Invoice 1

[AaronMcD]

I finished a freelance job and have to send a bill.

Should I just email him the $number? Make or download an Excel template for a more professional look? Or is there a good reason to go with software like Wave for invoicing and accounting?

Opinions, please!

http://www.hellodwell.design

 

[jayrod12]

Send a proper invoice. There's loads of templates you can use. Freelance work or not, you want to look professional.

 

[Ron247]

Agreed: Professional invoice. I do not do enough volume to need a "system". I just use Microsoft Office components.

 

[KootK]

Here's one of my general utility invoices, taken from some internet template. You can do better though. If I could rewind back to the beginning I would:

1) Do this in excel rather than word so that sums could be tallied. I'm always doing it on my calculator which is super annoying and, twice a year, I screw up the total which makes me look ridiculous.

2) Get quickbooks straight away and set things up so that I could send invoices through their native system. This streamlines your accounting and payment tracking and also gives you the ability to offer your customers credit card payment which can be very handy for getting paid in a timely fashion on small stuff.

You always think this stuff will be easy to change when you want to but, truly, it is not. There's never time for it and having discontinuities in your record keeping is unappealing. Best to get a robust setup going out of the gate.

 

[Ingenuity]

KootK: Cash Cows Limited are getting a deal at $120/hr. Wingnut Consulting should be charging more!

 

[KootK]

That's nothin'. South of the border, with the exchange rate, I'm $90/HR. That said, we at Wingnut favor lump sum contracts rather heavily.

 

[oldestguy]

Did you start with a written proposal? If not at least be sufficiently clear with the invoice itemizing the work. Hopefully your proposals refer to or include a copy of your terms and conditions. This general subject should be well evaluated when dealing with consulting work. Always guard against any possibility of being sued.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I started out using Microsoft word document templates similar to KootK. It worked for one or two moonlighting jobs. But I immediately made the jump to Quickbooks desktop after going solo. It's 100% worth it if you going to be invoicing more than a few people, though I don't bother with the credit card aspect (yet).

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL, CO) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)

 

[kipfoot]

Absolutely create an invoice. Most clients will want to have this for their records.

I've always used quickbooks, where you can set up templates and bill based on hours spent, a fixed fee, or as a percentage complete. I currently have an old version that still works for me, though the software constantly reminds me to subscribe to their payroll service. It's also helpful for tracking expenses, etc. That said, this is not an endorsement of quickbooks; surely there's better bookkeeping software out there.

 

[fel3]

As stated above: send a proper invoice.

If you want simple for tracking time and invoicing, you can try Timeless Time & Expense (

http://www.magsoftwrx.com/).

I worked for myself for a few years and I started with Timeless before I made the leap to Quickbooks. Of course, Quickbooks does a whole lot more and is better for running a small business, but it also has a much steeper learning curve and it takes longer to do things like tracking time and invoicing. If you only do the occasional odd job, Timeless might be just the ticket. If you are going to do a lot of freelance work and/or transition to working fully for yourself, then you should move straight to Quickbooks. Make sure it's the version of Quickbooks that is designed for professional services.

BTW, Timeless is simple enough that I was able to set it up by myself in a few minutes. Quickbooks is complicated enough that I had an accountant friend help me set it up. We spent about 90 minutes together, then I took it from there.

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