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Freelance journalist invoice template for Planning

you're getting ready to send an invoice to fill your first client congratulations that's a huge step i'm gonna tell you today the best stress-free ways to handle getting paid as a freelancer when i worked self-employed getting to send my first invoice gave me one of the biggest sense of achievement in my life it feels awesome right i'd done the work earned the money and then at the end of the month the company i was contracting for sent me an email saying i needed to submit an invoice so they could actually pay me i guess i'd never had to worry about that before i was employed the money just turned up in the bank account at the end of each month but now i needed to do it for myself because getting paid is pretty important i did some research and cobbled together a rather rough invoice in the years in between i've invoiced a whole lot more and seen lots of freelancing invoices from people who've been working for me so let me tell you what you need to know to write and send an invoice including a basic free template you can use to get started on a simple invoicing system we'll cover how to invoice a client what an invoice looks like and what you need to have on it how to create a simple invoice a free template you can start with how to keep track of your invoices in a free and simple way and a professional invoicing system that will do the hard work for you if you work for yourself on a freelance or contract basis and want to send an invoice this workshop is for you here's how to invoice a client or a company for freelance work let's keep it simple first agree terms with your client before you start working for a client you need to have a chat with them about money setting out the terms in advance is going to protect you when it comes to time to invoice make sure you get at least a record in writing on email if you don't have a signed contract so what do you need to agree first cost it could be an hourly rate a day rate or a fee for the whole piece of work if you're not sure what the right price to set is watch the video workshop i've linked to below it covers setting the right rates to meet your financial goals and how to attract the high paying clients that you want to be working for or you can look at the research i've put together on day rates that existing uk freelancers charge link below as well you also want to look at the payment terms in this part of the chart you need to cover when you're going to invoice ask yourself these questions thinking about when you want to and when your client will allow you to do each of them when do you want to bill just at the end would you want to split payment into several tranches for a larger project so you get paid in part sooner how quickly do you want to be paid after you send the invoice 30 days is fairly standard it lets your client pay you in the next month you pay run but seven days isn't unusual either how you'll get paid some clients will prefer one payment method or another and the bigger and more systematized they are the more likely they're going to want you to just accept their way of paying they might also ask you to fill in a form with your payment details before you start work so they can set you up in their software but most smaller companies and individuals will let you dictate how they should pay you bank transfer or paypal invoice are a couple of good free options so you've done the work and you're ready to build great now it's time to get ready to make your first invoice what info do you need on it title it invoice add an invoice number and today's date your info name address and contact details your client's info contact name company address address and any reference number that they've asked you to use to help them recognize what your invoice is for your payment terms and details what you're billing for how much it costs and the total amount not forgetting the currency so how do you create an invoice the free way to make an invoice once you know how to write an invoice it's easy to create one for yourself you could use a word processor but i'd recommend using a spreadsheet just because you can create just as good a layout and get the software to do the math for you the example you can see in this previous slide uses a spreadsheet the other brilliant time-saving thing you can do with a spreadsheet is keep track of all your invoices in one place then you download to a pdf and it's a pro looking invoice ready to send what a free system can't do for you is your bookkeeping that's tying your bank account and card transactions up to your invoice and your receipts and logging them in the right place in your accounts so when you're ready to go pro you need an accounting software package but more on that later if you're just dipping your toes into freelancing or starting out a free template can be just a thing so guess what i've created a free freelance invoice template you can save so much time and get it right first time using a smart template that does all the hard work for you this free template will guide you through creating your first invoice and it'll automate as much as possible so every future invoice is quick and easy to create from setup to client details to adding the final details onto the invoice it's all there plus you can easily track what's happening with all of your invoices if you want to find out more check out the details in the link below now the pro way to create an invoice if you're ready to commit to freelancing and you want to take away the headache of doing everything by hand what you need is an accounting tool the right tool will help you create invoices keep track of them link up to your bank account so you can mark them as paid when the money comes in build your year-end accounts and and generate your personal or company tax returns free agents my favorite accounting package to recommend because it's so simple to get started with and go the extra mile with making it easy to sort out your taxes etc at the year end is the best of both worlds and it's easy to use but powerful i've also used xero which is powerful but complex and crunch which i found not quite as simple not quite as feature-rich um so to get you started and create your first invoice in free agent i can't do better than to point you to their own help article to get invoicing it's a really good one so i'll pop a link in below plus a link where you can get 10 off a subscription if you do choose to sign up next you're going to email your invoice to your client if you're using an accounting package a good one will let you send off your invoice directly from inside the software otherwise it's really easy to attach your pdf invoice to an email and send it off to the person who's most likely to get you paid in your client's company i always like to reiterate a couple of details from the invoice in the email so the recipient knows what to expect even if they don't open the file straight away so i say something like here's my invoice for october's seo work i did eight days coming to four thousand pounds due by the end of november thanks so much and that's really all you need to know with the basics of invoicing i've put some advanced tips in my blog article on this as well so if you're interested check out the link below thank you