Video & film production invoices 

At some point, you've got to put the camera down, start sending invoices and chasing payments. It's essential for growing a successful film and video production business.

For many creatives, it is a trudge to get through videography invoices. Finding a great video production invoice template to help speed up the process could be the key to scaling your business.

It can be the difference between spending weekends meticulously checking client details versus being able to fire off invoices in just seconds and making it easy for clients to pay.

Below, you'll find an in depth look at what must be included on every video and film production invoice to be legally compliant and position you as a top tier professional.

You'll also get video production invoice templates and an invoice generation tool that can get you started immediately.

What to include in a video production invoice?

A well constructed invoice should give your client everything they need to make a payment and manage their own accounting workflow. Missing information could lead to payment delays and frustrations with clients. Here's what you need to include on all video production invoices:

1. Company information

Your business name, logo, phone, email, and mailing address should all be included, along with any specific business registration and company numbers. This will make your invoice easily identifiable to the client and provide key contact information in case of any queries.

2. Client details

Getting your client details right, including the full business name, mailing address, and any company registration numbers, should be accompanied by a primary contact person at the company. This ensures the invoice reaches the right person and company details align with accounting procedures and best practices. Errors here, such as missing client names, can again cause delayed payments.

3. Invoice number

Every invoice should have its own specific number, a little bit like an order number, for example. Having an organized invoicing numbering system makes it easy for both parties to identify a particular invoice for payment reference.

4. Date information

Make sure to include the issue date and the payment due date at the bare minimum. Especially if you leave out a due date, then it gives your client no deadline to pay.

This will be frustrating as invoices that aren't prioritized are likely to be ignored. Plus, it makes it hard to give you any recourse in chasing payment or labeling outstanding invoices in your system.

5. Project description

There should be a clear description of the project so that your client knows what the invoice is referring to. This will help make it clear what the payment is for and establish the scope and timeline of the current project.

6. Itemized services

It's essential to break down your invoice into specific services, items, or products. This adds extra depth and clarity, so the client knows precisely what they're paying for.

It helps reduce sticker shock for the final total as each cost is accounted for against the value of an item.

7. Payment terms

Many inexperienced businesses often forget to include payment terms on their invoice, but if you don't give options for how you'd like to get paid, it makes it impossible for a client to transfer you the funds.

You should include the currency, bank account details, payment links, or other payment methods you want to include. Your payment terms might also include any late payment policies related to your due date.

8. Additional notes

For added information and clarity, you can add notes to the bottom of your invoice. This could help reduce issues like scope creep, clarify what happens once the invoice is paid, or provide any delivery methods for digital products.

While an invoice's primary function is to request payment, it can also aid in a proper documentation process that protects both videographers and their clients, particularly when many projects can run for thousands and thousands of dollars.

Video production invoice template examples

A well designed video production invoice template should show off your video production company as a professional outfit while providing clear payment information.

Here is an example of a film production invoice template that you can start using with Acctual's free invoice generator:

Try Acctual’s free videographer invoice template generator here.

Above, you can see the information is clearly laid out with a hierarchy of information, starting with the two businesses involved and important dates.

Clear, organized sections help to build an itemized list of products and services and their associated costs. All of that is matched with personalized professional branding of you and your client's logos.

There's transparency on the total amount, including taxes and payment details. 

Customizing your invoice for different video projects

Video production and film can cover a surprisingly wide range of different industries; commercial video production, wedding photography, and even social media content.

While all of these need a professionally designed invoice template, your customized invoice will reflect the service you provide. Let's go through them:

Commercial video production

Commercial video might have normal requirements for camera equipment, day rates, or project pricing. Adding to this, there should be details on usage rights and licensing terms for the videos, and it could include any talent fees required for shooting.

In particular, clear documentation of usage rights protects both parties from disagreements in the future. This can even help you increase revenue by offering clients increased levels of licensing.

Event videography

Event videographers tend to offer set packages that include capturing the main event days, post editing and delivering the final product.

Within that, your invoice could outline specific package components to build a total price. For example, core event footage, attendees and exhibitor interviews, social media clips and main event highlights. It should detail the deliverable formats like DVDs, digital files and cloud streaming.

Animation

It could be hard to provide such a tangible breakdown of an animation project. There's no on site filming or big camera equipment for the client to see, so breaking down the conceptualization, storyboarding, and animation rendering can all help to bring clarity to your invoices.

