How to Fill Out an Invoice

Getting your invoices right is essential to ensure you produce professional paperwork – and get paid on time! The crucial information to include is the date, the amount payable, designating what it’s for, and the contact details of both the supplier and customer.

Let’s look at how to fill out an invoice in a little more detail so you’re fully equipped to produce top-quality documents that won’t raise any queries.

Why Accurate Invoices are Essential for Businesses

First up, let’s clarify why it’s such a big deal to make sure your invoices are perfect. 

They aren’t only a way to speed up cash flow and ensure you bill every client correctly, but are one of the critical ways you can establish professionalism and excellent customer rapport.

Think about it like this:

• Consistent, branded invoices are instantly recognizable. They won’t be tossed to the bottom of the pile, waiting for the client to figure out whom it is from.
• Itemising charges give customers confidence that you’re invoicing accurately and have taken the necessary time and care to ensure charges are accurate.
• If your invoices are always spot-on, they’ll be paid faster, customers will be satisfied with your service, and you will save time dealing with queries that you could have avoided.

It’s also vital to recognize that your invoice represents a legally valid business transaction. 

Say you don’t get paid – you need that paper trail as evidence of what you’re owed, precisely what for, and by whom!

What To Include on an Invoice Document

Now we’ve established why invoice quality matters, let’s work through a list of everything you need to fill in when creating a new invoice:

• Invoice number, job reference, and customer code if required.
• Your business name and contact information.
• Details of the person or company you are billing.
• An explanation of what the charges are for – itemized if applicable.
• The date of the invoice and the date you supplied the goods or service.
• Your bank details or payment information.
• A due date to show when the balance must be settled by.

Those are the basics – if you ensure every invoice contains all of that information, you shouldn’t run into any problems.

It’s also worth adding your business branding, colors, or graphics. As the more professional the documents, the better an impression you’ll leave your client with.

Are Invoice Templates a Valuable Business Resource?

One of the biggest challenges, particularly for small businesses, is that administrative paperwork takes time. 

We are all susceptible to human error, and it’s near impossible to guarantee you’ll get it right 100% of the time!

Invoice templates are a great option if:

• You want customizable, on-brand documents without manually building a form every time you need to invoice.
• You want to improve speed and accuracy, cutting down on the hours it takes to raise invoices each week or month.
• Your business appearance is essential to you, and you’d prefer to produce uniform invoices without the possibility of missing off a critical piece of information.

All told, an invoice template is a wise choice if you would like to set high benchmarks for paperwork accuracy and want to improve efficiency and customer relations while you’re at it!