How to write a freelancer invoice

What goes on a freelancer invoice

Six things, in the order they belong on the page. The invoice generator opens a freelancer (general) document with the lines already in place, so most of this is checking rather than typing.

1. Reference the agreement, the quote or the purchase order. It is what connects the invoice to something the client already approved.
2. Describe the deliverable, not the activity. What the client received, in their words, not how you spent your week.
3. Show deposits and milestones already paid. Deducted visibly, with dates, so the balance is obviously correct.
4. Bill out of scope work as its own line. Named, dated, and tied to the request that caused it.
5. State payment terms and the late fee position. Days, not on receipt, and a stated consequence.
6. Number invoices sequentially and never reuse one. It is the basis of your own records and of any chase.

The lines a freelancer invoice usually carries

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Freelancer (general). The figures are placeholders to type over, not a going rate.

Add, rename, reorder or delete any line, and set tax per line where it applies. Priced as they open, that comes to $3,000 before tax.

How to write a freelance invoice, step by step

1. Find the agreement the work was done under. Open the freelancer (general) invoice and put the quote number, contract or purchase order in the reference. It is what the client matches your invoice to.
2. Enter hours from your time log. Twenty hours at your rate, with the dates covered in the description. Round the way your agreement says, and never change unit between the quote and the invoice.
3. Add the milestone that was approved. A delivered and approved stage goes on as one line naming the deliverable. Approval in writing is what makes it invoiceable.
4. Pass expenses on at cost. Stock images, software bought for the project and travel go on their own line with receipts, separate from your time.
5. Deduct any deposit, then send. Show the deposit as a minus line with the date it was paid. Set 14 days, state the currency on international work, and send it the day the work is delivered.

Freelance invoice example, filled in

A project billed partly by the hour and partly by milestone, which is how most freelance work ends up. The agreement is named at the top, the hours show their count, and the approved milestone is one line.

Subtotal $3,000, tax $300, total $3,300. Twenty hours at $65 and a $1,500 milestone are two different kinds of charge, so they sit on separate lines. If a deposit was paid at the start, it goes in as a minus line so the balance due is the only figure left to argue about.

Deposits, milestones and never funding a client project

The structural risk of freelancing is that you finance the work and the client decides when to pay for it. Deposits and milestones are how that risk gets shared.

A deposit before starting, one or more milestone payments tied to defined stages, and a balance on delivery is standard across every freelance discipline. Put the schedule on the quote so the first invoice is not the first time the client hears about it.

Then show it on every invoice: the total project fee, what has been paid and when, what this invoice claims, and the balance remaining. That set of lines is what turns a series of separate demands into a plan the client is following.

Scope, revisions and the request that arrived in a message

Scope creep in freelancing almost never arrives as a change request. It arrives as a friendly message that begins with a small favor.

The habit that fixes it is documentation. When a request falls outside the agreement, reply confirming what it is and what it costs, then invoice it as its own line naming the request and its date. Additional landing page, requested on a stated date is a fact.

State the included revision rounds in the original agreement. Two rounds included, further rounds at a stated rate, removes the entire negotiation and it makes the client more decisive as well, which is better for the work.

Getting paid, chasing, and international clients

Freelance invoices are paid by people with no obligation to prioritize them, which makes the terms and the chase the difference between thirty days and ninety.

Set terms in days, put the due date on the invoice as an actual date rather than a period, and state your late payment position. States set their own statutory interest rate and their own usury ceiling, so what you can charge depends on where you are, and the figure belongs in your terms before the due date rather than in an argument after it.

For international clients, state the currency explicitly, say who bears the transfer fees, and include the account details in the format that country actually uses. Most international freelance payment delays are administrative rather than deliberate, and they are fixed by putting the right reference on the document.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how freelancers price the work

Freelancing is priced hourly, daily or per project, and almost every freelancer who moves from the first to the last earns more for the same work. Hourly sells your availability. Project pricing sells the outcome, and the outcome is what the client is actually buying.

Take a deposit and bill milestones. The structural risk of freelancing is that you finance the client project and they decide when to pay for it, and a deposit plus staged payments is the only thing that shares that risk rather than carrying all of it.

Working out what to charge

Freelance rates depend on the skill, the client and how many hours you can bill, so a number from a web page is no guide. The freelance rate calculator works back from the income you need, and the billable hours calculator shows how many of your hours are actually sellable.

Getting paid once it is sent

Ask new clients for a deposit before you start and invoice milestones as they are approved, so no more than one stage of your work is ever unpaid at a time. If the due date passes, the late fee calculator works out what your terms allow and the due date calculator sets the new date.

Five dates decide whether a freelancer gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost freelancers money

• Describing your week instead of the deliverable. The client cannot match the invoice to what they received.
• No deposit on new clients. You are financing the project and carrying all of the risk.
• Out of scope work absorbed to keep the peace. It never becomes chargeable later, it just becomes the norm.
• Terms of on receipt. Not a date, so it never becomes overdue.
• Currency unstated on international work. Two parties confidently reading different numbers.

Freelancer (general) invoice questions

Free freelancer invoice template

The free freelancer invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 10 designs, and exports a print-ready PDF with nothing saved to a server. Opening a design needs a free account.

Invoicing guides for related trades

Everything on this site, set up for freelancers

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to freelancers rather than in general. The five marked links open with freelancer (general) already selected.