, registered means 20%, and unverified means 30%. Set your default once on the Settings sheet.
No. Materials are kept separate throughout the tool and are never included in the deduction calculation.
Yes, there's one further up this page, enter your labour, materials and CIS status to see the deduction and net payable instantly. The free CIS invoice tool does the same calculation automatically on every invoice you raise.
It shows your total gross income and total deductions suffered, by contractor, for the period you set. That's the figure you'll need for your Self Assessment or Making Tax Digital final declaration, and it's ready to copy straight into suiteSheets if you're a customer.
Yes, the same as any other sole trader. If your gross qualifying income is over the relevant threshold, MTD for Income Tax applies to you the same way it would to any self-employed person, CIS doesn't change that. Our guide to how MTD works for CIS covers this in full.
Yes. suiteSheets asks for your gross income, the same figure CIS subcontractors already record, so no separate setup is needed for CIS.
Not currently, this tool is built for businesses that aren't VAT registered, same as the standard invoice tool.
It hasn't been tested in Google Sheets, only in the newest version of Microsoft Excel, and may not display correctly elsewhere. It works fine on a Mac, provided you're running a current version of Excel.
Download a fresh copy from this page rather than trying to fix the formulas. There's no harm done, your data lives in the Ledger and Payments sheets, not the formulas themselves.
Full instructions are built into the file. If you're still stuck, our Help Centre has more guides, or email contact@suitesheets.co.uk and a real person will help.
About this tool

suiteSheets CIS invoice tool is a free Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for UK construction subcontractors working under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). It is built for subcontractors invoicing a contractor and having a CIS deduction taken from their pay, not for contractors deducting from others. It is a separate product from the standard suiteSheets free invoice tool, which does not handle CIS deductions. The page also includes a CIS deduction rates table and a free interactive CIS deduction calculator that works out the deduction and net payable amount from a labour total, a materials total, and a CIS status.

The tool splits each invoice into labour and materials, since CIS deductions only apply to labour. It calculates the deduction automatically based on the subcontractor's CIS status (gross payment 0%, registered 20%, or unverified 30%), and calculates the Net Due amount payable after deduction. It includes a running ledger, payment tracking including part payments, an aged debtors report, and a CIS Summary sheet totalling gross income and deductions suffered by contractor for a chosen tax year period.

The tool requires no account, no email address and no payment. It is a standard .xlsx file with no macros, tested on the current version of Microsoft Excel; older versions, Excel for the web, and Google Sheets are not supported. It does not include VAT functionality. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax counts gross income (before CIS deductions), so figures from this tool's CIS Summary can be used directly in a suiteSheets MTD bridging software template.

Related: Standard free invoice tool (non-CIS) · All free tools · How MTD works for CIS · Free MTD spreadsheet templates

It's free. Just download it.

No account, no email address, no catch. It's yours to keep.

Prefer we email you a link instead? Get in touch.