Preparing customer invoices that will help you get paid sooner

A critical mistake businesses make is not knowing how to invoice their customers and collect the money from them in a timely manner. If you are new to the small business world, you may be wondering what type of information you should include on the invoice in order to generate the right type of return from your customers. The information found in this article will teach you how to generate invoices and send them out in a timely manner to get your customers to pay their bills.

Numbering the Invoice
To get started with the invoices, let's start with something as basic as including a number on the invoice. Numbering the invoice is actually important because it helps you to keep them organizes. Some companies like to number the invoices based on year such as saying 2003-2016 by year and to keep them separated from your other clients and avoid confusion.

Paid or Not Paid?
To remind your customers that they owe you money, there is always the question as to should you send the final invoice saying "paid" and should you write "not paid" on the invoice while you wait on them to pay the invoice. If you include not paid on the invoice to remind your customers to pay their bills, use a different color as it will draw their attention to it and remind them to pay in a hurry. It's good to send an invoice saying paid as it helps your customers with their financial records.

Due Date
The biggest font and darkest font on your invoice must be the due date. How else will your customers know when they are expected to make their payments? By setting the due date and making it "pop" off the page, it will help to ensure that your customers will make their payments in a hurry. Most companies prefer to place the due date and the amount due in the upper right hand side of the invoice.

Items sold
Make the invoice clear to your customers by listing all the items you have sold to them and their cost. This helps your customers to see what they actually bought so they know what they are paying for. Mae the descriptions clear instead of using codes and language that is used within the company. This will only be confusing to your customers and they won't have an idea as to what they are paying for and they may become upset about paying for these things if they do not understand what they are.

Payment details
Be very clear about the payment details that you accept and include all the information possible such as the sales tax amount and interest on the account if they are past due. Your customers must be able to understand the payment details such as the payments you accept like credit cards, money orders, cash or check. This will help both ends pay the bill and collect the money.

Contact Information
A good invoice will always include contact information so the customers know how to get in touch with you. Be sure you have your website address, phone number, email, address, and other contact information on the invoice. This helps the customer to have multiple ways to send in their payment or to get in touch with you if there is a problem with the invoice or their ability to pay their account.

The organization on your invoice really does help you to collect the money. Make sure you are drafting a few different invoices so you can compare and see which ones look readable and to the point so your customers will take away this same message.