How To Invoice As A Freelancer – Step-by-step

Sending invoices as a freelancer is one of the most important things. You need to get paid, and that’s what we have invoices for, but it might be uncomfortable for you. Here is how you do it seamlessly.

To send out an invoice as a freelancer, you need to describe your work in detail, add a creation date, payment due date, the total amount, VAT, and invoice number and then send the invoice to your client. The most common is to send it by email then and remember to follow up on past due payments.

Okay, this is super brief explained, and there is a lot more to it, including some tips I’ve collected after sending more than 100 freelance invoices. I’m sharing a step-by-step guide to how you do it and some tips based on my own experience. Let’s get into it.

Information To Include In Your Invoices

1. Add dates to your invoice. You both need to add the date you create the invoice and the date when the payment is due for the invoice. It’s common to add the creation date in the header and the payment due date in the footer
2. Add your contact and company information in the header, where you must include your name, address, and VAT number if you have one.
3. Add your client’s contact and company information in the header opposite your information, where you write their company name, address and their VAT number if they have one.
4. Add information about how to pay the invoice in the footer, whether it’s through bank transfer, PayPal, a link or something else.
5. Describe in detail your work in multiple lines. You can divide it by dates, modules, or what makes sense for your work. Be detailed to avoid misunderstanding.
6. If your contract with your client is based on hours and an hourly rate, remember to include the number of hours spent and a subtotal for the individual lines when describing your work in detail.

If you want to learn how to write a bulletproof freelance contract, you can read my guide here with free templates.

How To Create An Invoice As A Freelancer

Now that the information you know needs to be part of the invoice, it’s time to create the information. I will always recommend you use software like Dinero if you’re in Denmark or Xolo internationally.

But let’s get into the guide. The software will take care of many of these steps, so many of them only apply if you’re making the invoice manually in Google Docs or similar. However, it’s still good to be aware of what an invoice needs to contain and look like.

1. Add The Header With Contact Information

To begin with, building your invoice requires a header, which contains information about you and your client, plus some unique identifiers.

You need to add your own company name, address and vat no. Then you need to add your client’s company name, address and vat no. And lastly, you need to add the invoice number, which must be unique for each invoice.

I like to add my own information on the left and my client’s information on the right, opposite each other, so it looks something like this:

2. Give The Invoice A Number And Date Of Creation

The next step is to add the invoice number, as mentioned in the previous step and the date of creation. This information also belongs in the header, and I like to add it on the right side on top of my client’s information as it’s relevant to my client.

So now our header will look something like this:

3. Describe Your Work In Detail

With the header done, it’s now time to explain in detail what we have done for the invoice we’re sending out. The more detailed you are, the fewer questions and doubts your client will have in the end.

It’s better to spend an extra 10 minutes detailing your work than spend hours explaining your work and invoices to your clients on the phone. Remember, you need to feel confident when sending the invoice to your client.

The best way to solve this step is to use a table view. I like to have 4 columns. One column to explain the work with a title. A column for the number of hours spent on the description. An hourly rate and a subtotal for the entire row.

In this step, you simply need to do this over and over until you’ve explained everything you’ve done, and then it’ll look something like this:

Description	Hours spent	Hourly rate	Subtotal
11 Apr {Description of work done 11 Apr}	4	$100	$400
12 Apr {Description of work done 12 Apr}	3	$100	$300
13 Apr {Description of work done 13 Apr}	7.5	$100	$750
14 Apr {Description of work done 14 Apr}	9	$100	$900

4. Add VAT And The Total Amount

With the previous step done, you can add a subtotal, VAT for your country, and a total amount.

Be aware that if you’re selling services to a foreign country, your VAT still needs to be stated on the invoice, and it just needs to be 0.

So these 3 rows would look something like this:

		Subtotal	$2350
		VAT	$0
		Total	$2350

I’ll show how the full invoice template will look in the last step when sending the invoice.

5. Add Payment Information And The Due Date

Now the fifth step is where you add information about payment and due date. Often when you negotiate the project or hire with your client, you also agree on terms for payments. Some companies want 14 days to pay the invoice, while others want 2 months. It varies depending on the size of the company.

I like to add a description text as well. This doesn’t need to be your footer, you can simply add this below your table describing your work in detail, but it would look something like this:

Terms of Payment: Net {amount of days} days – Due date: {date}

Please transfer the amount to the account:
Bank / Reg.no. {reg number} / Account no. {account number} / SWIFT: {swift} / IBAN: {iban}
Please note the invoice no. {invoice number} on the transfer

I will charge an interest of 0.60% per month, starting the day after the due date and a fee of {0.6% of your total amount} USD

The last sentence is up to you whether you want to add it or not. It’s not mandatory, but companies are used to seeing this, so don’t be afraid of adding it to the invoice.

6. Send The Invoice To Your Client

Now we have the full invoice ready to send, and what I prefer is to send it via email. It’s the easiest. Be aware that depending on your client’s size, they sometimes want you to send the invoice to your contact person and the billing department.

I would write an email with a brief text, which can vary from client to client, and then I would attach the invoice as a PDF file.

