How to Invoice Clients
How to Invoice a Client? 10 Steps to Get Paid on Time
For a healthy business, it is important to effectively bill customers and ensure fast payment. This applies to many industries, both large companies with international clients and independent contractors who simply bill for projects.
If you want to receive money faster, you need to create a high-quality billing system. This includes professional-looking invoices, reasonable payment deadlines, and clear communication with customers.
If you do not receive payment from the client within the prescribed period, you will have to contact him directly about the overdue payment and, if necessary, issue a fine for the delay.
How to Invoice Clients
Invoicing is an important part of accounting in small businesses, as it helps freelancers and entrepreneurs get money from their clients faster. Invoicing customers and tracking the accounting process can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before.
Follow these steps to professionally issue invoices to customers and receive payment on time:
Get to Know New Clients
When you enter into a business relationship with a new client, conduct research to verify its legitimacy. Visit their website to check their online presence, familiarize yourself with their business offers and view the employee directory.
With new clients, you can take an advance payment to make sure they are ready and able to pay you. Usually they charge from 10 to 50 percent as an advance, depending on your industry and the scope of the project – study how much other freelancers in your region charge.
Understand How Clients Want to Pay
To increase the likelihood of timely payment of bills, it is better to understand how your customers want to pay you. Be as flexible as possible, within reason.
Offer multiple payment methods, such as checks, PayPal, credit cards, and cash. Does a study of standard payment deadlines in your industry:
Is it standard practice to offer a 30-day payment window? Offer a payment schedule that matches other businesses like yours and guarantees you a fairly stable cash flow.
Set Your Payment Terms
After conducting the research, determine the payment terms. This includes the payment methods you accept and the payment deadlines for invoices.
Make sure that all payment terms are clearly indicated in your invoices. It is also useful to discuss payment terms with new customers in advance before sending them the first invoice.
Get to Know the Accounting Teams
If there are large companies on your client list, there is a high probability that your billing contact will be different from the contact for everyday work.
If your client has a team of accountants, get to know them and always be polite and friendly in communication. If you prove yourself positively, you will have a better chance of receiving timely payment of bills, and accounting staff are more likely to lend a helping hand in case of problems or errors.
Create Professional Invoices
The most important factor in getting timely payment from customers is sending clean, professional invoices. To do this, you can use free invoice templates such as FreshBooks, or pay a small amount to purchase time-saving cloud billing software.
Regardless of whether you will use an invoice template or your own design, be sure to provide all the necessary information about the account and business, including:
- Contact details of your company
- The name of your company (or other important data if you work as a freelancer)
- Contact details of your client, indicating the right person as the contact person
- Your company’s logo
- Your payment terms
- Your payment method (transfer to bank account, check, etc.)
- Invoice number and invoice date
- Detailed information about your services
- The total amount of the invoice to be paid, including any applicable taxes
Check out this complete invoicing guide to get more tips on creating professional invoices to send to customers.
Follow Proper Invoicing Etiquette
Always be polite and concise when sending and then checking invoices. Use clear wording in the cover letters when sending invoices: do not include vague instructions in them that the client may misinterpret. If a customer delays payment, do not react with anger. Instead, stay polite but firm in communication.
Establish an Invoice Filing System
Once you start sending out invoices, you will want to create an accounting system so that you can easily refer to invoices in the future.
You may want to create a folder for invoices sorted by year on your work computer, and then come up with a name for them that is convenient for you. Or you can use invoicing software and free invoice templates to simplify this process.
Follow up on Unpaid Invoices
If the customer has not paid you within the agreed time frame, do not hesitate to re-send a polite reminder that the payment must be made. If you have not received a response to your email, call the client and ask for more information about the account.
Chasing clients to get paid may be inconvenient, but it’s a necessary part of a freelancer’s life.
Charge Late Fees
Consider including in the payment terms a condition that you will charge penalties for late unpaid bills. If you decide to charge penalties for late payment of bills, remember the maximum amount of interest that you can charge in your state.
Thank Clients for Payment
When customers pay you on time, don’t forget to express your gratitude. Send a brief thank you note for the payment and let them know that you value their business. A little gratitude can serve as a guarantee of future business.
What Does It Mean to Invoice Someone?
If you run a small business, you need to receive payment from customers for your services. Billing customers allows you to bill them for your services.
