Writing an Invoice for Freelance Work for Operations Made Easy

Writing an invoice for freelance work for Operations

okay so you're probably here watching this  video either because you've just landed your   first ever freelance client and now you're like  i need to get a contract and voice together asap   so first of all if that's you congrats  a little a circle of applause or you're   here because you're a fellow planner like me  and want to be prepared if that's the case   congrats to you too for your forward thinking  so one of my favorite parts of freelancing is   definitely sending contracts and invoices i  used to be very intimidated by it i thought   it was going to be way more overwhelming and  complicated than it actually is and once you   kind of figure out the basics and you've done it  kind of once or twice it really really is a fun   part of the process because it means that a you  have a client and b they're going to pay you money   and that's what it's all about so in this video  let's talk about how to send contracts invoices   as a freelancer what you have to include on  them i'll like give you a little checklist   plus i'll walk through some free tools to help  you with drafting your first contract or invoice hey my name is dia freelancer digital business  manager most recently an entrepreneur and as   always you can find sections on the play bar  below if you want to skip to a certain part of   the video your time is precious so take what  you need and if you want to watch this on 2x   i will not be offended in the least  okay let's dive into the video   so i'm gonna be totally honest here i wasn't  always so good with sending contracts and all   of that jazz which looking reflecting back now i  realized that was a very risky business because   a contract is your protection as a freelancer  it is what ensures you will actually get paid   and it protects you from a lot of potential  issues that can happen down the line all right   so let's talk about contract essentials what  needs to go inside every single contract you   send out to your client so at a minimum here  are some things you absolutely need to have   included in your contract first up details  of you and your clients as full names and   company business addresses whatever you have two  start date and when the contract officially begins   or kicks off if it's a retainer what's the first  day of the retainer if it's a project when does   the project officially begin basically kind of  self-explanatory i don't know why i explained it   three scope of the project in detail and  any deliverables listed out in as much   detail as you can possibly imagine okay so i'm  talking about not just blog posts but blog posts   how many words is included how many revision  rounds are included are images included will   formatting be included are you going to help  them put it into wordpress you know as spelled   out as you can the more detail the better because  then later on if anything occurs you can always   just refer back to the contract where it is  literally as clear as possible for both parties   in this section you can also include changes or  revision rounds included if applicable to the type   of project or service that you're offering four  payment amount and payment terms so essentially   a schedule of the payments how much you're going  to be paid be very very specific here on what   type of payment type this is if that's retainer  hourly commission if it's a mixture make sure that   gets said that it's a mixture i have a video  that discusses the different types of payment   methods for freelancers like hourly retainer  commission i'll link it in the top right corner   if you're curious um but yeah make sure it's like  spelt out very clearly if it's hourly the specific   amount your invoicing terms should also be spelled  out in the contract under the payment terms so i   normally recommend at least 50 upfront up to 100  upfront depending on the level of trust with your   client you'll kind of have to see what they're  comfortable with and if they can meet you halfway   at 50 50 then you're sure that you've already  gotten some of the payment so you can begin work   and then at the end you invoice for the last 50  i've also done it when i first started where i   really had no trust um built up with any clients  because i had no social proof no experience   no network nothing i just did the work up front i  would just caution you there to be very careful to   do a little bit of due diligence a little bit of  homework if this business owner seems like they're   going to be able to pay you has anybody mentioned  them in any groups that you're in communities   of freelancers saying that you know they don't  pay money that kind of stuff i would just do a   little bit of research i have done that before but  generally i would recommend at least 50 up front   if you're able to do that and you can just let  your client know that that is standard procedure   for you and then you're sure that you've at least  gotten half of your payment up front before you   even begin work make sure to also include any  late fees that you want to implement so this is   something i highly recommend doing it's some it's  one of those things that can incentivize a client   who maybe is always late on paying invoices  or really dragging their feet all the time   it kind of incentivizes them to pay your invoice  on time which is what they should be doing   anyway so if you have late fees definitely  build that in if there's a deposit of some   kind to secure their slot or their space  for their project or their work with you   then you can include that as well and then mention  like oh if you pay a 500 deposit that will be   taken off your first month retainer or something  like that five a notice period cancellation terms   depends kind of on the structure of your agreement  with this person so for example if it's an ongoing   retainer then you'll probably have a notice period  like for example um yeah both parties can cancel   if they just let each other know within you know  seven days before or 14 days before or something   like that if it is a one-time project you might  have something called a cancellation fee which   is if they want to cancel it before it's done  how much will that cost them how much of the   money will you keep essentially six ownership of  rights of your work so who owns what if you're   creating things are those free for the