How to Create an Invoice for Your Business
As a small business owner, you likely work very hard. Over the years, surveys have shown that the average small business owner works about twice as many hours as their employees.
If you’re spending this much time working, it’s important for you to make sure you’re getting something out of it. More specifically, you need to see to it that you’re getting the money you deserve for all your hard work.
You can make it a point to get paid by learning how to create an invoice. You should put a foolproof invoicing process into place and utilize it to put together a professional invoice every time you need to send one out.
Would you like some tips on how to create an invoice? We’ve provided you with a few below. Check them out and use them to start sending out more effective invoices from now on.
Look For an Invoice Template That You Like
You don’t want to have to create an invoice from scratch every single time that you have to put one together. That’s going to be very time-consuming and will make you want to put off creating invoices together.
To make things easier on yourself, you should look around for an invoice template that you like. It should be an invoice template that will make it simple for you to plug the necessary information into it so that you can create it fast. We recommend using an easy-to-use one like this free monday.com invoice template.
Format an Invoice So That It’s Easy to Read
Once you track down an invoice template that you like, the next thing you should do is format it so that it’s easy to read. People should be able to scan an invoice from you and digest all the information in it within a matter of just seconds.
If an invoice is difficult to read, some people are inevitably going to shove it to the side and put off paying it. You would be so much better off making it easy to read so that there isn’t any confusion over what people owe you.
Include All the Necessary Information on an Invoice
Although you should try to make an invoice easy to read, you shouldn’t leave any important information off it. You should make sure that you’re able to include things like:
- Your company’s contact information
- Client information
- Products sold or services rendered
- Prices associated with products and/or services
- Total amount owed
- Payment options
Again, you don’t want to try to squeeze too many things into an invoice and make it impossible to read. But you also don’t want to leave out any relevant information and make things confusing for your customers.
Come Up With an Invoice Number for Each Invoice
You’re going to need to be able to refer back to invoices that you’ve sent out in the future. In some cases, you might need to remind a customer about an unpaid invoice. In others, you might have to go through a stack of invoices to find one that’s been paid.
Regardless of the reason, you should make it easy for you to find any invoices that you might want. You can do this by sticking an invoice number on each invoice that you create and keeping track of all your various invoice numbers.
Make Sure You Put a Date on an Invoice
Every single invoice that you need to send out to your customers should have a date on it. You should put the date that the invoice was created on it so that you know how old your invoices are.
This way, you won’t have any trouble figuring out which invoices are overdue. All you’ll have to do is look at the date on an invoice to see if you need to send a second (or third!) invoice out to a customer to remind them about the money that they owe you.
Clearly Explain How People Can Pay an Invoice
Your main goal when sending an invoice out is obviously going to be to get paid. So somewhere towards the bottom of an invoice, you should make it clear which payment options you’ll provide for people.
In a perfect world, you should offer people as many payment options as you possibly can. It’ll increase the chances of them paying you in a timely fashion.
You should also ask your customers to provide their invoice numbers when issuing payments to you. It’ll allow you to stay more organized when you have multiple payments coming in at one time.
Take Advantage of the Latest Invoicing Programs
Do you wish there was a way to automate your invoicing process so that you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to create an invoice every time it needs to be done? Well, you’re in luck.
There are lots of different invoicing programs out there today that you can use to send out invoices and keep track of them. Look here for more information on how automated invoicing will benefit your small business.
Knowing How to Create an Invoice Will Improve Your Bottom Line
Creating and sending out invoices isn’t going to be the most fun job in the world. But it’ll be something you’ll have to get used to doing if you want to run a successful business.
Now that you know the ins and outs of how to create an invoice, you should get down to business. Start creating more effective invoices, and you should see a steady increase in the amount of money you’re able to bring in.
Would you like to find out about more business products that can help your bottom line? Learn about them in our other blog articles.