10 Tips to Invoice Professionally By Freelancer

Why does one work? If it is asked, the reply would come straight and forwardly as ‘TO MAKE MONEY’. One gives competition to a bull for earning bread & butter. It’s all the trick of money that tempts you to keep your work on-going. A freelancer puts his heart& soul. Why? To bank on his/her work.

Do you keep your professionalism restricted to your freelance work only? What, don’t you put your professionalism forth in invoicing! For smooth going of your economic status and boosting your morale, you need to clear-up your bills. Not only this, you have to maintain proper record of your invoice to keep the possibility of tiffs or conflicts away. Check out how it is to be done: 

• Hire good Invoicing software: Hire any suitable invoice software for invoicing. Or, you can go for online software for invoicing. With this, you forget to worry about tracking your clients’ & your due receipts. If your pocket allows, you can pick any paid invoicing software. Otherwise, free software for this is also available with the requisite features.   
  
  
• Speak apparently about payment policies: The market is flooded with the clients whose forte is not to pay on time. Ask as accounting and reporting freelancer whose full payment turns into half or even less than that by the client. And finally, such client runs away or stubbornly denies drawing out single penny from their pocket. So, speak out clearly what’s your terms & conditions for payment before signing a deal. For instance:
  

      a)      Mode of payment
b)      How much down payment
c)       Start work with upfront payment
d)      Penalties for late payment
e)      Time of full payment etc.    

• Adhere to your pay policies: For avoiding listening “What! You did not foretell me” from clients, send your payment policies to clients. If there is any change in the mid of the work, you can update him.
  
  
• Fix your charges after intensive thinking: Never let your client dominate over you. Underrating your freelancing work for cracking the deal can bring you under hefty debt. And even, the cheap clients can overload you with tedious work in less money. Charge as per prevalent price range according to your work.
  
  
• Make the bill of services and charges:  Specify each and every service and its charge in your invoice clearly. Thus, your client will have no words in asking FOR WHAT SERVICE you ask money.
  
  
• Clear in advance the mode of payment: Mutinied world of internet has many online payment modes which are quicker than before. State in advance which mode you want for payment receipt. 
  
  
• Mention due date of the payments: You will axe your own feet if you don’t remind your client about payment date. Don’t forget to mention due date of payment on invoice for security.
  
  
• Mention your contact details: Write up your name, address, contact details & email in bold in invoice. So that, your client will be able to mark your work as payable specifically to you.  
  
  
• Put numbering over your invoice: Being a freelancer, you have to send lots of invoice at various times. To bring it to your mind, mark each one with a sequence number in header. This will be helpful in monitoring which invoice is paid in full and which one is due.
  
  
• Maintain record: Be prepared with backup of your invoice. For this, you have full-fledge record of your all invoices. Keep it in your mail or letter.