client to  keep forever is that still your work when does   the right transfer over is it upon completion of  the project and the payment of the final invoice   and finally very important signatures and  dates of when everything has been signed off   on by you and the client so those are the  key essentials there may be more sections   depending on the type of work you might have  like non-disclosure clauses non-compete clauses   indemnity clause i don't know if that's how you  pronounce it so start with the checklist i just   mentioned when you're checking over a contract  because those are really the essentials but keep   in mind you may have to adjust depending on  what your client would also like to include so here are two free ways to create and send  contracts and i'm going to like pop onto   miniday and actually walk you through them  all right so to get a free contract template   there are lots online that you can find i will  link a few below that have free templates but   important to remember is that this does not  constitute legal advice you know obviously if you   want something that's like 100 legally certified  correct to be like completely foolproof you should   hire a lawyer um i've personally just always used  contract templates and just made sure that i read   through them and i carefully reviewed them and all  of that stuff so you know just keep in mind what   your preference is and then do whatever is right  for you so for example wise here has lots of free   um templates here that you can grab so for  example if you just click one of these it's   like freelance contract template contractor so  we'll just download a document which you then can   open and change and make updates to and then to  send it for signature to the client what i like   to use is called hello sign so hello sign is they  have paid plans but i just use the free plan which   is basically you get three free contracts that you  can send for signature every single month so here   you can see send three documents every month which  for me like i don't really send more than three   documents a month for signature um so i just use  that so if you just press sign or send then you   can drag the document that we just downloaded  into upload file it'll load it in basically   we'll wait for that and then we'll put the name  of this signer so like you would put your clients   name like client so i have to go to my keyboard  over here client and then i'm just going to put   in a email address okay sorry for the  person that has that email address and then   we'll want to place the fields into the contract  of what they need to fill out so for example   um so here you would obviously put your state  if you're a base in the us so you could just   drag in a text box like that allows the person to  put in the state you should probably put this in   so if you see here the signers is like you and  the client right so anything that you think you   should fill out like probably the state you  should fill out you can click here and then   assign it to me so then you have to literally  type it in now but anything you want the client   to fill out obviously then you will drag it  in and assign it to the client so for example   freelance contract is made as of this you can just  put no that's not it you can just put text box and   then like it's assigned to you so you'll just put  in the date of today between and then you'll want   your name so that's my name already automatically  filled out address you'll probably put like a text   box and then you fill in your address and with  clients then you'll go over to the client you'll   be like client of the name full name and then  you'll put in text box and then you can drag this   so that they have more space and they should fill  in the address you can also type in placeholder   text like address so that they have a little bit  more instruction of what they should add in here   and then yeah fill out this information you can  also edit the document before you load it into   hello sign if there are any sections you want to  completely delete and then at the bottom you'll   want to drag in the client signature so this is  where the client signs um and this is where you   sign and the client's full name so you just put in  the client's full name so this is your signature   then so you can assign it to you and then you can  draw in your signature or type it or take a photo   and then insert your signature and then you'll  press next and then it will allow you to review   the contract one more time and then you'll ship it  out to your client to sign and when they sign it   they will send you an email that notifies you that  it's signed they'll export it as a pdf and then   you'll have a copy of that contract basically  so that's how that works so that's the first   method the second method which is something  new i just discovered is fiverr workspace   so i made a little account just so we could  play around with it a little bit because i was   i was curious to see how it worked as well fiber  workspace used to be called anco which i used to   use and i didn't realize that fiverr i'm guessing  bought it or rebranded it i'm not sure but they   have a free plan as well it's free for one client  so if you're just signing your first client can be   a great way to try it out for free and they  have ready to use contracts so you can just   make a free account and on the left-hand  side contracts press new contracts and   then you can fill in all the information  of your project what type of project it is   what type of services you're offering  right so that's like the description   billing schedule all of that stuff and then it  will automatically create a contract for you   and then you can send that to the client to sign  so also pretty cool so that's the second option all right so now let's talk about what needs to  go on an invoice when you're sending an invoice   here are some absolute essentials that have to be  on there this may vary slightly depending on your   countries and the regulation of where you live or  where you do your business but generally you will   need at least these things first up is your full  name and business address and contact information   next up is the full name of the person paying the  invoice and their business address and contact   information third an invoice number so ideally  start with like one and go sequentially like for   example you could have the first