Every professional VA has their own style of doing things, including invoicing. I know some use software to track their time, I use a good old fashioned .txt doc and Paypal

Please comment back with your own methods and examples of what works for you. )
I invoice every other Fri on net 14 terms
. This means that I give the client 14 days (from the day I send the invoice) to make payment. When I total an invoice I send a copy of the invoice document to the client via email. I also send a payment request via Paypal with the basic breakdown of the invoice in the 'notes' section.
I also keep a running XL sheet of ALL invoices with columns for
Date sent
Total
Client name
Payment method
Due date
Notes
Running total
Monthly total
Yearly total
When I send a fresh invoice request I note the information on the XL sheet and highlight it in yellow until it is paid. I have too many clients now to keep in mind all the invoices I have out at any given moment and the XL sheet makes it easy to check who owes what and when.
It also makes it really simple for me at the end of the year when I want to calculate taxes as well as lets me quickly compare how I'm doing this year compared to last year at the same time or this month to last month, etc.
As soon as an invoice is paid I remove the highlight from that line of info on the XL.
Also, every single invoice I send includes my late payment policy
:
Anyone else care to share their own strategy for invoicing?