Invoicing a client rightly is important for maintaining a business’s financial health. From a large corporation to a freelancer, everyone needs to know how to invoice clients in order to receive timely payments. At first glance, it may seem like invoicing clients is simple and straightforward. But, in fact, it is easier said than done.
This especially turns out to be true for service-based businesses, where clients may require detailed updates on the status of work before making payments. Sometimes even if you figure out how to invoice a client, it may result in overdue invoices that rub salt in the wound because hand-made invoices are difficult to understand.
So, what’s the solution? How do you invoice clients in such a way that you can get paid promptly without sending reminders? Let’s find out by reading the 9 tips that you must follow while invoicing your clients.
How to Invoice Clients – 9 Essential Tips
Here are 9 beneficial tips to keep in mind while invoicing your clients and ultimately boosting your payment process.
1. Understand How Clients Want to Pay
Before you start creating an invoice, you must know how your clients wish to complete the payment. Do they want to pay online or hand over the cash? If your clients want to pay online, you can ask them their favorite payment method such as credit card, eWallets, or payment link. According to their preferred payment mode, you can proceed with the next step.
In case the clients want to pay the money via cash, you can simply describe the outstanding amount in an invoice. Later, when the payment is received, you can add the business stamp or mention that the client has paid in cash. So, figuring out how they want to complete the payment is the first step in a bid to invoice them professionally.
2. Familiarize yourself with the Accounting Team
If your client is running a large business, they must have a separate accounting team to handle all administrative tasks. This means an individual responsible for payment processing wouldn’t be the one you work with regularly. So, you should get in touch with those accountants. You can politely ask them about their accounting practices and develop a healthy relationship to receive payments on time.
Nowadays developing such contacts is crucial to improving your collection process. People are likely to prioritize invoices from someone they know well. Also, if there are any payment issues, they might lend a helping hand to sort them out as soon as possible. So, try to familiarize yourself with the client’s accounting team rather than directly contacting them.
3. Create Professional Invoices
Now moving on, you know how your clients want to pay. Alright, it’s time to get an elegantly designed invoice template. Since it is tedious to create such a professional invoice on paper, you can borrow a pre-designed invoice template from software like Moon Invoice.
You can not only get a predesigned invoice template but also set a preferred payment mode to help clients pay faster. Moon Invoice offers 66+ invoice templates and 20+ payment integrations to ensure you come out on top of your business.
In fact, it is an efficient way to create a professional invoice. You can pick any template of your choice, enter the necessary details, and save the changes at your fingertips. It takes only 2 minutes or less to create a perfect invoice.
Delight Your Clients With Professional Invoices
Get pre-designed invoice templates from Moon Invoice to make professional-looking invoices that attract clients’ attention and boost payments.
4. Include Payment Options
Alright, you know what the client’s preferred payment method is and how to get an invoice template online. Next, you need to remember to include the client’s favorite payment method such as credit card, digital wallet, or bank account transfers. At this point, Moon Invoice can play a key role in encouraging clients to pay quickly.
As a business owner or freelancer, you no longer need to send payment reminders or make frequent call-ups as long as you are using Moon Invoice. It helps you choose the preferred payment method when creating an invoice. Also, you can simply add the payment link and request your clients to pay using it. Moon Invoice’s fully automated system provides the flexibility to incorporate any payment method your clients prefer.
5. Mention Payment Terms
Done adding payment methods? Now is the time to include the payment terms and conditions because after all you want to get paid in a minimum time. Therefore, it is necessary to define payment terms such as late fees or time until a payment link works. The addition of payment terms inspires clients to complete the payment in a short time to avoid late payment fees.
Businesses can mention payment terms using one-liners instead of writing long paragraphs, which deteriorates the quality of the invoice. Therefore, short paras are useful to grab the client’s attention easily. This is how the inclusion of these payment terms significantly reduces the chances of late payments. Consequently, freeing you from chasing payments.
6. Review an invoice
Always develop a habit of thoroughly checking an invoice no matter if you create it using paper or online software. It helps you spot minor errors that might extend your wait times and simultaneously damage your relations with clients. Since the manual invoicing process is highly prone to errors, considering the online invoicing process can be worthwhile.
Unlike the manual process, online invoicing neither requires manual calculation nor leaves any errors. Still, you can glance at an invoice to verify if the outstanding amount is correctly mentioned. You can receive business details, customer information, invoicing date, and chosen payment method before sharing an invoice with clients.
7. Send it to the recipient
Following an invoice review, you need to send an invoice in a professional way. Figure out what’s the right time to send an invoice to the client as per your industry. If you provide a service, you can issue an invoice after completing the work. Or else, if you are selling products, you need to hand over an invoice as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter what industry you serve, finding out the right time is crucial as far as your invoicing duties are concerned.
The simplest way to send an invoice is using Moon Invoice. The cloud-based invoicing software lets you share an invoice in a few clicks on your smartphone, eliminating unnecessary physical meetings. Invoices sent online have more chances of getting paid easily as they offer a clearer picture to clients.
8. Track Invoices
Issuing an invoice does not mean your job is done. You need to track the invoice regularly to check whether it has passed its due date. If you find an invoice has already been paid, you can mark it as paid and save a copy in your financial records. However, if it is yet to be paid or is overdue, you should send a reminder email to the client.
Moon Invoice, an advanced invoicing software, can help you track invoices without lifting a finger. You get notified about due invoices, send payment reminders automatically, and can even check if the client has opened or read an email. It offers seamless invoice tracking so that you don’t waste time flipping through papers.
9. Thank Clients for Payment
Upon receiving the payment, you can send a message on WhatsApp or Email thanking the client for prompt payment. Many automation software enables users to send a thank you note when they receive a payment. Like others, you too can show how professionally you handle the invoicing process and build healthy relations with them.
In case of a manual invoicing process, you can contact the client on a phone call or drop an email to say thank you. A small yet important gesture can have a positive impact on your bottom line, helping you scale your business. In short, either way, you go, don’t forget to say thank you.
What Does It Mean to Invoice Someone?
Small businesses or freelancers can invoice someone, likely their client, as a request to complete the payment. Invoicing someone means billing any individual who makes a purchase or uses your freelancing services. As a business owner, you can prepare a professional invoice outlining the due amount, the last date of payment, and payment terms. Once generated, you can share it with clients to collect payment within a specific timeline.
Invoicing refers to billing clients by sending a formal document, often known as an invoice, to get paid for what you delivered. So, when you invoice someone, you are formally demanding money for products delivered or services rendered. You can hand over the original invoice to the client and keep a copy of the invoice for your business records.
Invoice Your Clients in Seconds
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Conclusion
Invoicing a client is important as long as you want to run a business and sell your goods or services. Reviewing the above 9 steps, now you would know how to invoice clients professionally. While you invoice customers, make sure you create a clearer invoice, offer a preferred payment option, and send it at the right time.
If the invoicing process is complicated and time-consuming, then adopting software like Moon Invoice can make a difference. Moon Invoice automates your boring invoicing tasks and helps you send invoices professionally, helping you collect payment timely. Try Moon Invoice now and experience seamless invoicing.
FAQs
Jayanti Katariya is the founder & CEO of Moon Invoice, with over a decade of experience in developing SaaS products and the fintech industry. He holds a degree in engineering. Since 2011, Jayanti's expertise has helped thousands of businesses, from small startups to large enterprises, streamline invoicing, estimation, and accounting operations. His vision is to deliver top-tier financial solutions globally, ensuring efficient financial management for all business owners.
