Create a Professional Freelance Artist Invoice Template for Operations Effortlessly

Freelance artist invoice template for Operations

hey guys this video is the second in a two-part series that I'm doing covering the practical aspects of freelance illustration excluding finding work using contracts and getting paid we've already covered way uses finding work in the previous video so if you missed it I'll go ahead and link it down below and also my same little disclosure from the previous video I am definitely using though today because this stuff is very complicated and I could easily just like babble on about it for way too long so I'm keeping myself on track with some notes and that is why you may occasionally see me looking down in addition to you know looking at my socks ok so today we're going to go over the basics of contracts and in wisdom which I know is like so excited you're just like jumping out of your chair because you can't wait to talk about contracts and invoicing that's definitely how I feel about it uh so before we get started let me begin with another disclaimer I'm an artist I'm not a legal professional I have not gone to law school did not pass the bar everything that I'm about to go over it's just from personal experience from my own research and learning and it should not be considered legal advice okay so you've exchanged a few emails with a prospective client and it looks like you're interested looks like you're ready to take the next step and start working on the job before you start at any project the number one thing you should always do is to use a contract or some other form of clear specific written communication lots of us myself included are guilty of skipping this step at times Phoebe you're super excited ahead or you just want to like get that client in the door and it's starting about on the job maybe you're afraid I know this is definitely like part of what was behind it for me like afraid of something demanding or not wanting to frighten client off maybe you're not sure what you do that could happen too but regardless you should always always always have a basic agreement with the client that covers your expectations of the work that you're prepared to and what the client is going to pay so some questions that you'll want to be sure to cover are how many illustrations are you doing what size are they what's the subject what's the level of detail how will the client be using the illustration how how long did they use it for who owns the copyright are they allowed to sublicense it to someone else how much will this cost when will the client pay you will there be will you require a deposit hint hint yes I definitely recommend that you should require a deposit when will the project start when will the drafts be delivered when will I need to send in their feedback to keep you on schedule and when will the final seat to be delivered client responsibilities this is the section that I have sometimes forgotten and it turns out to be really important after the fact but what does the client need to give you before the project starts so they need to give you a signed contract yes they need to give you a deposit hopefully yes do they need to give you reference photos or creative brief describing the project and how they expect it to be completed and finally how will the client receive the work is it going to be digital so are you gonna send them a PSD file a JPEG PDF or it's gonna actually be like the physical work if it's for a private commission that's usually what it is someone's purchasing a painting or a drawing from you so you want to go over all of those specifics and your agreement how many revisions are you going to allow so how many times will you allow the client to request changes to the piece before you start increasing the price and then if you do have additional changes if the client has additional changes excuse me how much is that going to cost how much will the price increase Kurt change you want to be as specific about that kind of stuff as possible because you don't want the client to be surprised if they ask for you know if you allow two changes that they asked for five rounds of changes then of course that's going to cost more and it might seem common sense to you but you still have to say it because it might not be common sense to the client and the client might be expecting something else so and the last thing I want to mention is to include a contingency upon payment clause so basically you just want to be sure to say that the client will have no rights to use that work unless they have paid you in full so that's an important thing to include because it will motivate the client to get you payment so depending on the client you may also be asked to sign their contract which is fine that's normal in addition to your own so if they do ask you to do that be sure to read it carefully and do not hesitate to ask questions or if you see something that you're not comfortable with to bring it up and ask for it to be changed and it's a particularly large job like if it's something that you will be working on for a couple of months or it has a big scope you might want to consider seeking actual legal counsel personally that's not something that I've done yet but I haven't had any of those like newly long-term jobs there was one I almost did last year that would have been like a six month job for hundreds of illustrations and in that case I would have definitely gone to a lawyer just because you want to make sure before you sign something like that that you're in a good position so uh anyway I know all this can seem tedious and boring at times but it is so so important it's for both your protection and the client satisfaction there is nothing worse than being in a situation where you feel pressured and put upon to do more work than you signed up for while the clients simultaneously feels like they're being squeezed or they're not getting what they pay for in terms of their their budget and their money so the best way to avoid that kind of awful situation which I feel like we all end up in at least once it's a learning experience but the best way to avoid that is to be upfront clear and direct in what your expectations are and what the clients expectations are once the project is completed you will need to invoice the client ideally you would have already gotten a deposit and your contract will have already included how much you're going to be paid so what is the full price for the project and you would have gotten like a 25 or a 50% deposit up front that's non-refundable so the invoice is for the remainder down sending the final invoice covers what is left so say if a project costs five it's a full project budget was 500 dollars he would have gotten it 250 dollar deposit then you're going to need to invoice the client for that remaining 250 so be sure that your invoice includes the amount due so how much does the client still owe the due date which is generally 30 to 45 days after you send the invoice the amount of the client is paid already so like I said if it was a $500 total you want to indicate yes the client already paid 250 in their deposit and they still owe 250 and description of what the client is paying for this is especially important if it's for like a large design agency or some place that has a lot of projects going on you want to just make a little note who is describing the project that it was for and what you produce so you might say like holiday holiday food article 6 spot illustrations something like that and then of course you wouldn't have directions on how the client can pay you so if you're expecting a check or you only take checks you have to include your name and your address and you have to indicate payment accepted by check if it's for an international client which a number of mine are sometimes using online payment like a direct transfer or PayPal is easier whatever you're going to do you need to indicate what your expectations are for how the client can pay you and just be really clear about it and then lastly include an invoice number I just use a formula of the current here plus the number of the invoice so like my 35th invoice for 2015 was two zero one five three five and that's good to do just because it helps with organization and with sending follow-up emails so that you're not the person saying hey remember that invoice I sent you on that one day you can actually refer to invoice number it just makes it a little bit more clear and more professional and I note on all this on invoicing don't be surprised if the client doesn't pay you right away or even if they go past their due date this is most often at least in my experience not because the client is malicious or trying to cheat you but it's just because they've got a lot of other stuff going on and again if it's for a larger design agency or magazine or something that has lots of deadlines and they're juggling lots of things it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle so if the client is the pager by the due date don't be afraid to send a reminder email and again just be courteous and polite but refer to the invoice the date that you sent it and just remind them that you haven't received payment yet and that's always worked out for me to this day I have not had anybody not pay me which i think is like pretty great and I feel very lucky so that is it for contracts and invoicing I hope you guys found it helpful I know it can be kind of like an overwhelming boring subject but hopefully there were some good stuff in here if you did find this helpful please hit that thumbs up and the subscribe button thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one bye