Freelancing grants freedom and simultaneously introduces you to new responsibilities, such as handling transactions with the clients on your own whilst ensuring the quality of your service or product. But, worry not! There is no need to panic. You just need to learn how to invoice as a freelancer with this simple guide.
Key Takeaways:
- If the crucial components are absent, your payment will be delayed until everything is fixed.
- Mistakes in invoices give a bad impression to your clients.
10 Important Things on How to Write an Invoice for Freelance Work
Pedro Barros, an expert in managing contractors at Remote, notes that mistakes on invoices can potentially cause payment delays for you and appear unprofessional to your clients. To preserve your good reputation, pay attention to these things to include in a freelancer invoice.
1. Contact Information
Contact details show that you and your client are based on trust. They commonly include the name of the business, address, email, and logo. Always remember to keep everything professional, including your full name and representative logo. Without them, your client will struggle to communicate with you.
Also Read: How to Start Freelancing from Home and Land Your First Client
2. Information About the Client
Your invoice should look professional. So, it needs the receiver’s contact details, namely the individual’s full name or the company’s name, email, phone number, and address.
The complete information acts as a sign of respect that you have been doing business with them. Also, it helps you to be organized, especially if you have many clients.
3. Clear Work Description
Surely, you wish to be rewarded according to your effort and agreement with your clients. And excluding your work description might guide them away from the accurate amount of your payment. So, make sure you render each work you have completed, including the dates of completion and rates.
4. Extra Expenses
The components of how to invoice as a freelancer apparently can include unexpected expenses during your work progress, like the cost of travelling to meet your clients. This ensures that your time and effort are properly rewarded. You can arrange a list in a separate section in the invoices to stand out for your clients to see.
5. Invoice Date and Number
There will come a time when you need to return to your past invoices. Without the date and number, you will struggle to find the one you wish to see or track payment due dates. So, assign a unique series of numbers to identify every invoice and its dates accordingly, right in the header.
6. Due Dates
To prevent delayed payment, due dates must be included in invoices to give clients a heads-up. In addition to that, this component can give you the right to follow up to remind them of their obligation to pay for your service or product.
7. Options for Payment
Clients complete the payment through certain services, such as credit cards and PayPal. So, the more options you have, the more convenient it is for your clients to complete their responsibilities and the smoother your payment. For example, you may create a hyperlink to direct your client to your PayPal account.
8. Payment Terms
Apart from due dates, payment terms undoubtedly ensure no late payment, which potentially would stress you out. Usually, the terms allow clients to complete the payment within 30 days. If the clients miss the date, this term gives you the right to charge them additional fees, like late fees.
9. A Specific Section for Notes
In working, unpredictability always happens, like a client who suddenly requests the project to be finished within two days, not a week as agreed at the beginning.
For this kind of occurrence, rather than being off-the-record, you actually can elaborate on it in the note section. It allows you to receive additional payment for the rush or overtime.
10. The Total Amount for Your Work
This is the most important component of how to invoice as a freelancer. Without the accurate amount, you might get in trouble, like having to argue with the clients about tax laws or other necessary tax fees. So, make sure you familiarize yourself with everything and calculate properly before deciding on the final amount.
Also Read: Top 15 Best Freelance Jobs You Can Start Today
5 Examples of How to Write an Invoice as a Freelancer
Actually, you can create invoices with an invoicing tool to simplify billing. As a freelancer, choose one that aligns with your needs by considering ease of use, payment gateway integration, recurring billing support, and customizable templates for branding.
For example, try Zoho Invoice for free invoicing with basic CRM, Bookipi for simple invoicing, or PayPal for its trusted name. Alternatively, you can also learn from these invoice templates to create your own manually.
1. Invoice for Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous invoice example (Source: James Fyfe – Potant)
2. Invoice for Clothing Business
Invoice example for clothing business (Source: Enina Bicaku – Looka)
Also Read: 15 Remote Side Hustles You Can Start from Home Today
3. Invoice for Catering Business
Invoice example for catering (Source: Enina Bicaku – Looka)
4. Invoice for Web Development Service
Invoice example for web dev (Source: Enina Bicaku – Looka)
5. Invoice for Writings
Invoice example for writing service (Source: Design for Makers – Canva)
Also Read: 10 Best CRM for Freelancers to Manage Clients Efficiently
Make a Good Invoice for Smooth Payment
So, those are the important components and examples of how to invoice as a freelancer that hopefully can inspire and guide you to have smooth payments in your freelance projects. But remember to also use readable fonts, so your clients will not be confused.
If you do not have a legible font in your collection, consider font collections to make professional invoices at Creatype Studio. They are not only neat and clean but also unique to make your service more memorable.