You could write something like:

Dear {name of your client}

Thanks a lot for being a customer at {your company name}.

Here is your invoice {invoice number} on {total amount} USD.

I have kindly attached the invoice with this email.

Yours sincerely,
{your name}

This one is very friendly, but it works, and I always use it.

The attached invoice, which we have now finalised in its full form, would look like this:

Description	Hours spent	Hourly rate	Subtotal
11 Apr {Description of work done 11 Apr}	4	$100	$400
12 Apr {Description of work done 12 Apr}	3	$100	$300
13 Apr {Description of work done 13 Apr}	7.5	$100	$750
14 Apr {Description of work done 14 Apr}	9	$100	$900
		Subtotal	$2350
		VAT	$0
		Total	$2350

Terms of Payment: Net {amount of days} days – Due date: {date}

Please transfer the amount to the account:
Bank / Reg.no. {reg number} / Account no. {account number} / SWIFT: {swift} / IBAN: {iban}
Please note the invoice no. {invoice number} on the transfer

I will charge an interest of 0.60% per month, starting the day after the due date and a fee of {0.6% of your total amount} USD

Invoice Types For Freelancers

Depending on your client relationship, there are many different types of invoices to send. Maybe you’re asking for payment upfront, partial payments, or you’re working on an hourly basis.

Here are the different invoice types relevant for freelancers and what you need to remember with each type of invoice.

Invoice Before The Project Starts

This one is common if you’re in doubt about whether the client will pay or not, and it’s often used in the web industry.

If you want to be sure you get your payment, or you might have some expenses during the project or before the start, then ask for payment upfront.

Remember to declare on the invoice, that work has not been delivered yet, it’s payment upfront, and when you finish work, you send a confirmation invoice on payment received and work delivered.

The Final Invoice For A Project

This one is completely opposite to the previous solution. Here you have full trust in your client and want to deliver the entire project before getting paid.

This is great if the project is small in size or you have the liquidity to maintain your expenses until the project is finalised.

It’s an excellent experience for your client, but don’t worry. If you start and you can see it’s not going to last, then ask for an interim payment, which I’ll explain in the sections below.

Recurring Invoice

This is one of my favourite types of invoices. I enjoy working with my clients hourly, where I get payment every hour, I record. It requires some extra work as I have to track my time and describe everything I do down to the hours, but I feel I’m getting paid for just the work I’m putting in.

What’s important here is to describe, on a daily basis, what you have done and how many hours you’ve spent doing just that.

Then when you send the invoices, you can attach the descriptions or write them up in the invoice. It varies on what clients prefer.

Interim Invoice

This one is great for project pricing. When I give a project price, I like to split the total amount agreed on into 3 invoices.

I will send an invoice upfront before I start working on the project. An invoice when we’re halfway through. And an invoice when we’re completely done with the project.

It’s important to set milestones which define when you’re halfway through. Otherwise, you and your client might disagree with what halfway through means. But to avoid disagreement, build a project plan.

Past Due Invoice

This is not directly a type of invoice, as it’s a fee. If you’re using software, you can completely automate this step. Otherwise, you can handle it manually.

Be aware there are a lot of regulations about past due invoices. A certain amount of days needs to have passed before you can send the first past due invoice, and then in between the following 2 past due invoices, 10 days must pass. This might vary in your country.

You can maximum send 3 past due invoices, and then you need to either go through debt collection or follow up manually on the phone or through email.

Personally, I don’t like this type of invoice. Often my clients simply forget to pay, so they just need a follow-up, and then I get payment.

Tips For Better Freelance Invoices

Review and calculate the amounts multiple times. The last thing you want to do while sending out your invoice is to send out an invoice with mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, it happens, but if you can avoid it, it makes you much more professional.

Avoid misunderstandings, and describe your work. As mentioned earlier, the more detail you go into with your invoice and work, the less explanation your client will need from you. And there is nothing worse than spending time explaining invoices. Those hours are not billable

Remember VAT. This is a common mistake that freelancers tend to forget to add VAT. If you use software, it’s handled completely automatically, but if you’re handling your invoices manually and sending an invoice to a company registered in the same country, remember VAT.

Don’t worry; send the invoice. This is a mistake I’ve seen over and over again. You have finished your work, and it’s time to send the invoice, but when is the right time to send it? As soon as you’re done, then send the invoice, simple as that. Depending on the terms, your client will still have 8-14 days to pay the invoice, and there is nothing wrong with sending the invoice. You have delivered. Now it’s your client’s turn.

Use software to send invoices. This step will help you avoid making mistakes by handling your invoices manually. The software will take care of VAT, remember contact information and give you an overview of all your past due and paid invoices and much more. I can only recommend you do follow this tip.

Don’t worry; follow up. If your client hasn’t paid the invoice on time, then give them a little nudge. 9/10 times it’s simply because they’ve forgotten. It’s not because they don’t want to pay your invoice and are often happy you remind them. It shows you’re being proactive.

Offer multiple payment methods. This is absolutely not mandatory, and I only offer bank transfers. But depending on your type of client, adding PayPal or credit card payments might decrease invoices past due. It’s worth a try.

FAQ