Topic: Using an Invoice Template

Create an invoice template for your firm. And in the show notes for this episode, we have a sample invoice template that you can download and customize. If you’re using accounting software like QuickBooks, or most other software, it will have the ability to generate an invoice that may or may not have all of the different fields that you want on it.

I’m going to go through some of the lessons learned that I’ve had over the years of some things that you want to include on your invoice template. Okay, so obviously the name of your firm, address of your firm the date of the invoice.

You want to put on there an invoice number. Now, you want to make this a unique number. I learned that the hard way. I used to make my invoice numbers simply…

First I didn’t put any invoice numbers on. And then I had a client ask me, “Hey, we need an invoice number.” I guess they needed to put it into their system. So then I said, “All right, fine. I’ll make it year, month, day, that’s my invoice number.” And I did that for a couple years, and it was fine.

And then with one client, I had two invoices for the same month: one invoice for my time and one invoice for a subcontractor’s time that I was also billing. And those two had the same invoice number. One of them got paid, and one of them didn’t. And as I followed up with the client, I found out, “Oh, I need to have unique invoice numbers.” So unique invoice numbers.

A project name or reference number for the project so they can figure out what invoice exactly it’s for. Some clients, not all, but some clients will create a purchase order internally. After you both sign a contract, they’ll create a purchase order in their system which allows them to disperse the funds for that project. And they may require you to put that PO number on your invoice. Now, chances are that no one from the client will tell you this ahead of time so you may want to proactively ask, “Hey, do you need me to include a PO number on my invoice? And, if so, what’s the PO number?”

If your contract is a variable time and materials, then you probably want to say, “Here are the days I worked and here’s the daily rate, and here’s the subtotal for my time.” Some clients are fine if you just say, “I worked 12 days this month.” In other cases, they may want you to list out which specific dates you worked. So, you may want to ask that question.

If it’s a fixed-fee project and you’re billing on some kind of milestone, then you may want to have some verbiage in there, “Sending this invoice upon completion of the site visit,” or, “Sending this invoice upon completion of the final deliverable,” whatever the milestone is that you had agreed to that’s referenced in your statement of work.

You want to have one line for your total expenses on the project, just one line on the main invoice. I have a separate episode here where we’re going to talk about how to provide the backup for those expenses, creating an Expensify report. What I usually do is I’ll have this invoice template as page one, and then all of my expenses I’ll attach to that PDF.

Include a list of everyone at the client who should be receiving the invoice. This is very handy if you’ve served a client once, and then go back and serve them a year later, to remind you of who you should send the invoice to. Sometimes it’ll just be your client that you’re serving, and that person will take care of it. But they may ask you to say, “Well, copy my assistant. Also please copy accounts payable and a copy to this other person.” In some cases, clients will have us send it to eight or nine different people. So, just a list of all those people. You can put their e-mail addresses or their names.

The name, phone number, and address of the point of contact at your firm for billing questions. And that’s probably you. Now, you think, “Well, they have my email address. It’s on the email that I sent them the invoice with.” But in some cases, the invoice gets printed or passed around or forwarded and your contact info gets lost. So include it right there on the invoice: point of contact, name, phone number, address, email.

Payment terms. So if you’ve agreed to payment terms, which you probably have, in your contract with the client, put those payment terms on the invoice. It may say, “If a check is to be mailed, please mail the check to this address,” with your physical address. And then say, “For electronic payment,” and then put in your electronic, automated clearing house payment information if you’re expecting your client to pay you ACH.

Some clients will have you fill out a separate form for accounts payable with that information, your routing number and account number. I generally will include it on my invoice, just to have a little belt and suspenders, just do it both ways. I’ll fill out their form if they want that, but I’ll put it on the invoice just so there’s no question about it.

So you may have additional things you find that you want to have on your invoice. Over 10 years, that’s kind of a complete list of the things that I have found to be helpful. And again in the show notes here for this episode, you can download a template you can customize for your own use.