One measure of your professionalism is using a numbered invoicing system to help you track who owes you how much money, for what, and whether it has been paid.
This is not difficult to do. Here the steps you’ll want to take:
Develop a Tracking Mechanism
- Set up a table: to track invoices using a spreadsheet or a word processing document with a table. (Google docs, Microsoft or others.) In your table, you’ll want to track at least these things: date of issue, who the invoice is going to, your invoice number, the amount of the invoice, and a column you can use to mark it paid.
- Invoice numbers: This is a system you set up for your own use. You can just use a consecutive numbering system (001, 002, etc) or something that gives you more information, like the year, the month, and which invoice this month (15-0607 <- this invoice was issued in June of 2015 and it was the 7th invoice to be issued this month.)
- Each time you prepare a new invoice, track it in your table. Be sure to circle back to any invoice that is not paid in a timely manner.
If you use Freshbooks, Quickbooks or any other system, there will be a built-in invoicing system you can use. It will track all these aspects and possibly more.
The Invoice
There are several other aspects to creation of a professional invoice like using PO numbers (purchase orders), and adding your own tax ID (the one you got from the IRS or CRA.)
Here is a sample invoice all filled in for you to show you what should be included on the invoice.
Here are templates you can use. Just open them, save them to your own computer, then replace the pieces with your own (logo, address and contact, numbering system, etc.)
Sample invoice: Microsoft Word
Sample invoice: RTF