Create a Seamless Invoice Agreement for Businesses

Invoice agreement for businesses

what's up to all my creatives and Freelancers we have to talk about some serious business today and that's when people confuse an invoice for a [Music] contract so right off the bat Let's Get Serious and talk about this issue and what I'm referring to is the times in which you as a creative may be working with a client and maybe you have a rapport with them maybe you have a relationship already and it's time for you to work on a new project but you simply give them an invoice you invoice the client in order to let them know they need to pay for you to begin work but perhaps you did not provide a fullblown contract for whatever reason maybe it's because the person has worked with you before uh maybe it's because you trust them maybe because it's a friend or family member who knows but you give them an invoice and you don't follow it with any type of contract or any other type of written agreement I'm sad to say that I actually have done that in the past I've worked with people to where I said you know what they know me pretty well they know my business practices already let me just give them an invoice I don't want to go through the hassle or put in the time to write everything out in the contract let me just give an invoice the problem that arose for me giving an invoice with no written agreement led to many different assumptions that ended up being very stressful for me and also it led to NeverEnding work you know I gave an invoice they paid and they had an expect for me to do so many over-the toop things and I had expectation that hey I did the work and you already paid so we're done so it just was not clear and it really just caused more stress and more work on both ends when we really could have just had some things written down and just both parties agreed upon them that brings me to this point an invoice is not a contract I'm say it again an invoice is not a contract even though the two are related there they're very different and distinct and I'm going to get into that right now on one hand you have a contract or a client agreement and a contract is simply what both parties agree upon as it pertains to the details of the project normally as a part of that contract there may be a section in which you outline payment terms and what happens if the person does not pay or perhaps if there's a payment plan you also outline the details of the payment plan but you write out what was agreed upon for the client to pay so you may say I'm doing this work for a particular client the agreement entails $1,000 plus tax and they need to pay it on this hand you have an invoice and an invoice is sending out notification that you are trying to collect on something that has been previously agreed upon think about it like this a client agreement needs to outline what you need to be paid and an invoice is outlining this is the amount as a reminder now this is how you can pay me again you have the details of the payment and then you have okay this is how you can pay those specific details you already agreed upon I have seen and observed with different agencies that you know they may put in a more comprehensive agreement and then they invoice for each particular project that comes up that'll work as well but the overall goal is to say or have some type of language which outlines okay this is the overall agreement and any supplemental work that comes up that will be scoped out differently but every time I invoice you you're still held accountable to the overarching client agreement thank you for taking the time to check out this episode I greatly appreciate it as always there are show notes for this particular episode so you can go to freelance jumpstart.org the show notes for this particular episode really again as a closing note just remember an invoice is not a contract in the past I didn't follow this and that just led to as I mentioned some stress so just take the time to detail out a contract and take the time to detail out an invoice in the right way because it will save you a lot of work a lot of headache and a lot of stress in the future thank you once again for checking out this episode and I will catch you in the next one see you w