Create Your Virtual Assistant Invoice Template for Support Effortlessly

Virtual assistant invoice template for Support

hey everyone Janine here from the VA finishing school and today I'm going to talk about common invoicing mistakes we make as virtual assistants and how to avoid them so over the last couple of days I've been receiving a lot of messages and emails from virtual assistants saying they could they've done this route for the sign that send out invoices and the clients are simply not paying what must they do so if you're joining me live please comment below hi Brenda Lee please comment below and say hi and tell me about any invoicing situations that you've had with kinds where you either haven't been paid or you were paid late so I'm going to go through five top common invoicing mistakes that we make as virtual assistants in our own businesses and then I'm going to go through how we can avoid them so number one is probably a no-brainer and you're probably going to think how on earth does this happen but believe me it happens so number one forgetting to invoice you won't believe how many freelancers and virtual assistants forget to invoice they actually forget to send invoices to clients so if you don't send an invoice and if you forget to invoice the client when you've done the work how can you expect them to pay you the kinds is not gonna remind you to send you that sometimes they do but it's very rare so if you forget to send the invoice to the clients how is the claim going to know to pay you right so number two the common invoicing mistakes we've made is not sending out invoices on time so this goes sort of hand-in-hand with point number one forgetting to invoice point number two not sending invoices out on time so this happens quite a lot because we get busy and many of us don't have automated systems so we we rely on our memories to remind us to stay in order to remember to send out invoices and sometimes we don't send it out one time so say for example you did a job for a client the beginning of the month then the whole month you don't send up the invoice and all of a sudden it hits you you have an invoice this client and then 30 days later you send an invoice to the kind well no reason no wonder the client doesn't want to pay the invoice because it's 30 days late right so it's absolutely paramount that you send your invoices out on time now the third common invoicing mistake that we make as virtual assistants is that we don't follow up on invoices and this is probably the most common mistake we make we send out an invoice and then we forget about it so when you send out an invoice you should have a payment date a due dates safe on your invoice and you need to follow up on payments on that do days say not a reminder follow up on a payment to make sure that you get paid the fourth common invoicing mistake we make as virtual assistants is we make mistakes on our invoices we don't put the right invoice number we don't put the right dates sometimes we have typing errors sometimes we we under bull we over ball we make mistakes with the pricing and this is simply not acceptable and game no wonder clients don't want to pay invoices with mistakes right think about yourself would you pay an invoice wiII you make missile or with you if you're receiving inputs full of mistakes will you pay the invoice will you be happy to pay that invoice so you have to make sure that your invoices are 100% free of error before you send enough check check check right now the first common invoicing mistake we make is that we don't charge late fees on payments so this goes hand-in-hand with not following up on it boy oh sorry yep not following up on outstanding invoices so if you sends out an invoice and you just don't hear anything back from the client the plaintiff pay your invoice and you don't have any Lightspeed policy either in your contracts or specified on your on your invoice clients are going to simply ignore your invoices so you need to actually specify on your endless and stipulate there and you will be charging those fees for non-payment or late payment of your invoices now let's look at ways how we can tie this all together avoid these five common mistakes so number one is to use a automation system have your processes and pretend systems and processing in place right this is why I keep saying to you guys have your systems and your procedures and your persistence in place before you actually accept the kind before you start working with the client have everything in place have you invoices your contracts or terms and conditions your whole process how is it gonna work what are you going to see that 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and have it all mapped out have it all created have it all automated and how do you automate it you cook you you use a automation system or CRM system I myself use 17 hats now some people like it some people don't and there are various other ones to use to name but a few you can use QuickBooks Sage freshbooks wave and there are tons and tons of other ones that you can use so do it at a research find a CRM system then works for you ask in facebook groups where other virtual assistants hang out ask them what CRM system do you use what automation system do you use and what do you like and what don't you like about it and figure it out for yourself okay I'll turn it to me if you choose not to use a CRM system you need to then make sure that you add these reminders and dates to your calendar so that you can be reminded when to send the invoice when to follow up the with invoice and this is for very very new virtual systems when you're working on a manual system when you send up the or when it's time to invoice the client you have to have that date on your calendar when it's time to send the invoice I make sure that you set in place and you make sure that you follow up and you make sure that your receipt the payments or so have a little check yourself add those dates to the calendar and all invest a little bit in a CRM system in an automation system now another way to avoid non-payment of invoices is to actually have a very solid and so contract in place with clear clear terms and conditions and what I mean by a solid contract not a contract that's sort of like a broad overall contract no it has to be specific to that client specific to the work that the clients contracted you to do for them and your payment terms has to be included in the in the contract write the terms and conditions have to be crystal crystal clear so that there's no room for error for misunderstanding and for misinterpretation hi queen thank you for joining us if anybody is watching live please stop comments in the in the comment section talk to me tell me about invoice invoicing mistakes you've made or tell me about incidents with clients where either they've not paid your invoice painted lace or just simply not paid your invoice and how you overcame that obstacle so it's very very important guys to have a solid contract in place crystal clear contract with crystal clear terms and conditions signed by the client signed by you before you start the work now another way to ensure that emotions get paid is actually to invoice before you you you hand over any work or invoice before you actually do any work now in my own virtual system business I used to invoice on retainers in Lewis at the beginning of the month for the month I invoice and then I actually do the work I don't do the work and then invoice afterwards because unfortunately it is common that clients don't pay invoices after the fact right and especially because we're dealing with times online it's very difficult for us to actually for the enforcer long and get our payment so if you have a clear payment policy in place written into your contract part of your terms and conditions signed by the kind signed by you that says full payment is required prior to commencement of work if you have something like that be sure to have a chance with was an attorney to make sure that your wording is actually lawful and legal but if you have something like that will you specify that you need full payment before you actually do the word I mean you've seen that in mostly make sure that you get the payment then you should have no problem getting your money from the client then here is a little interesting facts for you guys ing to forbes invoices with branding so if you actually brand your invoice with your logo your colors and your website address maybe it has a three times higher or it's three times more likely to get paid then those who are somebody just you know it's straightforward black-and-white invoice types up on a Google document and a brand a no nothing just a copy-paste template now in my 30 plus template swag files and checklist packs that I saw in the VA finishing school store and online store I actually have a few contracts examples I have a few invoices you know invoices and these are actually templates that I trace it in my own virtual assistant business that I use over and over I actually have them checked with attorneys and they are lawful and the terminology is correct so if you buy that all you have to do is personalize it and then you will really have a part of your systems and your processes sorcerer arts so you definitely want to get your template set up you definitely want to get your email templates drawn up your invoice templates your contract templates and then you also want to look at getting an automation system or if you're going to do it manually you need to have a checklist and it needs to be a routine that when you create a contract you get the contract back up the time you send the invoice make sure you get the payment before you actually do the work so those are just five very common mistakes that we make invoicing mistakes that we make as virtual assistants plus some great tips on how to avoid these mistakes all right so thank you guys for joining me today and I'll see you back in the group