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Contractor billing template for Production

what's up guys Jacob Owens here for the buff nerds and today I want to talk to you guys about invoicing clients properly so you can get paid on time for doing your video work so a common question I get all the time when it comes to video production filmmaking or really any freelancing job is how do I invoice clients or a contract amount and get paid on time without any issues so really quickly I just wanted to touch on how I invoice clients and I will give you guys an invoice template that I personally use myself that you'll be able to download in the description below there will be a link to download a invoice template that I personally use when I send it out to my clients so yeah let's get into it now when it comes to invoicing clients it's it's pretty simple an invoice is gonna be basically one document one one page that breaks down all of the information as far as like you as a production company who you're invoicing their address and information as well as the payment breakdown now I always include the payment breakdown on the invoice not just the total amount they owe but the breakdown of how they will pay and when they will pay along with that you will have your banking information or however you decide you want people to pay you whether it's the PayPal venmo cash app direct deposit and all that good stuff me personally on my invoice I use a direct deposit to my bank account PayPal and that's really the only two forms of payment I take sometimes I take a check I just make sure that if I do a check I get it ahead of time to make sure the check clears now real quickly I'm gonna get into breaking down the invoice and everything that you will find on my invoices so first things first when you go to the invoice you'll notice I have my production company name at the top along with the address of my production company and then I have the date of the invoice stated along with the invoice number so that's just some basic information you want to put up top the next thing you're gonna place is the bill to segment this is who you are billing the company their email their address you want to make sure you have you records of who you are invoicing then I have a simple description of what the invoice is for simply one music video you could put the artist and title name of the project but a simple description just explaining what the invoice is for next I always like to put a little bit of production details such as my name the production company the location that we're going to be shooting and the date that you will find that we're going to shoot on then comes the payment breakdown and details and this kind of acts as your contract as well as payment breakdown and invoicing to them so let me break it down for you guys real quick what I typically do so typically when I invoice a client I discuss ahead of time with them before I invoice them what the payment breakdown is gonna be I've done projects where the payment breakdown varies it's not always gonna be the same sometimes it's 50 percent upfront 50 percent when it's done sometimes I get a hundred percent up front sometimes I only get 75 percent up front and then 25 percent when the edit is done so there's a lot of ways that you can break it down and you're gonna want to break it down what what works best for you now for example when I'm working with music video labels such as Atlantic Records or RCA or Sony typically the payment breakdown breaks down 75% up front and then 25% when the Edit is complete and delivered now when the budgets really small I typically get 90% to 100% all upfront but typically I'll do about 90% up front and then 10% when the Edit is complete and that's only for small budgets because I like to let them know like hey this is a small project I kind of need everything up front in order to take this project on now if it's a very if it's a larger budget anything 10,000 20,000 30,000 the budget of that size typically it'll be 50% to 75% as the deposit or the upfront payment and then the rest will be due when the Edit is complete now a little note to protect you guys in yourselves when you're working on projects like this never delivered the Edit until the final payment has been made I have personally as well as I'm sure many of you guys and many other people out there have been screwed over where you deliver the product and then garlis of what goes down they don't make that second payment or at least if they do it's not for a month later or two months later and you don't want to be tracking those people down trying to get your final payment now there's times like this where I break it down into three payment installments I might do 50% upfront say we're doing a $2,000 I'm being paid $2,000 for video I might do a thousand dollars upfront fifteen percent deposit then on the shoot day or production day I do another twenty five percent so I'll do $500 do when we shoot and then the last 500 maybe do when the Edit is complete and finalized so you can break it down into two payments three payments whatever you're comfortable with just make it clear in the break down on the invoice of what the payment structure is going to be so below all that you want to make sure then you have the information of how they can pay you whether you're doing PayPal cash at venmo direct deposit to your bank account you want to list that information below so they know how they can pay you and last but not least you can have an invoice act as a contract if you need to you can put at the bottom agree to buy and so and so so you guys can both sign it and the invoice can act as your contract for the project and so they're signing off on the amounts that are owed and that you guys agreed to so if you need to you can have both parties sign the invoice to act as a contract but the invoice you want it to clearly state and break down how they're going to pay you and when they're going to pay you so yeah again this is it's pretty simple it's one-page just all the information that I listed if you guys have any questions regarding invoicing or what to put on the invoice again you can download the example that I have in the description below it'll be a little template you guys can adhere to and build your own template off of and use for your invoicing of clients I talked about this as well as contracts and other things much more in depth in my video guide and manual I'll put that in the description below as well a lot of you guys probably already have it but it's a hundred plus pages talking about not only how to film things how I film things you know the ins and outs of the film production world but also business elements like this with invoicing contracts finding clients and all that good stuff so you can check out the link in the description below to that and check that out and see if that piques your interest at all thanks for watching if you like the video a thumbs up comment all that good stuff subscribe if you're not already subscribed hit that little bill notification so you can notify when we upload any and all videos i'm jacob owens for the buff nerds [Music]