What do you feel are the 'best practices' for invoicing clients and how do you handle your own invoicing process?

Please take a moment to share your thoughts on the subject!

I'd love to see if we can come up with a list of 'musts' for every invoice submitted to our clients

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If you're curious, my own personal process is outlined here.

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So far, I have only had 2 (small) clients! I invoiced the Realtor net 30 upon completion of his flyer. The horse rescue was initially billed bi-weekly while I set up their books and organized/back entered their 2006 and 2007 records. They will be billed quarterly in the future as maintaining their records is only 15 minutes/month!

The job will determine the billing. I offer pre-paid monthly blocks of time which will, of course, be billed in advance on the 1st of the month. Otherwise, for 1-time or small projects, billing will be upon completion of the project. For on-going projects, billing will be the 1st of each month and due on the 15th.

I request that all jobs (even the little guys!) sign a contract before I begin work, which gives me the right to charge interest for any past-due items and they agree to pay any collection costs required. This gives me a little more power should I have to go to collections or small claims to get paid.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Billing depends on the project and the client. I currently bill on a weekly basis for regular clients.

If it is a single-project then I estimate the project and bill them 50% of the estimate in advance, then bill the remainder upon completion. The final invoice is delivered with the work, on a net 10 basis.

Okay, I am a newbie. How do you decide if you should charge by the hour, week, month, etc? I want to offer eMarketing, web design, and graphic design services but I am not sure what the best method of charge them would be. Any suggestions?

I usually charge by the hour, on a retainer basis. My clients pay for XX number of hours per month, prepaid. I always get a signed contract and a check before I begin work. Then I just send an invoice the first of each month for that month's retainer fee. If there are overages, they get billed at the same time, with payment being due within 10 days.

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Sue L Canfield
AwesomeAssistant.info
My Blog

Originally Posted by AwesomeAssistan

I usually charge by the hour, on a retainer basis. My clients pay for XX number of hours per month, prepaid. I always get a signed contract and a check before I begin work. Then I just send an invoice the first of each month for that month's retainer fee. If there are overages, they get billed at the same time, with payment being due within 10 days.

This is exactly the method I have been considering. Has it been working out well for you?

Originally Posted by sequence

This is exactly the method I have been considering. Has it been working out well for you?

Yes, this does work well for me. My clients know they get a certain amount of hours for a set price. So they can budget their time and money each month. I've found this method works best for both my clients and me. No one's been unhappy yet!

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Sue L Canfield
AwesomeAssistant.info
My Blog

Glad to hear that, thanks. I've been nervous about the retainer prepayments but it seems to be the norm and should work out fine.

I also bill before starting any projects or retainer work. I send out the bill the last week of the month and payment is due by the 1st of the month. My project based clients terms are also payment before starting however if it is a larger bill I do give the option for the client to pay in 2 payents if the project will take longer than 1 month. So far no problems and everyone is willing to pay up front. Some take the 2 payments options also.

I would not recommend asking for payment upon completion because I know too many people that have had disappearing clients that don't pay or take months to pay the bill.

Everyone's experience is such a wealth. Someone new to the VA industry (like me!) can avoid some hard lessons through these posts... thanks!