Invoicing involves providing customers with a professional document describing the terms of payment, indicating the date of invoicing and the due date, as well as detailing your services and fees.
Invoicing allows you to keep records of the sale of your services both for your own accounting and for the accounting of your customers. Invoices are an important accounting tool that will help you track sales and understand how your business is developing.
What Are Invoices Used for?
Invoices are used to reflect sales transactions in accounting. The invoice acts as an invoice and lists all the services that the company provides to the client.
Small businesses use invoices as a way to receive payment. Invoices serve as a documentary confirmation of the services rendered and determine the payment terms that the client must follow.
Invoicing can be a difficult process for beginners. But fortunately, there are some great tools that will help you organize your bills, get paid faster and simplify the billing process. One of the best examples is FreshBooks: flexible billing software that saves you time and helps you get paid.
Thanks to countless professionally designed invoice templates and a set of programs that help you track payments, send automatic reminders that encourage customers to pay quickly, and much more, FreshBooks frees you from having to do what you love.
Conclusion
Getting a timely salary is of great importance for small businesses. This ensures a stable cash flow and allows business owners to have more freedom of action when making important financial decisions for their company.
However, unlike other forms of payment, invoicing may be accompanied by more uncertainty and inconsistency than you would like. That’s why it’s so important to familiarize yourself with the best billing practices, as well as use all the tools at your disposal.
With flexible and powerful billing software at hand, you will be able to send invoices more efficiently, track overdue payments more systematically, and get paid for your work faster. If you are looking for a great option, FreshBooks may suit you.
FAQs on How to Send an Invoice to A Client
Do you have any more questions about invoicing, invoice templates, or how to get paid faster? Here’s everything you need to know to easily process your own invoices.
Can I invoice someone without a contract?
While it’s always preferable to have a signed contract or other written agreement, you don’t have to have a contract to bill a customer. Although you can return the money owed without a contract, it is easier to make it just in case.
When should you invoice your client?
It is best to send the invoice immediately after your work has been transferred to the client. Although it may seem impolite to issue an invoice so quickly, it can help your client not forget to pay you, which will ensure you get paid as soon as possible.
Perhaps other schemes are more suitable for your industry, so discuss the options with the client in advance.
What should you not put on an invoice?
Do not include your handwriting in the invoice – it may look unprofessional or even lead to accounting errors. Also, do not include complicated legal jargon regarding payment terms, the wording should be simple and concise. Finally, do not make mistakes in the date, account number, payment method or customer information.
How do I invoice someone if I’m self-employed?
The billing process is very similar for self-employed people and businesses. The only significant difference is the information in the “from” section. Just provide your name (and the name of the company, if you have one), the address of the company (or home address) and the usual information about the invoice.
In addition, you can save time by using one of our free, professionally designed invoice templates for individual entrepreneurs.
How long after you invoice a client can you expect payment?
When creating an invoice, you must set the payment date, as well as any late fees. The standard is to provide 30 days for payment, although shorter or longer deadlines may be set in some industries. Try to give at least 14 days, unless otherwise discussed with the client and agreed with him.
Cryptocurrency invoicing and payment acceptance
Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest topics in the world today. It is a form of currency that has been developed for use on the Internet.
In recent years, there has been its massive growth – cryptocurrency has begun to be used in various areas, many people earn from it and even use it to pay for goods, services.
Nowadays, crypto-payments are actively used in the economy and commerce.
Accepting cryptocurrency payments has become relevant for many companies, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.
More and more organizations are plugging cryptocurrency payment options into their website as it helps to empower the company, increase visibility and improve customer perception of the business.
Cryptocurrency invoicing is the ability to transfer funds between clients and partners, or even send crypto to family, friends.
Nowadays, there are a large number of services that allow creating invoices and accepting crypto-payments.
We will tell you what invoicing is, how to accept cryptocurrency payments, and which platforms can be used for this purpose.
What is an invoice
The rapid development of e-commerce has led to a significant surge in crypto-payments. As of 2019, the daily turnover of cryptocurrency transactions was 5.5 million U.S. dollars.
Cryptocurrency payments worldwide are projected to increase to $4.4 trillion by 2024.
An invoice is an invoice that includes a list of the goods or services provided and their actual value.
