Whether you want to bill hourly or by flat amounts, provide the option to be tipped, or enable partial payments, you can customize this professional, free service invoice template to meet your needs.
Many businesses can benefit from the freedom and flexibility of our independent business invoice template. With it, you can create a customizable invoice in a few simple steps, no matter what industry you’re in or what service you provide. Discover more about the benefits of e-invoicing solutions for your business.
Start by downloading a sample in Word or by using our free invoice template tool. At a minimum, your template should include basic information about your business and the details of the service you’re providing to your client.
If you decide to save your free invoice template as a PDF, you may find it easier to add your information to the template in Word and then save as a PDF.
Please note the downloadable Word invoice template doesn’t include PayPal Invoicing built-in features and may not be formatted correctly if you export your template to Excel.
Include your company’s name, phone number, email address, and company website.
Provide the company name and at least an email address and a phone number. A physical mailing address is nice to have, too.
There are multiple ways to assign invoice numbers. If you're using a Microsoft Excel sheet as a ledger, you may find that the simplest is chronological — use the next number in the numerical series. But that may not be intuitive and can quickly become a mouthful. (You don’t want your clients, or your team, to refer to invoice #492485720934.) You can work around this by breaking your invoice number into multiple parts, like using a unique client number with a variable project number. So, when Jane Doe (customer number 25) hires you for another project — the fifth one this year — you could list that on the service invoice as #25-0005.
This should be the day you sent the bill, not the day you created it. Make sure your invoice date, payment terms, and due date line up: if your payment terms are 30 days, then the due date should be exactly 30 days from your invoice date. And, use this date format to solve for international differences: Month (spelled out), date, year. (Example: December 28, 2022)
Tip: With PayPal Invoicing, we’ll automatically help you calculate the due date for your freelance invoices. And if you’re sending internationally, we’ll automatically display the invoice date in the proper format for your customer.
Before you send, preview the service invoice to see what your customers will receive.
If you’re emailing your professional invoice, make sure to include a clear, descriptive, and accurate subject line. If you’re using PayPal Invoicing, you can simply click ‘Send’ to have PayPal send your invoice or you can select “Share link myself” to share the invoice link in your own email, text, or chat message.
With PayPal Invoicing, your clients will automatically have the option to pay you online using their credit or debit card, PayPal account, or PayPal Credit1.
Some industries may require mentioning specific terms and conditions on your invoice, so be sure to check the special requirements for your business. Find out more about popular small business invoice payment terms to help your customers understand what they owe and when.
You can access more invoicing features with PayPal Invoicing. For example, you can:
PayPal Invoicing can get businesses paid fast. In a recent study, 79% of PayPal invoices are paid within one day of sending the invoice2. That’s much faster than traditional offline invoicing.
Knowing when to send an invoice as a freelancer depends on the service you’re providing and the project you’re working on, as well as the agreed-upon billing terms with your client (such as hourly or project fee).
For instance, if you create five social media graphics per month for a given client, you may want to send a recurring flat-rate invoice on the first of every month. On the other hand, if you’re billing hourly for a one-time infographic project, you may want to send your invoice immediately after the work is completed. Find out about recurring invoices.
Make sure to use an invoice tracker to keep tabs on what you’ve billed for, what’s been paid, and what is still outstanding.
In partnership with three expert business owners, the PayPal Bootcamp includes practical checklists and a short video loaded with tips to help take your business to the next level.
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