7 Things a Professional Invoice Should Include

 

Roughly one-third of Americans have done freelance work at least once in their lives.

Moving from a traditional job to freelance work has many advantages, but also involves a range of additional tasks. One such task is invoicing, which you’ll need to do if you want to be paid for your work.

For a rundown of 7 things that should be included in a professional invoice, keep reading.

1. Business Logo

When coming up with invoice ideas, you should bear in mind that you’ll want your logo at the top. It will give your invoices a professional look and will help your client identify the invoice as one of yours.

Ensure the logo is high-quality and clear. It’s common to have the logo in the top left corner or the top center.

2. Sender’s Information

The sender’s name and contact information should be clearly visible at the top, ideally underneath your logo on the left. Include the address, phone number, and email. For the sender’s name, you can go with the business name or a representative of the business.

Some countries and jurisdictions may require other information, such as your VAT number.

3. Client’s Information

The client’s information should appear on the right, next to the sender’s information, and include the same details (name, address, telephone number, and email).

You may need to specify the person or department you’re invoicing if it’s for a company with multiple offices/representatives.

4. Invoice Number, Issue Date, and Due Date

Regardless of the invoice design, it should include all of these. The invoice number is unique for each invoice and might need to be used for referencing back at a later date.

The invoice date is the date that your company issues it, and is often the same day that the client purchased the products or services. The due date is the final date that the invoice must be paid. You should agree on this date with the client beforehand.

5. Breakdown of Services and/or Products

For a business invoice, you should include an itemized list that shows the different products and/or services you have provided to the client. Make sure the descriptions are clear so that there’s no confusion.

There should be separate columns for the product/service description, the quantity, the rate of charge, and the subtotal. Depending on your business, you might need other columns such as ‘hours’ or ‘date’.

6. Invoice Summary

Under the breakdown should be a summary that gives the total price that needs to be paid. This should have three lines: subtotal, tax, and total.

Make sure you double-check all calculations before sending the invoice, as it’s very important to get this part right.

7. Invoice Terms

The bottom of a proper invoice template will have a section for the terms. Here you can detail what payment methods you accept and any further information you might need to give such as late payment fees, returns policy, etc.

Adobe’s invoice generator can help you create an invoice including all of these elements with ease.

Creating a Professional Invoice

You can create an invoice yourself from scratch, but it’s much easier to use invoice-generating tools. You can pick from plenty of templates to give your invoice a unique look. Using such a tool will make sure you have a professional invoice with all the necessary components.

For more business articles, check out some of our other blog posts.