The difference between a crypto-invoice and a regular invoice is that in this case the invoice is issued in cryptocurrency.
Crypto-invoicing is the process of generating invoices for goods and services that require payment in cryptocurrency. The main advantages of using cryptocurrency invoicing are as follows:
- increased business potential because many customers increasingly prefer to pay in cryptocurrencies;
- maximum anonymity of transactions, so that third parties will not be able to trace information about the destination, sender, and recipient of funds;
- high level of security, which significantly reduces the risk of transaction counterfeiting or hacking;
- ensuring secure, inexpensive, and fast payment processing;
- fast invoice generation;
- cryptocurrency payment is available 24/7, so all you need is internet access and any gadget;
- absence of human error when sending and receiving payments;
- it is possible to manage, track and view invoices;
- technology allows you to customize your accounts.
Cryptocurrency invoicing has been actively gaining popularity lately.
Cryptocurrency payment acceptance: benefits and popular uses
Users can manage and track their customers’ crypto payments. In addition, a fully customizable, yet pre-configured template allows users to quickly and easily enter all necessary information.
Users can then send the link via email, social media, or text message to their customers.
After clicking on the link, the recipient will see an itemized invoice and the required payment amount.
When the payment is made to the sender’s digital wallet, the crypto-invoice tool checks the blockchain browser and notifies both parties.
Nevertheless, user convenience remains a barrier to the widespread acceptance of cryptocurrency payments.
Unlike fiat payment channels or retail trading platforms, the sender must methodically duplicate a large string of hexadecimal digits in the recipient’s wallet address.
The most common use of cryptocurrency payment acceptance is by companies that engage in the following activities:
- online sales;
- entertainment services;
- services that provide a variety of services;
- cryptocurrencies;
- exchanges.
Cryptocurrencies are gradually gaining a larger share of the global payment industry.
Several well-known payment companies, including PayPal, Venmo, Visa, and Mastercard, are partnering with cryptocurrency companies so that users can use their digital assets to purchase preferred goods at millions of retailers.
There are about $150 million worth of cryptocurrency invoices. Approximately fifty percent have been paid in stablecoins such as DAI or USDT.
How to create and pay for a crypto-invoice
To create a crypto-invoice, first, you need to register on the service, which provides this service. For this purpose, it may be required to specify some contact information, fill in simple forms.
It is obligatory to specify the email, without which account registration will not be possible. Then you can request the account generation and send it to the client.
After the user receives the email, he will be able to follow the link for payment, where a special form will be provided. You can pay the invoice by:
- a crypto-transaction;
- with fiat money from a debit or credit card.
After the payment is made, the payment is sent to the recipient. This ensures maximum payment security and fast transactions.
Crypto-invoices are just gaining popularity, but they are already being used by companies of different focus and size.
Cryptocurrency transactions can be done without third-party intervention, making them much faster and not as costly. Services charge minimal fees, making payments as profitable as possible.
Accepting cryptocurrency payments on your website
Preparing crypto accounts can be time-consuming and complicated. Understanding the nuances of cryptocurrency billing, such as conversion rates from fiat to cryptocurrency, can be confusing for some users, especially those who are new to the business.
Fortunately, so-called crypto invoice platforms.
Once registered, such platforms will generate invoices directly without involving any third party and charge affordable fees.
Users typically need to open an account and add their wallet address to crypto payment gateways.
Each payment gateway has a standard fiat currency, such as a dollar or euro, which is later converted into the selected cryptocurrency and sent to the user’s wallet.
Payments are usually made within a day. Some platforms may take more than a day to complete the transaction. We have compiled a list of the best online platforms that offer cryptocurrency payment acceptance and invoicing.
Wellcoinex payment gateway
This is a popular service with a wide range of functions. With its help, in addition to accepting payments and sending invoices in cryptocurrency, you can exchange cryptocurrency for fiat money, perform any financial transactions and work with different types of currency.
Wellcoinex is known for its favorable terms, simple and straightforward interface, great feature set, and good customer support.
All transactions are executed as fast as possible, so users can transfer cryptocurrency even in urgent cases
Features:
- Customer support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- There is an option to receive and send payments, as well as an exchange function and much more.
- Ability to track transactions at all stages.
- Minimal fees.
- Easy to use site with great functionality and clear interface.
- Minimum requirements for users, which makes registration much easier.