Freelance writer invoicing

It's funny… every writer loves getting paid. But when it comes to sitting down and creating freelance writer invoices, it’s a slog.

Proper invoicing has a direct impact on the financial stability of your freelancing career. 

Freelance writers can often be pushed to the bottom of the pile when companies come to pay their invoices. So, any mistakes or poorly formatted freelance writer invoice templates delay things even further. 

It’s incredibly frustrating!

You end up with delayed payments, client confusion and appearing unprofessional. And if the money dries up, your whole freelance writing business might collapse.

On this page, you'll find the best practices, freelance writer invoice examples and a free tool that can take the stress out of all of it.

The fundamentals of a freelance writer invoice

If you're new to creating invoices, then there are several components that need to be included for B2B payment processes. Missing any of these details can make it impossible for you to get paid.

1. Business information

Your invoice needs to clearly state the key business information of both yourself as a freelance writer and the company you're invoicing. This should include business names, company addresses, contact details including email and phone number and professional branding elements like relevant logos.

This makes sure the invoice is delivered to the correct people and that the right people in an organization receive it in a timely fashion.

2. Invoice numbers

Every invoice you create should have an individual tracking number, similar to an order number. It's best practice to have a standard sequential numbering system to make it easy for you to find invoices and for your paying client to reference your invoices in their system.

3. Key dates

Have the issue date and the payment due date high up on the invoice. This is key information as it defines when an invoice was first delivered and when it needs to be paid by. Without a due date specifically, you might find it hard to ever receive payment when there's no clear deadline.

4. Detailed project description

You should add a clear description of what the project was so that your client knows exactly what the invoice is related to.

5. Itemized services

It's best practice to break down your invoices into the different services and products delivered. This helps reduce sticker shock at the end by breaking down every step of a project or task and assigning a value to it.

For a writer, this might be a number of articles created, web pages written or content published.

6. Total due

Make sure to clearly state the complete total due for the client, including tax breakdowns along the way. This will avoid any confusion about the total payment required.

7. Payment terms

The final step that many people miss is the payment terms and accepted payment methods. Make sure to include terms like net 30 or penalties for late payment.

Your payment methods should also be clearly added, whether that's bank transfer details, links to credit card payments or methods such as crypto wallet addresses.

Pricing strategies for freelance writers

When creating invoices, it's essential to categorize and outline the type of writing along with pricing strategies. There are several different industry standards for pricing strategies. Let's go through them:

1. Price per word

The most popular way to price freelance writing work is per word written. This is simple math, as you simply multiply the number of words by your per word rate. For example, if you charge 10 cents per word and write a thousand words, it's $100.

This also gives the client the ability to add minimum and maximum limits for projects to make sure budgets stay within a specific range.

2. Per article or page

For some copywriting projects, it might be easier to charge per page or article, as the word count might be unknown at the start of the project, especially for marketing copy where research and other jobs are carried out in the process.

This might be a more straightforward pricing strategy and might also give you the opportunity to show the client the potential ROI value on a single page versus charging per word.

3. Per project

If you've got a whole website or marketing funnel to write, you might decide to charge a fee for the entire project. This can be useful when word counts aren't precise and there are multiple pages of content or copy to write.

This can be useful for higher value projects where the ROI for the client can be attached directly to the project, such as a promotional email series.

4. Hourly

You or the client might prefer to specify a particular time period to spend on a project. You can charge by the hour, such as $50 per hour and time track your work to bill the client.

5. Commission

If you're writing copy that has direct revenue generation for a client, such as improving the conversion rate of a landing page, you could agree on a commission deal. You work upfront for free but take 10% of any sales derived from your work.

This is a useful way to work in an uncapped manner and increase your earning potential, but it does come with risk on the writer’s end.

Invoicing tools and systems

It's much easier to start using a professional invoicing tool that allows you to create invoices in just a few seconds, import regular services and client details and attach invoice numbers and essential dates automatically.

Rather than relying on a template where you have to manually keep changing, altering and formatting spreadsheets, for example, a proper invoicing tool like Acctual takes all of this pain away while also integrating with your accounting system.

This slashes the time you'll have to spend on both invoice management and reconciling your accounts. Everything runs efficiently and you can even use these systems to track payment history and notice problematic or slow paying clients ahead of time.

