FlipStay blog · 28 October 2026

What a Small Hotel Can Change on Its Invoice Layout

Learn which parts of a hotel guest invoice you can brand safely, like logo, colours and footer, and which tax details must stay exactly as they are.

Your guest invoice is often the last thing a guest holds from their stay, and it may look nothing like the rest of your property. You want it to match your brand without breaking the tax details it has to carry.

Split the invoice into two kinds of content

Before you change anything, sort every element into one of two groups.

Brand elements. You can change these freely:

• Logo and its size
• Colours for headings and table lines
• Font and font size
• Tone of the wording, such as a short thank-you line
• Footer text: website, social handle, a request for a review
• Paper size and margins

Record elements. Change the look, not the content:

• Your legal or trading name and address
• Your tax registration number, where you are registered
• The invoice number and date
• Guest name
• Check-in and check-out dates and number of nights
• Each charge, with its rate and amount
• Each tax line, with its rate and amount
• The total, the advance paid and the balance

The second group is what your accountant and the tax authority look at. A nice font is fine. A missing tax line is a problem. Rules differ by country, so check with your accountant which items you must show.

Step 1: Decide what your brand actually is

You do not need a design manual. Write down four things:

1. One logo file, ideally a PNG with a transparent background, at least 600 pixels wide.
2. One main colour, as a hex code such as #1F5F5B. Use it only for headings and the line above the totals.
3. One font. If you are not sure, use a plain sans-serif font. Plain fonts print cleanly on cheap office printers.
4. One sentence of voice, for example: "Thank you for staying with us. We hope to see you again."

Guests print and forward invoices, and many are printed in black and white. Check that your invoice still reads well in grey.

Step 2: Fix the layout order

A clear order matters more than decoration. A layout that works for most small properties, top to bottom:

1. Logo on the left, property name and address on the right.
2. Invoice number and date, then guest name.
3. Stay details: room number, arrival, departure, nights.
4. A table of charges: description, nights or quantity, rate, amount.
5. Tax lines, each on its own row.
6. Total, advance paid, balance due. Make the balance the boldest number on the page.
7. Footer: contact details, thank-you line, payment or cancellation note if you need one.

Keep the table narrow enough that it does not run off the page when printed on A4 or Letter.

Step 3: Choose where the branded version comes from

There are three common routes. Pick the one that fits how you work.

• Use the invoice your system produces. This keeps the numbers correct and saves time. Look at one sample invoice and check it against the two lists above. If it carries everything it should, a plain layout may be enough.
• Build a template in a word processor or spreadsheet. You control the logo, colours and wording fully. The cost is that you type the numbers yourself, so mistakes become your risk. Lock the formulas and save the file as a PDF before sending.
• Use a free design tool for the header and footer only. Make a branded header image and footer strip once, then place them on your template.

A tool that calculates nights, extras and taxes for you is worth keeping, even if the layout is plain. FlipStay, a free cloud property management system, works out nights, extras and taxes at checkout and produces a PDF invoice that you can print or e-mail. The invoice is in English, and invoice numbers are unique but not an unbroken sequence. If your local rules need an unbroken sequence, or a business guest's tax number on the invoice, check with your accountant before you rely on it.

A worked example

A 10-room guesthouse in India wants to tidy its invoice. A guest stays 3 nights in a room at ₹3,000 a night. The nightly rate is under ₹7,500, so the GST is 5%, split into CGST and SGST. The guest paid ₹2,000 in advance.

The invoice table reads like this:

Line · Detail · Amount

Room 4, 3 nights · 3 × ₹3,000 · ₹9,000 CGST 2.5% · on ₹9,000 · ₹225 SGST 2.5% · on ₹9,000 · ₹225 Total · · ₹9,450 Advance paid · · ₹2,000 Balance due · · ₹7,450

The owner changes only the look. The logo goes top left. The heading row uses the brand colour. The balance line is bold and larger. The footer says "Thank you for staying with us" and gives the website. Every number and tax line stays exactly where it was. The guest sees a branded page, and the accountant sees the same figures as before.

The tax figures here are for illustration. Check current rates and the correct SAC code with your accountant.

Step 4: Test it before you use it

Produce one test invoice and check it four ways:

• Print it in black and white. Is the logo readable and is the balance easy to find?
• Open it on a phone. Can the guest read the table without zooming a long way?
• Check the arithmetic by hand against the worked-example method above.
• Show it to your accountant once, and ask only: "Is anything missing that I must show?"

Once it passes, save it as your standard and stop adjusting it. Guests and auditors both like a document that looks the same every time.

What to do this week

• Pull out your last three guest invoices and mark each element as a brand element or a record element, using the two lists above.
• Gather your logo file, one brand colour code and one font, and write your thank-you line and footer text.
• Produce one test invoice with the new look, check the figures by hand, and ask your accountant whether anything required is missing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I put my logo and brand colours on a guest invoice?

Yes. A logo, colours, fonts and a short thank-you line are purely visual, and they do not change what the invoice legally has to show. Keep the tax lines, totals and invoice number clear.

Which parts of an invoice should I not change?

Do not remove or hide the invoice number, date, your business name and address, charges, tax lines or totals. Where you are tax registered, keep your registration number visible. Ask your accountant what your country requires.

Should I make invoices in Word or a spreadsheet?

It gives you full control of the look, but you must type and check every figure yourself. If you use a template, lock the formulas, check the arithmetic on a test invoice and save the final version as a PDF before sending it.

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