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!

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.

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.

Thanks for the tip I’ll definitely be putting it to use in the future.

-jb

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.

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.