Managing the financial sides of a business is quite boring; especially for those who are not from accounting background and are basically creative in nature. Most of the designers do not prefer to take care of the finances even when it is an integrated part of freelancing or a business.
You might be a really talented designer, but that is not enough to run a design company successfully. Unless you send an invoice to your clients they are not going to pay you! Here are some invoicing tips for freelancers and designers who are on the verge of setting up their own company.
Find a powerful online invoicing solution
There are many online invoicing apps that are designed keeping the requirements of the freelancers and designers in mind. There are free invoicing apps and paid ones as well; you can find paid invoicing solutions at different price ranges; price usually depends on the features that the app has to offer � more features the app has higher is the price.
Apart from invoice generation, online invoicing apps save a lot of time and allow you to manage an archive of old invoices smartly. With a professional invoicing application in place searching previous bills, figuring out receivable funds and similar tasks become a lot easier.
Based on your requirements you have to choose the right invoicing solution; some of the invoicing apps require one time fee whereas you may need to pay monthly subscriptions for the others.
Keep your clients informed
All the policies that you follow, the hourly rates, payment terms, pending amount etc. should be conveyed to the clients very clearly. If the client finds anything irrelevant in the invoice, they might ask for further clarification and your payment might get delayed. Hence while sending invoices make sure your client already has knowledge about everything that you have mentioned in the invoice; surprises might not be pleasant for them!
Define your policies
A good client would always pay on time; however sometimes the designers and freelancers face exceptional cases too. If any of your client has not paid on time you have to determine what to do next. Here are the things that you need to do:
1.Decide how many days you should give the client for late payments
2.The amount of the late fees
After setting up the policies you should be open to exceptions as well; if a client has genuine reason you might decide to waive the late fees.
Insert your contact details in the invoice
Some basic information about your company along with the contact details should be there in the invoice. Here is a list of items that should be included in the invoice:
Your name
Company name
Company address
Phone number
Email id
The invoice might pass through different departments in the client’s organization; concerned persons might have questions regarding the invoice, hence by putting your contact details in the invoice you can accelerate the entire process.
Insert client’s contact information as well
This is very important; apart from putting your own contact details you have to insert the recipient’s contact details too. This would help you establish the fact that you are expecting payment from the client and in case of non-payment you can use the invoice as evidence.
Specify the due date of the invoice
Mention clearly by when the client should make the payment; unless you mention the due date you cannot implement your late fees policies. Once you define the policies for late payment, you can mention that in the invoice as a note.
Specify the mode of payment
Mention what mode of payment is accepted by you; the client would understand whether they need to do direct bank transfer or pay by check or paypal. Also, mention the details of the recipients like the company name or individual’s name so that the client can issue the check easily. If any information is not available there, the client would inquire and it might take few more days to get the payment cleared.