It won't just help you file your taxes and accounts; it actually provides business intelligence while growing your freelance business.

Freelance writer invoice templates and examples

Below, you'll find a freelance copywriter invoice template. This is an example of what you can create using Acctual's free invoice generator that allows you to invoice clients in fiat and stablecoins.

It offers complete flexibility, as you can invoice in your preferred currency and your client can pay in their preferred currency. And when there are options, invoices get settled faster.

Here's your freelance writing invoice template:

As you can see above, the freelance journalist invoice template is cleanly designed and allows you to add both your business information and your client's, including the ability to automatically fetch company logos and addresses from a simple email address.

It's easy to input project details and breakdown itemized services, along with precise dates and final totals, including tax amounts. It's clean, simple and not over designed with plenty of white space, so your client will never have a hard time picking out the key details.

It offers payment terms and a choice of payment methods for your client, whether they want to pay in their local fiat currency or even using crypto.

Payment terms and following up

As you start to develop your invoicing and payment workflow, you might begin to think about different payment terms and strategies. Particularly as the value of your clients grows and you take on bigger projects, you might not be so comfortable invoicing once all work is completed. That's not a problem.

There are several ways in which freelancers can improve the cash flow and the timeliness of their payments:

1. Deposits for big projects

You might take a deposit upfront, for example, 25% of the total quote. This ensures that you get paid initially, ties the client in with complete commitment and helps you cover any upfront costs.

2. Milestone payments

Often, freelance writers have ongoing regular work with companies and agencies. Rather than a retainer or monthly payments, you might simply invoice for set milestones. For example, this could be after every article is submitted.

Freelancer platforms like Upwork have these types of features built in, which shows their popularity for both clients and contractors. 

3. Monthly Retainers

If you have a set amount of work required, such as a set number of articles or words each month, then setting up a retainer with your client is a good way to go. You can use payment systems to have automated recurring payments and take the stress out of creating manual invoices every single month.

This will help ensure clients pay regularly on time and everyone knows how much is being spent and earned every month.

4. Late payment and rush fees

The importance of having a due date on your invoice means you can start to gently chase a client when they've missed the deadline. As part of your payment terms, you should think about including things like a late fee or even a rush fee for disorganized clients.

This means you'll be able to charge a penalty for any late payments or if someone needs work urgently, you can charge extra for a fast turnaround.

How to handle slow paying freelance writer clients

There isn’t a freelance writer on Earth who hasn't experienced slow payment. It can sometimes take weeks or months to get paid for your work, even with proper invoicing.

If you've issued invoices correctly with all the information we've discussed above, then it makes it easier when you need to chase a client for payment.

Once a client has missed a due date, you can send them a gentle nudge, a reminder using payment systems like Acctual or pick up the phone. Usually, this will get clients moving to pay any forgotten invoices. Late fees can also help improve the timeliness of payment.

But if you're still waiting for payment after 30 days, the invoice will become overdue and you might need to ramp up requests with phone calls or engage professional help.

If you're regularly experiencing these types of problems, it might be worth changing your payment terms to take a deposit, partial payment upfront or milestone payments along the way.

Create professional freelance writer invoices with Acctual

If invoicing is slowing your freelance writer business down, then try Acctual.

The free, easy to use invoice generator is perfectly designed for freelance writers. In a few easy steps, you can add necessary business details, including automatic filling of company logos and key information, then add your itemized service descriptions, including prices and payment terms, before finally selecting payment methods.

This is where Acctual really stands apart, as it allows flexible payment options. For example, you could send an invoice that allows your client to pay in US dollars but receive the funds as USDT stablecoin into your crypto wallet or vice versa.

It offers fiat to crypto, crypto to fiat and crypto to crypto: everything you can think of. So in this modern world, if you're working with clients across the globe, you don't have to get frustrated with multi currency accounts and hidden fees when collecting your invoices.

Adding to this, everything automatically integrates into your accounting system, like QuickBooks or Xero. Every payment is smoothly entered into your records, so that keeping an eye on your cash flow and filing your tax returns is just as easy as everything else.

With Acctual's professional freelance writer invoice template tool, you can present a polished image to clients and make it easy for them to pay.

If that sounds helpful, get started today with a free Acctual account.