You could also add in revision allowances to avoid project scope issues and specify the file resolution for the final product to be delivered. This brings distinct phases that the client will understand and appreciate your work.

Corporate video

If you're shooting for corporate videos or internal marketing, then you can use your invoice to build a picture of what the client will receive. That could be script writing and development, revisions, staff interviews, and b roll shots, all as separate line items.

When it comes to corporate clients, having a clear project scope and costs is critical as stakeholders in these businesses need to allocate costs and okay budget considerations.

Social media content

Filming social media content spans every cost bracket you can imagine   from just a few dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To a client, pulling out your phone and shooting something on your video might not correlate with the cost of their final invoice, which is why you should build out more clarity in your invoicing.

For example, the different platform specific deliverables, aspect ratios, lengths, any social media optimizations, research, and ideation.

Documentary filmmaking

Documentaries can be one of the longest projects to take on as a filmmaker. It could be something that takes months or even years to complete. So, breaking down invoices into their specific phases is going to be essential for your business's cash flow.

You could think about the research and development phase, any script writing, outreach to potential interviewees, or licensing archive footage. 

How to price video services

With video production, there are also several pricing structures you can use depending on the type of work offered:

1. Hourly rates

This is the easiest way to bill, as you'll typically be exchanging time for money. You set your hourly rate with a client and bill for the number of hours you work on a project. Clients will appreciate it if you use time tracking documentation during projects.

You could run different rates for different parts of the project, filming versus editing, for example. This means you might consider splitting your video production invoice and video editing invoice.

The only downside is that hourly billing can punish videographers for efficiency, even when delivering the same quality of product.

2. Day rates

A videography crew could run anywhere between $800 and $5,000+ per day, depending on the crew and the size of the project. Clients simply buy your time by the day.

Usually, you would simply quote a client for how many days you expect it to take to complete a job and bill them accordingly.

3. Project based pricing

Project based pricing is probably the easiest way to avoid project cost scope shocks for a client. You deliver the deliverables based on a fixed quote.

You could invoice up front, by milestone, or at the completion of a project. The only thing to watch out for as a videographer is project scope creeping outside of the initial agreement.

4. Editing rates

For editing rates, you might think about charging for shooting days and then following that up with an hourly rate for editing, or per minute of finished video. For example, $75 per minute of video. This shows a client the relationship between the video length and the cost.

Professional invoice design and branding

Your invoice might be the first step in a relationship with a new client, so it's essential to have a good professional first impression. Delivering a sloppy, unusable invoice sets an ominous tone for the rest of the working relationship.

Visual consistency

You should ensure that your invoices match your brand's style. That means, at the very least, including the right logos. It makes the invoice instantly recognizable and sets a strong precedent for brand consistency.

Balancing design with clarity

Creatives can often go too far with invoices and end up with over designed, messy documents. This makes it difficult for a client to pick out the important details. Instead, aim for uncluttered clarity. Make them easy to read, and the most important details are clearly stated.

It's no surprise that well designed, easy to read invoices are paid faster.

Digital optimization

More than 50 per cent of invoices are first viewed on a mobile device. That means your client is receiving your email and opening the invoice on their phones, so you need to make sure it's mobile friendly and still works on a desktop or when printed.

This makes it easy to review, pass to relevant people in an organization, and pay at the touch of a button.

Video production invoicing simplified with Acctual

If you're looking for a professional videography invoice template, then Acctual has all the tools you need to design a branded invoice.

The customizable invoicing template tool allows you to add your branding, company, and client's branding like magic. It even auto fills business information based on email addresses, with any tweaks being made manually.

You can easily add itemized descriptions along with prices and any taxes. Whether that's production day breakdowns, equipment rentals, licensing or post production editing.

The really great thing is full payment flexibility. That means your client can pay however they like, and you can get paid however you want. And when payment is easy, payment is fast.

It even works for international payments. For example, a company in the United States could hire a video editor in Nigeria. The U.S. company could pay US dollars, and the payment received in Nigeria using a USDC crypto wallet. Or vice versa.

The beauty of Acctual is that you can use fiat to fiat payments, fiat to crypto, and everything in between. All automated with minimum fees. To get rid of paperwork completely, everything is reconciled in your ERP or accounting system, like QuickBooks or Xero.

So, if you want to concentrate on bringing your films to life rather than wasting time on invoices, try Acctual today by setting up a free account.