Create Invoice for Freelance Work for Accounting Effortlessly

Create invoice for freelance work for Accounting

Hello Boss babes and Bosses out there! In this video, I am going to share with you how I am sending my invoice to my direct clients. So, if you want to learn more about that, just keep on watching. I always receive this question from you, guys, on how I send an invoice to clients. I would like you to know that I have direct clients and I also have clients from Upwork. I mean, they are already paying on Upwork so Upwork automatically sends the invoice to them. But for my direct clients, I will share to you how I do it. But before I am going to dive in, I would like to share what is an invoice. But I am not going to share with you the technical definition of it. I will just simplify it. You can research on Google the technical definition of it. But a simple definition of it is that it is the document that you send to the client for them to see the breakdown of what they will be paying for, the deadline and the likes. I will also tackle with you later the details you will include in the invoice. So, I am sending it via email. And I will also let you know why I send it via email. And maybe you are asking right now, "When are you sending your invoice, Sui? Is it before or after working?" So, this is what I will share with you. Back then, when I was just starting in freelance, before I send an invoice, I make sure first that I completed the tasks and the client is satisfied with my work, the output is okay, before I send an invoice to them like, "Hey, this is the amount you have to pay for the service that I have rendered to you." It's because I don't want to feel like I am a fraud or a scammer, which is actually not a good mindset. I swear. So, you, aspiring freelancers, may you be a Social Media Manager, or graphic designer, website developer, or any freelance, you can ask for even just an initial payment. If the client is not willing to pay for the full amount yet, you can ask for an initial payment because it will protect you against scams and to ensure that the client will not run away. This had been my realization over time as I work full-time. That was my mistake before while working with direct clients. Even though there is a signed contract, there is no assurance that you will get paid. In short, I cannot sue them even though we signed a contract because I don't want to pay for an attorney just to file a complaint to the client like, "Hey, I didn't get paid $100." I feel like the expense that I would incur in getting an attorney just to sue that client is way, way more expensive. So, I was like, "Okay, charge to experience again." So, for you to have double protection, have a contract and initial payment to ensure that the client will not run away. It is a good way for you to work together well. I would highly recommend that if you would invoice the client for the first time, especially if it is a service package, it would be nice to offer a discount once they are going to pay the amount in full compared to an installment basis until the project will be done. So, that kind of strategy to get the amount in full is really a good way. If you would sum it up for installments, maybe there is an additional percentage. But if they will pay in full, they can save a certain amount. So, that is really a good way. Instead of sending the invoice after you made the service that you promised to your client, ask a payment first, even just a percentage, or half or in full. It is up to you. But that is my technique, the one I just mentioned that when they pay in full, they will pay less amount. But if they want to pay on an installment basis per milestone, you can charge a little higher so that they would have to pay more. Then, when they see the breakdown, "Oh, when I pay monthly, this is what I have to pay for, but if I will pay for the whole quarter, the amount is only this." It will encourage them to pay for the whole quarter compared to monthly installments. So, we are now in the part where I will share with you how I send my invoices to my clients. This is the first way that you can do it. This is what I use before. The first is to use the Paypal invoice. Paypal has a feature where you can generate an invoice. But I noticed that I do not get the full amount I have indicated in my invoice. So, I scrapped that. I literally used this just before. I no longer use this now. The reason I do not use Paypal anymore is because I do not receive the amount in full. And the Paypal conversion rate is generally lower. That is why I changed to another payment method for my direct clients. The next way to invoice your client is through Payoneer invoice. If Paypal has a feature to generate invoices, Payoneer has this feature as well where you can generate invoices using their own platform, the same with Paypal. As usual, the same with Paypal, there is a transaction fee. I think that is how it really is. I cannot remember anymore how much percentage is being deducted for the transaction fee. But in short, I still do not get the full amount. What I like about Payoneer compared to Paypal is that Payoneer has a higher conversion rate compared to Paypal. Using Payoneer was fine with me because it has a higher conversion rate until I discovered Transferwise, which leads me to my third suggestion on how to send an invoice to the client. In wise.com or Transferwise, they have a downloadable document in word format, excel, or PDF. So, it is up to you which one you like. You can manually edit it and send it to your client. Their template is good, very simple. You can use that one. I will put all the links below so you can access the platforms I am talking about. What I am doing now is that I am using Transferwise, but I use the templates from Canva. If you still don't have any accounts in Canva, you can click the link again below. Create an account from there. But if you already have one, you can just log in directly and search "invoice template" There are a lot of suggested templates in Canva that you can use for your client. The reason why I use Transferwise is that it has the highest conversion rate compared to Payoneer and Paypal. That's what I really like about it. And aside from that is it is directly transferred to my bank so there is no transaction fee from another platform to my bank. It is directly transferred to my bank. So, that is what I liked with Transferwise. But still, you have to indicate to the client that you are adding a certain amount for the transaction fee since you are not able to receive in full the amount you have agreed upon. Something like that. Or the client can handle that on their end. So, that is a pro tip. If you want to make sure to receive the exact amount, always indicate to your client to add an extra amount or or you added a certain amount in the invoice to make sure that the amount that you are receiving is still the same. You can still do the same with Paypal. But don't use the Paypal invoice. Just put your email and then tell your client that if they are going to send the payment, please choose the send money to a family or to a friend option, not the send a payment for a service or a product option so that the transaction fee will be charged to the client, not to you. If you want a free invoice template from BossedUp PH, please click the link below so that we can send it to you. Again, that is for free. Just message us. These are not just the only ways on how you can invoice a client. There are a lot of ways. There are a lot of free templates out there on the internet. What I have shared are just the platforms I have tried using as a freelancer. And the last one that I am going to share is through Upwork. If you have a direct client and you want to increase the earnings of your Upwork account, you can send an invoice through Upwork. And again, just the downside of it is that they charge a transaction fee from that. Only the rising freelancers and the top-rated freelancers can have access to this feature. So, that is the downside of it. I really hope that this video helps you because I always receive this question on how I send invoices. So, yeah. Before I am going to end this video, I would like to flex the works of my Boss babes and Bosses inside my group. Check this out. If you would like to join our Facebook group, just research "I'm Ready to Boss Up by BritxSui" And don't forget to like our Facebook page. And follow us on our Instagram accounts @britxsui and @bossedupph. So, yeah. I hope to see you guys on my next one. Bye!