Proforma Invoice in Czechia 2026: What It Is, When to Issue One, and a Sample

A proforma invoice is a request for payment before you deliver goods or a service. It's a document that asks the client to send money upfront, but it is not a tax document or an accounting document, and issuing one does not, by itself, create an obligation to declare VAT or record income. You declare and record the payment once it's actually received — not the proforma itself.

In Czech business practice, the same document is often called a zálohová faktura ("advance invoice") rather than "proforma" — the two terms mean essentially the same thing. This article explains when to issue a proforma, what it should and shouldn't contain, what it looks like, and what to do once the client pays.

What a proforma invoice is — and isn't

A proforma invoice tells the customer how much to pay, to which account, and for what. It is not a tax document under the Czech VAT Act, nor an accounting document under the Accounting Act — issuing one doesn't create an obligation to declare tax, and you don't record it as income in your tax records (daňová evidence, the simplified bookkeeping most Czech sole traders use instead of full double-entry accounting). Legally, it's an informational document the two sides exchange as the basis for a payment.

That changes the moment the client actually pays. Receiving the payment is the legal and tax event that triggers further obligations — for a VAT payer, the duty to declare tax; for every self-employed person (OSVČ, osoba samostatně výdělečně činná, the Czech term for a sole trader), the duty to record the money and, sooner or later, issue a follow-up document.

Proforma or advance invoice? In practice, the same thing

The term "proforma" comes from international trade and is mostly used for cross-border business and online shops. In the Czech environment, the same document is more commonly called a zálohová faktura ("advance invoice"). Functionally it's the same thing: a request for payment before delivery. The difference in name doesn't change anything legally — it's just a matter of convention.

When to issue a proforma

• An advance before starting a custom job — typically for bespoke work, where you want certainty before you begin.
• A new client with no payment history — a proforma reduces the risk of delivering work and never getting paid.
• Internal payment approval at the client's company — larger companies often need a document to route through internal approval before releasing funds.
• An online shop before shipping goods — for prepayment by bank transfer.

A proforma is useful anywhere you want the money in your account before you start delivering. If you only invoice after delivery, you don't need a proforma at all — a regular invoice is enough.

A typical example: a graphic designer agrees a new brand-identity project with a client for 40,000 CZK. Before starting work, she sends a proforma for a 15,000 CZK deposit. The client pays within three days, she starts the work, and after delivery she issues a final invoice for the remaining 25,000 CZK. Without the proforma, she'd risk spending weeks on the job only to discover the client never intended to pay at all.

What a proforma should and shouldn't contain

A proforma should clearly state that it's a request for payment, not a tax document. It's best to say so directly in the heading — "Proforma Invoice" or "Advance Invoice — not a tax document."

If you are not a VAT payer, you don't state a VAT rate or amount on a proforma, just as you wouldn't on a regular invoice. If you are a VAT payer, you can show the amount including VAT for information, but you don't declare that VAT from the proforma itself. The actual obligation to declare tax only arises on the day the payment is received, and within 15 days of that you must also issue a separate tax document for the payment received.

A proforma should also include a payment reference number (variabilní symbol, a numeric reference Czech banks use to match incoming payments to invoices — usually the same as the document number) and your bank account number. If you're invoicing a company in another EU country, check its VAT number through the EU's VIES system before you send the proforma — supplying a service to a business VAT-registered in another member state can make even a non-VAT-payer register as an "identified person" for VAT purposes, a limited VAT registration that applies only to specific cross-border transactions. Our guide to identified-person VAT status covers this in detail.

What happens after the client pays

For a non-VAT payer, things are simpler: income arises on the day the payment is received, and once the job is delivered you issue a final invoice that deducts the deposit from the total price. The proforma itself never enters your income records — only the payment you receive does. Someone on the flat-rate tax (paušální daň, a single fixed monthly payment that replaces income tax and both social and health insurance contributions) follows the same logic.

For a VAT payer, the day the payment is received triggers the obligation to declare VAT on the amount received, and within 15 days you must issue a tax document for the payment received. Once the job is delivered, you then issue a final invoice that deducts the deposit and adds VAT only on the difference. We walk through this whole chain with real numbers in our article on issuing a final invoice after an advance payment.

Numbering a proforma

A proforma needs its own unique number, either in a separate series — for example ZF-2026-001 — or in a shared series with your other documents. What matters is that the number is unique, traceable, and can't be confused with the number of the final invoice.

How long a proforma is valid, and what to do if the client never pays

The law doesn't set any validity period for a proforma — it's simply a due date you choose, just like on a regular invoice, typically seven to fourteen days. If the client doesn't pay even after a reminder, don't start the job, and just let the proforma lapse after its due date. Since it isn't a tax document, nobody forces you to formally void it for VAT purposes.

Even so, it's worth keeping unpaid proformas tidy, mainly for the sake of a clean numbering sequence and capacity planning. In Taxorio, an advance invoice that was never paid and has no other document linked to it can simply be deleted. But if you already sent it to the client as a binding offer and want a formal record that the job never went ahead, void it instead — our guide to cancelling a Czech invoice covers both situations.

Sample proforma invoice

This sample is deliberately simple — a proforma doesn't need the detailed content a tax document requires, because it isn't one. What matters is that it's immediately clear how much the client owes, by when, and to which account, and that it can't be mistaken for a tax document or a final invoice.

Common mistakes with proforma invoices

• The proforma stays the only document for the job. A final invoice must follow once payment is received and the job delivered — the proforma doesn't replace it, even if the amount never changes.
• VAT shown as a binding tax amount by a non-payer. A non-VAT payer must never show a VAT rate or amount on any document, including a proforma.
• The proforma recorded as income in your tax records. Only the actual payment received is recorded, not the date the document was issued.
• A VAT payer forgets the tax document for the payment received. Without it, there's nothing to support the return and control statement for the period the payment arrived.
• The proforma labelled as a tax document. This misleads the client and your own records, making it look like you've already declared tax you haven't actually declared yet.
• Missing payment reference number. Without a matching reference on the proforma and the payment, it's harder to trace which job the payment belongs to, especially with several jobs in progress at once.

How Taxorio handles this

In Taxorio, when creating a document you choose the Regular invoice / Advance invoice toggle, and the system handles the correct content for your VAT status automatically. Once the client pays, you mark the deposit as Deposit paid — for a VAT payer, this automatically generates the tax document for the payment received, with its date of taxable supply (DUZP) set to the day the money arrived. Once the job is delivered, click Issue final invoice from the paid deposit's detail page, and Taxorio calculates the deposit deduction and the VAT due on the difference for you.

You can try this for free at app.taxorio.cz/register, no card required.

Official sources

• Czech VAT Act (No. 235/2004 Coll.) (in Czech)
• Czech Financial Administration: guidance on invoicing rules (in Czech)