How an invoice total is calculated
Every invoice is the same five moves in the same order: add up the line items, subtract the discount, apply sales tax to what's left, add shipping, then subtract anything already paid. The order is not cosmetic. The single most common invoicing mistake is applying tax to the pre-discount amount, which overcharges the customer and, less obviously, overstates the tax you owe. Tax is charged on what you actually billed, so the discount always comes off first.
This calculator runs that exact sequence with your numbers, shows every step, and, if you give it the invoice date and your payment terms, tells you the day payment is due, including the polite warning when Net 30 lands on a Sunday.
The formula
Each line item is quantity × rate, rounded to the cent. The discount is a percentage of the subtotal or a flat dollar amount. Shipping joins the tax base only when your state taxes it (the toggle above). Balance due is the total minus any deposit or partial payment.
Worked example
A freelancer bills three lines: design work at 12 hours × $95 = $1,140.00, a flat $250 hosting setup, and 4 stock photos × $15 = $60.00. Subtotal: $1,450.00.
A 10% repeat-client discount takes off $145.00, leaving $1,305.00. Sales tax at 8.25% on $1,305.00 adds $107.66. Invoice total: $1,412.66.
The client paid a $500 deposit, so the balance due is $912.66. Invoiced on July 24, 2026 at Net 30, payment is due Sunday, August 23, 2026, which lands on a weekend, so expect the money Monday.
Net 30, taxed shipping, and the other fine print
Net 30 means 30 calendar days from the invoice date, not 30 business days and not 30 days from whenever the client happened to open the email. Weekends and holidays count. That is why the due date here names the day of the week: a due date you can say out loud ("due the 23rd, that's a Sunday") is a due date that gets paid.
Whether shipping is taxable depends on your state, and the rules are genuinely inconsistent: some states tax delivery charges whenever the goods are taxable, some exempt them if the charge is separately stated on the invoice, and a few split the difference. If you ship across state lines regularly, five minutes on your state revenue department's site is worth more than any general rule we could print here, which is why it is a toggle and not an assumption.
Two smaller conventions worth knowing. Late fees are enforceable only if your contract or invoice terms established them before the work happened, and typical practice runs 1% to 1.5% per month on the overdue balance, with some states capping it lower. And if you need to credit a customer on the same invoice (a returned item, a goodwill adjustment), enter it as a line with a negative rate; the math handles it and the tax base shrinks accordingly, which is exactly what you want.