Learn How to Make Professional Invoices for Your Small Business | Startup
Starting a business involves so many things. One of them is creating invoices. A bill is the most important task for small business owners. To run a business smoothly, invoices play an important role in business. As you know, invoices help to maintain track of finance. When invoices are maintained correctly and professionally, it helps to run small businesses successfully and gain the trust of people, and cash flow will be healthier.
What is an invoice?
An invoice is a bill that will be provided to the customer after buying a product or service. An invoice includes details of the product or service, such as the date, amount, and buyer’s name. For more details, see below: What to include on an invoice.
This will help to maintain bookkeeping. Every business needs to maintain invoices to keep track of sales and account auditing.
Invoices are acknowledgement of payment and purchase order confirmation. Further, the invoice is the proof of buying the goods or service.
What to include on an invoice
- Your invoice number is
- Your business’s contact info
- Recipient contact info:
- Business tax ID
- Invoice date
- List of charges
- Tax line (Total Due)
preferred payment method.
Your invoice number: it is a unique number on the invoice, basically used to identify every invoice that is provided to the customer. If an invoice goes unpaid, it will be easy to search for and identify the invoice. A number on an invoice is also considered as proof of how many goods and services were sold, which will be very helpful in an income tax audit.
Your business’s contact info:
The phone number on the invoice is very helpful to customers to contact the business owners for further sales or any kind of enquiry. Also, it will give customers trust for after-purchase issues and queries directly from the owners.
Recipient contact info:
If possible, collect the recipient’s telephone number, address, and email ID in the situation of nonpayment, which will be helpful to follow. Furthermore, it will be helpful to send new products and services to customers and increase sales.
Business tax ID:
Customers need a TIN number or tax number for their accounting purposes. Make certain that you are providing it to your customer.
Invoice date
Mentioning the invoice date will help in so many ways, as it will help to check on which day how much sales were on peak. If payment is due from the customer side, it will let them know how much time passed between invoice and payment.
List of charges
Including details of what you’re charging for, including products and services, will keep your customers aware and clear of what they are paying for and how much they are paying.
Tax line:
If you’re paying sales tax or local tax on products and services you’re selling, then write them down separately. This will show customers how much they are paying tax and how much they are paying for goods and services. In simple terms, you can mention tax percent on the invoice.
“Total Due” line
Make these words bold so customers don’t miss out if they have to pay due money.
preferred method of payment:
Mentioning preferred payment on the invoice will let customers know what type of payment you will prefer and also keeps them reminded for the next time they purchase, so they can prepare for that type of payment. It may be any type of payment, like credit card, online payment receiving methods, or cash on delivery.
These above mentioned points are complete details of what is included on the invoice (bill). Providing an invoice on every purchase is also one way to show your customer how ethical you are, and it will help to build trust in your business.
How to create an invoice: step-by-step
Step 1: Begin by using a professional template.
Step 2: Fill in the blanks with company information.
Step 3: Make a list of the products or services that were delivered.
Step 4: Enter the total amount owed.
Step 5: List all of the dates.
Step 6: Specify the terms of your payment.
Step 7: Add VAT details (if applicable).
Are you looking for ways to create invoices for small businesses? Let’s start here…
Learning how to make an invoice (a bill) can save you money, as well as help you get payment on time and keep your financial flow on track.
Here below are seven steps to creating your own invoice. We also explain how to make invoices for small businesses in detail.
Step 1: Begin by using a professional template.
Creating an invoice from scratch may be time-consuming and it may be difficult to make it look like a professional invoice for a small business. So to solve our small business entrepreneurs’ problem, below you can find five templates to create free invoices.
Creating an invoice with these templates will be much easier compared to creating one from scratch, and it will also save a lot of time.
Step 2: Fill in the blanks with company information.
After choosing an invoice template, now you can get started by adding information to your template to make it personalized for your business.
In the first, you can add company details, address, client company name, and address.
After filling in all the details once, make sure that you add the correct details of both yours and as well as your client. Adding the wrong name and address to bills can lead to delays in payment.
To make your invoice look like a brand and professional, add a logo to your invoice at the top of the invoice.
Step 3: Make a list of the products or services that were delivered.
The next step in creating your invoice is to list out all the products and services that your customer purchased. Then make a column for serial number (SL.No), item name, quantity of the item, and cost of the item.
Step 4: Enter the total amount owed.
Once you add all the items, the next step is to add the total amount which is due from your client. Also, in this step, you can add discounts and prepayments, so make sure to keep space for this all.
The best way to add this all together is to subtotal them to get a final total.
Step 5: List all of the dates.
While making the invoice, make sure that you’re adding all the dates.
You can add dates like invoice date, supply date, and payment due date.
Dates are very important. Remember to add all the dates mentioned above to avoid any misunderstandings or delayed payments. so it gives a clear understanding to you and your customer.
So whenever you see the dates, you can remember when those items sold out. This will also help when the client needs to pay the balance so that they can remember.
Step 6: Specify the terms of your payment.
Payment terms are explained between businesses and clients. It’s best to mention them in your invoice, which is always recommended.
In general, payment terms include detailed information about the invoice as well as payment methods that you will accept and a due date payment penalty.
Step 7: Fill in the details for VAT, Tax Number, and TIN (if applicable):
It’s very important to give some tax-related information. It will give a clear understanding of your business ethics and help customers use your tax number if needed. Also, adding some details about financial details will increase trust in your business.
More specific to VAT, here below you can get the details related to VA.
VAT Registration No.
unite the price of products.
The rate of VAT is charged for each product.
Final payment includes VAT.
Download your five free invoice templates and use unlimited times.