invoice be like  one zeros or one and the next one is one zero zero   two one zero three so on and so forth so you can  kind of keep track of it it's also good to have   the word invoice actually on there as a header  next up is the issue date of your invoice itself   so when did you actually send it to the client um  that's just kind of something for your records to   know that when it went out and then separately  you should have a due date of when the invoice   is due personally for me i just normally do like  seven days from the issue day um just keep track   of the due date because if the due date passes  that's when you'll want to begin following up   and potentially like implementing the late  fee and everything next up very important a   description of what was purchased so the amount  and the total and also don't forget about the   currency so really break down in detail if there  are multiple aspects to the deliverables like if   you have multiple deliverables list them all out  you know how much one costs and then how much of   it they purchase and then the total for each  item if it's a retainer you can just kind of   describe what you do in that retainer on a monthly  basis if it's hourly just make sure you put like   your hourly amount how many hours it was the  total that kind of stuff very very important try   to be as clear as possible it's also good for  your records to remember what you did exactly   for that month and then in the footer i normally  put my payment details so like bank information   personally i use wise to accept payment and so  i'll include my wise email and any other bank   info that they need you can also you know include  like hyperlink and invoice link in the footer of   your invoice as well like where they should go to  pay it essentially like for example striper paypal   and if applicable also any tax info if you have to  charge tax of some kind should be included on the   invoice as well like for example in the u we have  that depending on where your clients are based and   what kind of business they are so that i would  work into um after the description of services   i would put the vat the amount i would calculate  that and then i would add up the total of the   service cost and the fat and that would be the  total amount that makes sense okay so let's put   all that together and go on to some tools that can  help you send and make invoices for free as well   so invoices there are four ways i'm going to talk  about the first way is you can just send something   via stripe or paypal like that's if you're like  invoicing with striper paypal the easiest thing   is you can just send invoices via striper paypal  directly to their email address and not fuss with   any other tools or softwares um just sign up  for a free paypal or freestripe account create   an invoice input the client's details their email  their company address and then they'll just send   it to them and they can just pay it via that  invoice if you're using striper paypal they're   not my favorite payment processors to use i prefer  wise myself i have a video on that i'll link it in   the top right corner if you want to go ahead and  watch that so my second method is kind of like a   manual plus google docsish method so what you'll  do is you want to find a free invoice template and   let me just tell you there are tons out there i'll  also link the ones from wise just because they   were the first ones that showed up on google when  i looked but you can see here you can download   invoice templates from them you don't even have  to put in your email address they'll take you like   straight to the invoice so these are all google  docs ones which is really easy because then you   can just have it all in your google drive and you  can make duplicates for every single new client   so just pick the one that you think looks the  nicest so i'm like this one i kind of like so   you just press it and then i'll take you to the  google doc directly and you can then make a copy   so then just like fill in the information put  in the client address put in your address put   in the invoice number the invoice date um put  in the things that you did for this client   put in the total if there's a tax rate your bank  account invoice details anything they need terms   all of that good stuff you can also delete this  footer if you don't want it there and then what   you'll do is just go to file um download and then  download as pdf and then you'll just email it to   your client so that's super easy that's what i did  for a very long time it works perfectly fine so   yeah don't feel like you have to over complicate  or like pay for tools or anything like that to   send an invoice you don't have to all right the  third way is called dubsado dubsado i love for   business management and you can have up to three  clients for free with dubsado so that's really   nice you can get started see if you like it you  can send both contracts and invoices with dubsado   it also integrates with stripe paypal or square so  you can take payment via your invoice in dubsado   so this is just what a dubsado account looks like  and then here in the templates you can see that   there's this thing called forms and if you click  into it you can create contract templates in   here and then you can always reuse it for new  clients so that's really awesome and then what   you'll want to do is normally you'll just go  to projects and you will make up a new project   for like a new client so for example sample job  sample client this was also a one that i   made to show somebody something and then you  can keep track of everything in dubsado so like   all the emails back and forth invoices that you  send to this client and whether they're paid not   paid or not and yeah you can just fill out  all the information here and then go to send   via email or you can just send them a link to the  invoice so that's how you do it with dipsaw very   easy too and the final option is wave so wave is  also pretty useful wave is like i would say more   of like an accounting tool you can invoice  in any currency they accept credit cards and   bank payments so very useful they have um invoice  templates so you can use their invoice templates   and just personalize it so once you make your free  wave account you can just go in and then go to   sales then invoices and then you'll open  that up and you can just create a new invoice   fill out all the information