Invoicing guides
Practical, no-nonsense guides to invoicing your clients and getting paid — then create your invoice with the free generator.
How to Write an Invoice
An invoice is a formal request for payment that records what you sold, to whom, and how much they owe. Getting it right matters for two reasons: it's how you get paid on time, and it's a legal and accounting document both you and your client rely on at tax time.
Read the guide →How to Invoice as a Freelancer
For freelancers, the invoice is the last step between doing the work and getting paid — and small mistakes here are what turn a two-week wait into a two-month one. The mechanics are the same as any invoice, but a few habits make a real difference to your cash flow.
Read the guide →Invoice vs Receipt: What's the Difference?
Invoices and receipts are often confused because both are records of a transaction — but they do opposite jobs. In short: an invoice requests payment, and a receipt confirms it. One comes before money changes hands; the other comes after.
Read the guide →Invoice Payment Terms Explained: Net 30, Net 15 & More
Payment terms are the short line on your invoice that decides when you actually get paid. Net 14 and Net 60 on a $3,000 invoice pay you the same $3,000 — the difference is 46 extra days of you financing your client's business. Most late-payment problems trace back to terms that were vague, missing, or never agreed in the first place.
Read the guide →How to Number Invoices
An invoice number is the unique reference that identifies one invoice among all the others — INV-0147, 2026-014, ACME-003. It looks like a trivial detail until a client asks which invoice a payment covers, an accountant reconciles your year, or a tax auditor asks why a number is missing. A sound numbering scheme takes five minutes to set up and quietly prevents all three problems.
Read the guide →Proforma Invoice vs Invoice: What's the Difference?
A proforma invoice looks exactly like an invoice and behaves nothing like one. It's a preliminary, good-faith document sent before goods ship or work finishes — a detailed statement of what you intend to supply and what it will cost. Nothing is owed when you send it, and nothing enters your books.
Read the guide →Quote vs Estimate vs Invoice: When to Use Each
A client asks what a job will cost. Do you send a quote or an estimate? And when the work is done, which document actually gets you paid? The three do different jobs at different stages: an estimate is an educated approximation, a quote is a fixed offer, and an invoice is the demand for payment once the work is delivered.
Read the guide →How to Follow Up on Unpaid Invoices
An unpaid invoice rarely means a client is refusing to pay. Most of the time the invoice was missed, stuck in an approval queue, or simply forgotten — and a well-timed reminder shakes it loose. The freelancers and small businesses that get paid fastest aren't lucky; they follow up on a schedule, with messages that get firmer at each stage.
Read the guide →What Is a VAT Invoice? What It Must Include
Most invoices only matter to two parties: you and your client. A VAT invoice matters to a third — the tax authority. Consumption taxes go by different names around the world (VAT, GST, or sales tax), and in VAT and GST systems the invoice is the document a registered buyer needs to reclaim the tax you charged them. That's why its contents are set by law, not by design taste.
Read the guide →Invoice vs Purchase Order: What's the Difference?
A purchase order and an invoice bracket the same transaction from opposite ends. The purchase order comes from the buyer before anything is delivered and authorizes the purchase; the invoice comes from you, the seller, after delivery, and requests payment. If you sell to larger companies, understanding how the two connect is the difference between getting paid on time and watching an invoice sit in limbo.
Read the guide →How to Invoice a Deposit
A deposit is money a client pays before the work starts — and like any other payment you request, it needs a proper invoice. Invoicing a deposit correctly protects you twice: the client commits real money before you commit real time, and your records show exactly what was paid up front and what remains owed. Get it wrong and the final bill turns into an argument about arithmetic.
Read the guide →What Is a Credit Note (Credit Memo)?
A credit note — also called a credit memo — is the document you issue to reduce or cancel an invoice you've already sent. Maybe the client returned goods, you overbilled by mistake, or you agreed a discount after the invoice went out. Instead of editing or deleting the original invoice, you issue a credit note that formally records the reduction.
Read the guide →How to Invoice International Clients
Invoicing a client in another country raises questions a domestic invoice never asks. Which currency do you bill in? Who absorbs the $25 wire fee that disappears somewhere between two banks? Do you add VAT, GST, or sales tax — and does 03/04/2026 mean March or April? Left vague, any one of these can delay a payment by weeks.
Read the guide →Recurring Invoices: How to Bill Clients on a Schedule
Some work doesn't end — it repeats. A monthly retainer, rent on a unit you let out, a quarterly maintenance contract, a block of tutoring sessions: the deliverable renews, and so does the bill. A recurring invoice is just an ordinary invoice issued on a fixed schedule, but the repetition raises its own questions — what changes each cycle, what must never change, and how to stop twelve near-identical invoices a year from blurring into each other.
Read the guide →