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hey it's mike berner finance writer for business.com here to show you the key elements to include in an invoice so you get paid on time so be sure to stick around and don't forget to like subscribe and check out thebusiness.com website links below for more small business content [Music] let's start with the basics a sales invoice is defined as a formal request for payment so in other words a bill sometimes an invoice is sent before the goods or services are provided sometimes it's sent afterward but in both cases it lists exactly what was provided by the seller and the amount that the buyer is required to pay now it's not a legally binding document but it does provide a record in case disputes come up later so you're gonna want to send one every time you need a payment having these records helps you one keep track of sales two manage your finances and three no offer customer's payment is overdue it might also be necessary for paying taxes later on so be sure to look into your local government's tax laws and regulations now we'll get to the good stuff which is how to make sure that your invoice looks professional one study found that u.s small businesses deal with over 800 billion in overdue invoices every year so you want to make sure you do everything by the book without further ado let's dive in to how to create an invoice one quick tip before we begin if you're in a pinch you can use a free template from google sheets to send an invoice but we recommend specialized accounting in the invoicing software such as quickbooks xero or freshbooks in this example we'll use freshbooks to create an invoice because we think it's a great program for invoicing first you want to make sure that your invoice actually says the words invoice somewhere now maybe that sounds obvious but you want to make sure that no one misses those words so your invoice doesn't get deleted or thrown in the trash an invoice should also include your business's legal name address and phone number and maybe today your email address as well all at the top you also want your customers name and contact information now this part is important you want the date that the invoice was sent as well as the due date because if there's ever a dispute later on you'll want to be able to point to when you sent that invoice now the invoice number is more for your internal use the customer might not necessarily need that but this just helps you keep organized in the middle we want the goods or services that you provided you're going to want the name of the service the data was provided the price and the quantity you might also want to include a description like say the parts you ordered for repair or how many hours you spent on the job if there are any fees such as shipping or taxes or whatever else you want to list those line items separately from the cost of the goods or services at the end you should add up all those prices and show the total because that is what you're going to get paid and again maybe that sounds obvious but you want to make sure you get what you wrote and finally it might be nice to leave a little note for the customer with any additional information thank them for their business that kind of thing now in freshbooks you can customize the look and feel of the invoice with several templates it just helps it look more professional if the invoice is designed matches your brand and as you can see we have a logo here which is why freshbooks is a really great program for invoicing now if you're interested in checking out some good invoicing software there are a few links below and be sure to check out the full business.com buying guide link below in the description as well if you learned something from this video hit that like button and subscribe we're always putting out content for small businesses and definitely let us know what you think in the comments see you next time