Hey everyone,
quick question for those of you who are self-employed or freelancing.
How do you usually create your invoices?
Do you use external software, templates, or just do everything manually?
When I started out as self-employed, it began with writing my first invoices. I quickly realized how hard it actually is to define a proper value for your work. On top of that, I struggled with writing clear and professional service descriptions. I ended up copy pasting and adjusting a lot of the text with GPT just to get something reasonable on the invoice.
Do you have similar problems?
Do you calculate the effort and pricing beforehand?
Do you charge extra for invoice creation or admin work?
Which tools or software do you use, and why?
I’m curious how others handle this and what works well for you.
How do you create your invoices as a freelancer or self employed?
byu/twikshi inEntrepreneur
Posted by twikshi
10 Comments
It depend on what country you operating, in Europe, there are many good tools for it to manage VAT easily
Ugh invoices. I just throw something together and hope it’s right. No time for fancy.
I put all my work innto a PSA. It’s configured to our business rules
This syncs to xero and sends invoices automatically. Looks after GST etc.
Sell a customer a widget? Add it as a product to a record in the PSA and it flows and creates an invoice.
I’ve found that streamlining my workflow with automation tools has been a game-changer for tasks like invoicing, which frees up more time for focusing on high-leverage activities like content creation and client relationships. As a freelancer, it’s essential to have a clear system in place for tracking time and expenses to ensure accurate invoicing. By implementing a few key workflows and templates, I’ve been able to simplify my invoicing process and reduce administrative overhead.
The tool doesn’t matter, the terms do.
I use a boring Google Doc template, export as PDF and roll all “admin” (invoicing, emails, revisions, meetings) into my hourly/project rate. 50% upfront, clear scope, late fees after X days. My invoices aren’t pretty, but they get paid fast because the business side is nailed, not because I found the perfect invoicing app.
most freelancers I know keep it simple, use tools like wave, stripe invoices, or a clean google docs template, pricing is decided before the work starts so the invoice is just execution not thinking, admin time is usually baked into the rate not listed separately, once you reuse the same service descriptions it stops being painful and looks professional every time
As a freelancer, I’ve found that streamlining my workflow is key to saving time and reducing stress – and that includes invoicing. I’ve started using a centralized platform to manage my clients, projects, and invoices, which has been a game-changer for keeping track of everything. By automating some of the more tedious tasks, I can focus on what really matters: delivering high-quality work and building strong relationships with my clients.
I’ve been in your shoes before, and I totally get how tough it can be to define a proper value for your work and write clear service descriptions. One thing that’s helped me is to create a template with a standard set of services and rates, and then adjust from there – it’s saved me a ton of time and hassle. I’ve also found that automating some of my online tasks, like social media management, has given me more bandwidth to focus on the important stuff, like creating value for my clients.
Have you looked at Google Sheets templates? There’s an invoice template built in. Just add your numbers.
It helps to already have determined your offers and pricing. Don’t do it based on how you feel on a particular day. You should figure out how much an hour of your time is worth, and you should be able to estimate how many hours each job will require, plus a 25% padding (things take longer, things go wrong), then multiply that by your hourly rate.
The biggest variable will be your hourly rate – don’t price totally entry level, but also, don’t price the same as someone well known, top of the field, unless you’re confident you can produce work of equally good (or better) quality.
You’ll get better at estimating as you knock out more projects. That’s just part of the learning curve. And that’s why that buffer of 25% to 30% is important – you will likely screw up the first few times, but after that, you know what things you forgot to include in your estimate that take more time than planned.
ETA: Do NOT list your hours worked on the invoice. Invoice it as a project. Final price only. They don’t need to know the exact reasoning behind that price.
I used to really like Fiverr Workspace, but since it’s being shut down I had an idea for a lightweight replacement.
You’d simply type something like: “I created X for client Y and it costs $200,” and the tool would automatically turn that into proper invoice line items and generate a clean PDF invoice. No extra bells and whistles, just fast invoice text + structure from plain language. You pay once and can use it forever.
What would you think about a tool like that? Is this something you could see yourself (or other freelancers) actually using?