Freelance Invoice Checklist
An invoice that is missing a detail can sit unpaid for weeks while an accounts department queries it, and the delay is entirely avoidable. The list below covers what most jurisdictions expect and what most client finance teams need before they will release a payment. It takes a few minutes to get right on the first invoice and seconds on every one after that.
Identify both sides clearly
Put your legal name and trading name, your address, your contact email and a phone number on every invoice. If you are registered for a consumption tax such as VAT or GST, include your registration number. If you trade through a company, include the company number and registered office as well, because finance teams frequently reject invoices that do not match the entity they have on file.
Name the client exactly as their finance system knows them, not the way you refer to them in conversation. A large client may have several legal entities, and an invoice addressed to the wrong one is a common cause of a slow payment. If they gave you a purchase order number, use it and quote it prominently.
Reference the work
State the project name or the period the invoice covers, and reference the contract or proposal it relates to. A finance team that cannot match an invoice to an approved purchase will query it rather than pay it. Add a short description of what was delivered, in plain language, even for a day rate.
If the project was fixed fee, say which milestone has been reached. If you are billing hourly, give the hours and the rate, or attach a timesheet. If expenses are included, list them separately with receipts attached, because lumping expenses into a professional fee makes them harder to approve and harder for you to defend.
Show the money and the terms
Show the subtotal, any consumption tax applied, and the total due. Include the currency, particularly if the client is in another country, since an unlabelled currency invites a guess that costs you on the exchange. State the payment terms and the actual due date rather than a number of days, because a due date removes ambiguity.
List the accepted payment methods, the account name, the account number, the sort code or routing number, and the reference you want them to include so you can reconcile the payment when it arrives. For international payments, add the bank's address and any intermediary details, since a mismatch in those fields can bounce a transfer and cost you fees.
Add late payment wording and the invoice number
If your contract allows interest on overdue invoices, restate the wording on the invoice and note that the total will change if payment is late. This is polite but firm, and it is far more effective when the client agreed to it in the contract. Check what your local law already provides, since some countries set statutory interest automatically.
Number your invoices in a simple sequence that never repeats or skips, such as a year followed by a counter, and never reuse a number even for a corrected invoice. Issue a credit note instead if you need to reduce an invoice. Keep a copy of every invoice and record the date issued, the date due and the date paid. That record is what you will need at tax time and it is the evidence you rely on if a payment dispute ever goes further.
Send the invoice as a PDF rather than an editable document, since an editable file can be altered after issue and some finance teams will not accept one. Email it to the person who can approve it, copy whoever processes payments, and confirm they received it. Ten minutes of confirmation now beats a month of waiting.
- Purchase order number - The client's internal approval reference, which must appear on the invoice for payment to be released.
- Due date - The specific calendar date an invoice must be paid, preferable to a vague statement of days.
- Credit note - A document that reduces or cancels a previously issued invoice without reusing its number.
- Remittance advice - The client's note confirming what a payment covers, useful for matching bank entries to invoices.