Guide

Self-Billing for HGV Owner-Drivers

Self-billing is common in haulage subcontracting. Instead of you invoicing the customer, the customer raises the invoice on your behalf and sends you a self-billed document, usually with a remittance.

It is convenient and it is legitimate. What it also does is move control of your sales ledger to somebody else, which changes what you have to check.

Last reviewed 3 August 2026

Written by the HGV Accountants editorial team

Who this is for: HGV owner-drivers and haulage subcontractors paid under a self-billing arrangement by a haulier, pallet network or freight platform.
The problem: Under self-billing the customer decides what you invoiced, and a job that never makes it onto their system never gets billed and never gets chased.

What a Self-Billing Arrangement Requires

Self-billing is only valid where both parties have entered into a self-billing agreement, and there are conditions on both sides. The customer's obligations are set out in HMRC's guidance, and the supplier has obligations too.

There must be a self-billing agreement in place between the two parties, reviewed at the intervals the guidance requires.
The self-biller keeps records of the suppliers who have agreed to self-billing, including their VAT registration numbers.
The supplier must not issue their own VAT invoices for the supplies covered by the agreement, because that would create two invoices for one supply.
The supplier must tell the self-biller if their VAT registration number changes, or if they deregister or transfer the business.
Each self-billed invoice has to contain the particulars a VAT invoice requires, including a reference marking it as a self-billed invoice.

The Real Risk: Jobs That Never Get Billed

When you raise your own invoices, an unpaid job is visible as an unpaid invoice. Under self-billing, a job the customer never entered onto their system produces no document at all. There is nothing outstanding, because nothing was ever raised. It simply does not appear.

That is why the single most valuable habit under self-billing is keeping your own record of work done, independently of the customer's paperwork, and reconciling one against the other.

A reconciliation that catches missing money

Keep your own job log: date, customer, collection, delivery, agreed rate and any waiting time or extras.
Match every self-bill line back to a job on your log, monthly, not annually.
Check the rate applied, not just that a line exists. Rate errors are more common than missing jobs and much easier to miss.
Check that waiting time, tolls, ferries and extra drops that were agreed have actually been included.
Query gaps within the customer's own query window, which is often short and stated in the agreement.
Keep every self-billed document. It is your VAT record as well as your sales record.

Accounting for Self-Billed Income

Self-billed amounts are your turnover. They go into your accounts and onto your tax return exactly as invoiced income would. Self-billing changes who produces the document, not whose income it is.

In practice the accounting difficulty is timing. Self-bills often arrive on the customer's cycle rather than yours, which can straddle your period end. Where you are approaching a VAT quarter or a year end, it matters which period the work falls in, and the self-bill date is not always the right answer.

Common Questions

Do I have to accept self-billing?

It requires an agreement, so in principle no. In practice most pallet networks and larger hauliers operate it as standard and it is not usually negotiable. What is negotiable, and worth agreeing early, is how quickly queries are dealt with and what the process is for a missed job.

Can I still raise my own invoice for extras?

Not for supplies covered by the self-billing agreement. If extras such as waiting time or additional drops are within the scope of the arrangement, they belong on the self-bill and the route is to get them added. Raising a separate invoice for the same supply creates duplicate VAT documents.

What happens if I go over the VAT threshold and have not told them?

You are required to notify the self-biller of changes to your VAT registration position. If they are self-billing on the basis that you are not registered, and you are, the documents are wrong and the VAT is still yours to account for. Tell them as soon as the registration takes effect.

The customer says a job was never done. What now?

This is what the job log is for. A contemporaneous record with times, locations and reference numbers, backed by tachograph or telematics data, is a considerably stronger position than a recollection. It is also why queries should be raised monthly rather than discovered at the year end.

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