One way to make your invoices less scary
Feb '1025th
7
If you’re like me, you always feel a twinge of guilt when sending an invoice to a client. It’s not that you feel you’ve done a bad job, you just find it hard to ask for money, especially when it’s in exchange for doing something you enjoy.
Wording the email/letter is difficult. It has to go something along the lines of “Hi, I’ve attached an invoice for x which you have to pay in 14 days. Please.”
Recently, I’ve started adding a few Google Analytics stats to client emails when I’m sending them an invoice for content changes they’ve asked me to make on a site. I feel that I’m giving the client useful information that makes my request for money seem a little less routine, and hope that it shows I care as much about the success of their website as they do.
For example, for one client who organises children’s parties, I let her know that “netmums” was her top referring site which had an average time on site 3 times greater than the overall site average. I also told her that the linger time for returning visitors was 2 times the average for the site overall, indicating that people coming back did so because they were making a decision, or they were going through the site with someone else.
I then got this reply:
Thanks so much for all that info its really useful! I was about to pull my netmums subscription but now I am so not going to!
This wouldn’t be possible with every client invoice, especially for sites that have just gone live and don’t have any useful stats, but for clients you want to maintain a long term relationship with, this might make your request for money a little less painful.
Is there something you can recommend to make invoices more friendly?
7 Comments on “One way to make your invoices less scary”
February 25th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I don’t think you should have to feel ashamed or embarrassed about asking for money.
The client knew in advance they’d have to pay for the work, and presumably had an idea of cost.
One thing I’ve found is that using an automated invoicing system like Freshbooks or Freeagent makes things a lot easier.
You can set up your email wording as part of a template, so you’re not having to worry about how to word the email, you just prepare the invoice and hit “send”. Mine go something like…
—–
Hi XXX,
Hope you’re well.
This is just a quick email to let you know we’ve prepared your latest invoice.
You can download it here:
http://whatever.com/invoiceXXXX
The total amount payable is £XXX.XX.
Please make any cheques payable to, Richard Quick, or you can pay via BACS or online transfer to:
MR R F QUICK
Bank details here
Many thanks,
Richard Quick
————
I can see what you’re trying to do with the stats thing, but at the end of the day, you shouldn’t have to sweeten your invoices with a freebie – you’ve done the work and you deserve to be paid.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Hi Rich,
I use Freeagent to send out invoices and while it’s handy having something pre-written, whatever I put sounds stale and generic after a while. My aim with showing some useful stats is that the client feels they are getting good value for money and I can prove that the site is successful.
I feel a lot of clients don’t see their site as something ongoing – just something you build and wait for the next redesign. By adding a few stats, this may encourage them to let me help them constantly improve the site over time.
For one client, I gave them a list of all the keywords people were searching for on their site a month after it launched as a way to help them know what additional content they needed up there. This gave me more work, and made their site more useful to visitors. If you wait for the client to ask you to pull up some stats to help guide what needs to be done to improve the site, it probably won’t happen.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:25 am
I personally think this is brilliant. Payment process now in our time has become very robotic – has lost it’s humanist qualities. I think this really eases that tension and shows the client you’re here to help. As a result you stated you were rewarded more work.
Thanks for the tip I’ll definitely be putting it to use in the future.
-jb
February 25th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
For small companies, I’ve found that offering a bit more useful information than is strictly necessary, like Anna suggests, shows goodwill and helps to cement good relationships with clients. The key is to make sure this doesn’t create a drain on your time, so that if the client isn’t appreciative or grows to expect it as part of your paid services, you don’t start to resent the extra work while being unsure whether you can withdraw it. It also doesn’t hurt to ask whether the client does appreciate the info.
In the case of big organisations, however, your invoice will probably go straight to the Finance department and the extra info may never be seen by the person who could use it. In that case, the invoice is not the place to build the goodwill.
What is often the most useful for the org (and is generally good practice) is to be fairly precise about itemising your services in invoices, so there’s transparency about what they’re paying you for.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Thanks for the tips!
I just started using FreshBooks a few days ago
ago and I love it! It helps keep me organized!
February 26th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Personally, I feel nothing but joy sending out invoices :)
While a great point, adding some GA stats; I would rather leave all the warm fuzzies for when actually working with a client – performing the billable work they’ve hired me for.
Invoices should be robotic – it’s basically a receipt. I don’t expect a client to send a kind note when they mail me the payment. The cheque is thanks enough.
All things aside, it is a nice suggestion you have if you can make the time for it.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Anna, I like your approach and I believe it is a great approach for a smaller business.
However, I do agree with the previous post, i.e. your client has asked you for a service and should expect to pay for that service without the need for any niceties per say.
How about adding a note with the invoice suggesting a few things they haven’t thought about for their web site… there’s nothing better then more business from existing clients – unless they don’t pay the bills!
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