so you'll want to  add a customer and all of their details if you   if it's a new client you can just set up that  client under customers and it'll just like pull   that information on the invoices add the items  for what you did your work for all that stuff   and then at the bottom you can just press  save and continue and then you can send it   to your client that invoice so yeah those are  four different methods all for free um hopefully   there's one in there that you're like yeah i could  try that or i'd be interested in doing it that way   and yeah let's go back let's go back to big  data so she can finish the video all right   now to wrap up here are some basic  tips for proper contract and invoicing   etiquette and things that i've learned along the  way first up is make sure as much as you can to   protect yourself if someone seems like they  are super sketch like doesn't seem like they   want to sign the contract other people have  complained about them it seems like they're   super unresponsive already before they've even  signed the contract you know you know look them up   online look up their social media google them look  up their website see if they're more or less legit   if they've been you know a business for a while  now if anything looks weird and your gut feeling   is saying like i'm not sure don't don't do it i  know like our mind's gonna be like yeah but maybe   this may be that like if you're not sure don't  do it because it's not worth it because later   it's just going to be an even bigger headache if  they don't pay and you have to like spend tons of   mental energy and time trying to chase them and  everything just don't do it if it sounds weird   don't do it make sure to also protect yourself  like i mentioned briefly by building in a late   fee into the contract and send them reminders  about the life fee to incentivize them to hurry   up if they have missed the due date and again  make it easy for them to pay like give them   the link quickly make it super simple don't make  them have to think about it or do math or anything   just be like click here to make your payment  hyperlink that right they take it there they   enter their credit card information done another  way to protect yourself is to do a deposit or do   a more fair payment term like i mentioned 50 50  50 up front 50 after the project is completed   that is a lot safer for you than zero up front  and 100 after the project is completed because   sometimes that can drag on for a long time and  if you need that money to put food on the table   then you know you'll want to make sure you build  in some of those some of those protection barriers   another way to protect yourself is make sure  your scope and deliverables written into the   contract are super clear make sure everything  that could potentially trip the client up or   be cause for misunderstanding is cleared up in the  contract itself make sure you've also defined what   is completed as a project so that it doesn't drag  on forever where the client's like well i thought   this was gonna happen i'm not super happy with  this and you know like just make it clear like   clarity is the best thing ever now like i briefly  mentioned second thing definitely is make it clear   and easy to pay you you don't want them to  struggle to give you money give them clear   instructions on how to sign up for stuff if they  need to register for something to pay you like for   example if you use wise and they've never used  wise before just let them know like this is how   you do it here's some instructions i'm happy to  hop on a call and help you like walk through this   process it'll take you less than two minutes make  the link clear take them straight to the invoice   and also test the link in incognito to make sure  it shows up properly and you don't have to do like   the back and forth of them being like i can't see  and you're like oh no and you know and third make   sure to follow up so i normally follow up if it's  past the due date of the invoice i do it in like   two to three day intervals depending on how  busy they are until it gets done if they said   they wanted the project to start asap and they  wanted to sign the contract asap so i can start   asap because it's something super urgent then  i will follow up more regularly like maybe even   like daily after we discuss like they wanted to  start the project yesterday and if they're really   dragging their feet a lot get them on a call to  see what the issues are and how you can expedite   the issues and solve them for them um so that you  know maybe even on the call like work through it   with them if they're confused by anything like  just make that clear to them and finally here   are some tips on what to do if a client  doesn't pay an invoice so like i mentioned   follow up that's definitely the first thing  do not be shy about it don't feel bad about   bugging them right like you've done your work  they're the ones that should be embarrassed   not paying you for you know work already  completed like that's completely unprofessional   so do not feel bad about that second thing is stop  work completely if the payment is late more than   three days this kind of depends on your tolerance  and trust level with the client if you are 100   positive they will eventually pay you you can wait  a bit longer before stopping work but if you're   worried they won't pay you stop work within like  days of the invoice due date third one is threat   of legal action this is kind of like the last  step before taking someone to small claims court   i've never had to get here very luckily but i have  heard of some freelance friends that sometimes   even just have a lawyer send a formal email on  their behalf and they've said that that email is   enough it can be like enough of a threat to get  someone to pay because they don't want to deal   with potential like a legal hassle or anything so  even just having a lawyer send an email you know   from their lawyer professional email being like  hey this is super late here's what's going to   happen next if this payment is not dealt with and  paid in the next 24 hours or something like that   so that's it that is what needs to go on an  invoice what needs to go on a contract some tools   to get you started hopefully it's helpful and  if you've just landed a client let me know below   because i want to cheer you on and that's it for  today and i'll see you in the next one okay bye