Invoice Template for Banquet Halls and Caterers in Pakistan

The province decides the tax line, not the client's city

Sales tax on services in Pakistan is collected by the province where the service is rendered. A Lahore family holding a mehndi in Karachi pays Sindh sales tax on the hall and food, because the service happens in Sindh. Write your own provincial registration number at the top of the invoice, and use the rate your authority applies to you.

SRB lists 15 percent as the general rate for services in Sindh, and practitioner summaries place marriage halls, lawns and caterers at that rate, with exemptions for some small halls. In Punjab the standard rate reported under the Sales Tax on Services Act is 16 percent. KPRA let halls choose from July 2024 between a fixed monthly amount by seating category and 11 percent of the charges.

Mehndi invoice, Karachi banquet

Thursday mehndi for 250 guests at a banquet hall on Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi, invoiced under Sindh sales tax after the event.

• Sindh general rate of 15% shown; apply your own SRB rate or exemption.
• Advance tax under section 236CB is added below at the rate for the payer's ATL status and deposited with FBR.
• Bayana of 30% received on booking and adjusted here.
• Prices are illustrative for 2026.

Lines that make a banquet invoice easy to check

Put the per-head food charge on one line with the actual head count served, not the guaranteed number, unless the actual count was lower than the guarantee. Then list the extras separately: decor, sound, stage, generator hours, and any late-night charges. A company paying for an annual dinner will ask for this split before its finance team releases the cheque.

If the family brought in their own decorator or dhol party, do not put those vendors on your invoice unless you actually resold their service. Money you collect on someone else's behalf should be shown as a pass-through, and you should agree that with your accountant before the event.

Section 236CB advance tax sits below the sales tax

Advance income tax under section 236CB is collected by the owner, operator or manager of the hall from the person arranging the function. It is calculated on the total bill, and practitioner guides say it also covers food or services supplied by another vendor. For tax year 2025-26 the reported rates were 10 percent for people on the Active Taxpayers List and 20 percent for others.

Show it as a separate line after the sales tax total, with the payer's CNIC or NTN beside it. It is not your revenue, and the payer can adjust it against their own income tax, so they need to see it itemised. Confirm the rate on the FBR withholding rate card each July, because Finance Acts change it.

What your invoice must show in Pakistan

Punjab now wants system-generated receipts, not handwritten bills

In August 2026 the PRA moved to enforce its Electronic Invoice Monitoring System at restaurants, hotels and marriage halls. News reports describe fines of Rs 400,000 to Rs 1 million for issuing handwritten or unintegrated receipts, and a ban on handing customers kitchen slips or unpaid bills instead of a proper tax invoice. Each receipt is expected to carry the PRA fiscal invoice number and QR code.

If you run a Punjab hall, your customer-facing tax invoice has to come out of the PRA-integrated system. A spreadsheet or Venura quote is still useful for the detailed breakdown a family wants, but it is not a substitute for the fiscal receipt. Sindh and KPRA have their own integration drives, so ask your authority which categories are covered.

Corporate clients read invoices differently from families

A multinational in Karachi booking a year-end dinner will want your NTN, the provincial registration number, a purchase order reference and bank details on the invoice. Its accounts team may also deduct its own withholding on your payment, which is a separate matter from the 236CB tax you collect on functions. Ask for its tax deduction certificate so the numbers reconcile.

Families care about the total and the balance after the bayana. Put the token and any part payments near the bottom, with dates and receipt numbers, and the balance due in bold. If you invoice before the event, say that the head count will be adjusted to actuals on the night.

Numbering, copies and what to keep

Use one continuous series of invoice numbers per branch. Gaps are the first thing an auditor from any provincial authority asks about. Keep the quotation, the signed banquet event order, the head-count sheet from the night and every receipt with the invoice, so you can prove the numbers if the family disputes a figure months later.

Venura can hold the quotation, event sheet, invoice breakdown and receipts for each booking together, in rupees, with your own tax rate per line. It does not issue PRA, SRB or KPRA fiscal invoices, so treat it as your working file and issue the tax receipt from your authority's system.

Handling disputes over the final bill

Most invoice disputes at Pakistani halls come down to two things: the head count and the extras added on the night. Get the family's representative to sign the head-count sheet before dinner service closes, and write every extra (an added generator hour, a second chai round, a late-night decor change) on the banquet event order with its price and their initials.

If a family refuses to pay part of the balance, do not hold back the tax you collected. Record the amount received, issue a receipt for it, and keep the unpaid portion open on the invoice. Settling sales tax and 236CB deposits on what you actually collected is a conversation for your accountant, and the signed sheets are what will support it.

For corporate clients, send the invoice within a day or two of the event while the finance contact still remembers it. Payment terms of 30 days are common, and chasing becomes much harder once their year-end has passed.

Invoice questions from Pakistan