Once you have set up your business, it is time to start selling your products or services to the customers. Once you have sold your product/services, you should start sending invoices to the customers. It is imperative that your invoice should be clear and easy to understand. How to write a perfect invoice? Business owners should know what kind of information should be included in the invoice.
Here, in this article, we are going to discuss various tips and tricks to create a perfect invoice that will help you to streamline cash flow and help you collect accounts receivables at the right time.
1. Create a Professional Invoice
The most important thing that you need to consider while creating your invoice is that it should look professional. You can create an invoice template either by yourself or you can take the help of the professionals. Also, accounts receivable software integration with your backend system helps in creating the perfect invoices that will help in collecting the payments from the customers. It is recommended that you should use a professional style font and the overall layout should look symmetric and clean. Though it is tempting to use cursive fonts because they are attractive, they are not at all professional. Make sure that the styling, colors, and pattern of the invoices reflect your brand identity.
2. Add Word “INVOICE”
You should make sure that your customers know that it is an invoice. If you add the word INVOICE at the top of the document, your customers will easily get to know they are receiving an invoice. Just adding the word invoice at the top of the document will increase the probability that you will get paid at the right time. By writing the word invoices at the top of the document will make your customer easily understand what they are receiving. It is imperative to give a unique identity to your invoice so that your customers do not forget to thoroughly read this document. If your invoice document does not stand out from the rest, it will increase the probability that your invoice will be missed by your customers.
3. Do Not Forget To Add Company’s Name
You should not forget to add the name of the company in your invoice. You should add the following details in the invoice:
- Print the name of your company, contact details and address of your company as well.
- Print the name of the customer and his/her address along with the contact details of the customers. It will make sure that your invoice will reach the customer directly. Whether you are manually sending the invoice through post or using the accounting software to send e-invoice, the customer’s details should be properly mentioned.
AR integration for quick Book helps in generating perfect invoices for your customers.
4. Details Description Of Goods & Services Bought By Customer
Make sure that the description in the invoice is not lengthy, but it should be detailed. The detailed description will help your customers to easily get to know what kind of products or services they have bought. Make sure that your customers have a clear idea what they are paying for. If your customers will not have a clear idea what they are charging for, they will deny to make payment. It will lead to the dispute with the customers. Disputes will lead to the delay in the collection of the payment. It is recommended that you should add clear detail of all items that you need to purchase. With the help of latest accounts receivable technologies, you can easily generate perfect invoices.
5. Mention Dates
In your invoice document, dates play the important role. You should add the following dates in the invoices:
- Date on which you have delivered your goods or services.
- Date of creating the invoice.
You should add the date of delivering the products and services to the customer at the top of the invoice. In addition to this, you should also include the date of generating the invoice. The invoice generation date should be mentioned along with the address of the customers, contact details, and name of the customer.
6. Total Amount To Pay
Along with various other details, you should also consider adding the total amount that the customer has to pay to your company. You need to clearly mention the total amount that they have to pay. Also, if you are paying any kind of discount, you should mention the total amount and subtract the discount. Finally, mention the discounted amount that your customers have to pay. Troveworks Quickbooks integration app helps in automating the invoice generation process.
7. Clearly Mention Payment Terms
Though you may have clearly described the payment terms and policies to your customer before start delivering your goods or services, it is a good idea to remind these policies to your customers by mentioning them on the invoice. Accounts receivable technologies help in creating the customized invoices as per your needs.