What to Include in an Invoice
If you’re a freelancer, you’re probably intimately familiar with invoicing - it’s how you get paid for all of your hard work! Without an invoice, your client won’t know when and how to pay you - and most likely won’t be able to process the payment at all.
It’s an essential document to have in your business, and to speed up the process (because who likes to spend time doing paper work?), we like to use a template that we can easily duplicate and edit without having to think too much about all the details. If you’re looking for a template, you can grab ours here!
So what should your invoice include? Here are the key elements:
Invoice Number - This number should be unique to that invoice. It helps you track the document and makes referencing it easy if you need to chat with a customer about any details.
Invoice - You should include the word “invoice” in order to prevent it from being confused with any other documents.
Date - This should be the date that the invoice was sent, not the date that the services were provided.
Business Information - Your business name, address and contact information (email and phone number). It can also be nice to include your business logo to make it look really professional.
Customer Information - Your client’s company name and address.
Payment Terms - This is how many days that the client has to pay the invoice before it’s late. An example of this would be net 30 (30 days) which is probably the most common. These terms should be outlined in your contract before you start the project.
Payment Due Date - The date that payment is due. This should be based on the number of days outlined in the payment terms.
Itemized List of Goods and/or Services - Include a full list of what this invoice is for as well as the price for each line item. Include the quantity and a short description in the line if needed.
Taxes, Fees, and Discounts - Include line items for any of these if applicable - make sure to be clear about what each item is for and list them all individually.
Subtotal - After all the goods and/or services, taxes, fees, and discounts have been listed, include the full total amount that is due.
Notes - If you have any additional notes you can include them at the bottom of the invoice. It’s nice to include a brief thank you note to the client here!
Seems like a lot doesn’t it?
It’s really not too bad once you get the hang of it, and as we mentioned in the beginning of this post, having a template that you can quickly copy and add info to makes a world of difference! We’re all about templates in our business which is why we decided to share our quick and easy invoice template with you!
We wish you many, many (fully paid) invoices in the future!
Is it the weekend yet?
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