As a freelancer, you deal with the admin of your business, as well as providing an actual service to your clients. Invoicing is part of the admin process- which is probably not the most exciting thing to do if you’re a creative freelancer. However, once you learn the basics of what invoicing is, and have a template, it can become one of the easiest things to deal with in the admin process. This post is a guide on how to invoice as a freelancer.
1. What Is Invoicing?
Invoicing is a document recording work that has been carried out by yourself, the freelancer, in this case.
Whenever you carry out a piece of work, it’s important to have an invoice recording this, so you can refer back to in the future if need be.
Depending on the agreement you have with your client, you may need to send the invoice (which is often the case). However, there may be cases where your client may send the invoice to you if it’s part of their system for example.
If this is the case, make sure you review the invoice they send to you and make sure that all details are correct for the work you’ve done for them.
2. Clarify Your Freelance Rates
When you send an invoice, make sure you have thoroughly decided on your freelance rates and double-checked that you have calculated your work correctly.
Set a price plan and stick to it, consistently, when invoicing your clients.
This way, your client will become familiar with your rates too.
3. Payment Options On Your Invoice
Different clients may prefer to pay through different methods. For example, if you have a client abroad, they may prefer to pay via Paypal, rather than direct bank transfer.
So it’s important to show the different payment options available on the invoice.
Preferably, it’s best to discuss with your client how they would prefer to pay and include these specific payment details for this method in the invoice.
4. Provide A Description
As well as calculating correctly and providing the value for your work, your invoice should also provide a description of the work that you have carried out for this invoice.
This way, your client is clear about what they are paying for and the work that has been completed.
It also helps prevent any disputes down the line on what work was and was not completed.
5. Date Prepared
For record purposes and clarity, make sure you date the invoice correctly, on the day that you sent it off.
6. The Client’s Name On Your Invoice
As well as putting your own details on the invoice, you should also detail the client’s name that you are sending it to.
Again, this helps with referencing and proves that you are directly addressing it to them.
7. Reference On Your Invoice
This is another key point of how to invoice as a freelancer.
To help identify individual invoices, you should create a reference/ number system.
It doesn’t matter what type of reference system you create, as long as you are consistent with this referencing throughout all of your invoices.
Your reference can include an abbreviated version of your client’s name and the date it was issued.
For example, RR/24/11/20 is a reference you could use if Remi Reports was the client you are sending it to and the date you sent it was 24th November 2020.
However, you are in charge, so you can choose to use any referencing system you like!
8. Invoicing Software
Now, you can choose to manually create an invoice to send to your client, with a template you have already created, or use software to do this.
Penny and Wave are two invoicing apps that deal with invoicing for you. This includes chasing up any late payments.
9. Get A Bookkeeper For Your Invoice
If you do not want to deal with invoicing in any way and hand this job over to someone else, you could hire a bookkeeper to carry out this task, as well as other accounting-related tasks for you.
10. Due Date
This is the bottom line, really when it comes to how to invoice as a freelancer. You want the result of this invoice to be payment, right?
So, to avoid any confusion as to when payment should be made by, ensure you include a due date.
You, as the freelancer are usually the one to implement this.
But if your client raises concern about the payment date, you can discuss and possibly adjust the due date to something you both agree on. Then, you can write this on the invoice.
You can write a sentence like ‘payment terms are 28 days’ and follow this up with a clause…
11. Legal Clauses
Depending on where you live, there may be some legal terms in place to help you as a freelancer regarding late payments.
For example, in the UK, as a self-employed person, you can legally implement a £40 fee for late payments. This is something you can include as a clause on all your late payments.
I have created a FREE customizable invoice template with this clause. You can download it by joining my newsletter here.
12. Keep A Copy
Keeping a backup of your invoice on your computer or even printed out is not a shabby idea either!
This way you will have a spare record of it if you accidentally delete the email that you sent the invoice.
13. A Personal Note
To help build the rapport you have with your client, you could add a personal note.
It can help take the weight off of ‘money talk’. A simple, thank you or note of appreciation should suffice.
I hope this guide on how to invoice as a freelancer has helped you. Remember, you can download my FREE invoice template here.
