Rose, I can't imagine writing out all of my invoices by hand! This way is actually quite 'old fashioned' - when you consider all of the great time tracking software out there, but I like the fact that this is easy and flexible. It's worked well for over two years, and 20+ clients
Virtua, I agree with the use of a PDF for the client (non-editable on the receiving end) but I can't imagine a time that I'd ever switch over to actual paper billing via the post - too much work! Although, if you're working with big companies as you said then it sounds like you don't have much choice if you want to get paid