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How To Write An Invoice Email

Once the work is completed, you must submit an invoice to collect payment. In freelance work, your client may not always ask for an invoice. But it would be best if you always made it a practice to submit an invoice for your work. This will help you as a freelancer in many aspects. An invoice will help your brand and position yourself as a freelance professional.

The moment you send an invoice is critical in the freelance work cycle, and you should attend to it sincerely. Submitting an invoice is not about just sending a document with split-ups. If you say, "Please find attached invoice..." it will turn on a strict official mode which is unhealthy for having a business relationship.

A well-formed cover letter is required to explain the work for which the invoice is submitted. Compose a neat invoice email describing the work as a summary in a respectful but impactful tone. Then, attaching the invoice PDF document to this cover email will work.

Writing invoice emails with a blind motive to collect the payment may not give the expected output. There are some essential tips and steps to write an invoice email to increase the success rate. Listening to the experts' tips from freelancers' books will improve our skills for writing a perfect invoice email.

Tips for writing invoice email

The following tips will help you write a professional invoice email. It guides how to set the right tone and the information the email should focus on. I will present it with the lowest level of data possible. At the end of the article, I also gave you ready-to-use invoice email templates.

1. The mail subject should tag the project and invoice sequence number.
2. The email body should have a polite and friendly communication tone.
3. Highlight the due date and payment amount.
4. Give enough details in the email for clients to make the payment easily.
5. Present information in a linear order with a seamless flow.
6. Offer future discounts and free support to mean the business continuity ahead.
7. Attach the invoice in the standard template with clear split-ups.
8. Keep the refined list of canned invoice emails to reuse.

Point 2 is a valuable and must-follow tip. It means neither begging nor aggravating the situation for money. Unless otherwise, the delay is repetitive, and there is no need to raise hands with a strong invoice email.

What does an invoice email have?

In the last section, the invoice emails must include a summary of all the required details.

An invoice email is an abstract of the invoice document to be attached.

The email subject line and the body should have that hints. Composing this email after creating the invoice PDF will help to write it effectively.

The list below shows the information the email must include.

• Begin with an appreciation for the work experience and business relationship you earned by the phase of work.
• Give a short note about the work completion.
• Highlight the value additions you provided outside of the agreement.
• Mention the amount to pay in a single place politely.
• Share the mode of payment and the related payment link or id (for example, PayPal account) to make it quickly.
• Add a remark about the previous pending due, if any. Add the past-due aging details.
• If the payment is made via international money transfer, including all possible information like SWIFT code, etc.

The mail subject line is a critical hook that must be designed professionally.

The invoice email subject must be like [client_name] - [project] - Invoice [sequence_number]. Addressing the client name in the mail subject will increase the success rate.

1. Since this relates to payment, do not trip spam filters.
2. Use the same subject format repeatedly. Let the client get accustomed to it.

Write a simple but complete email

The invoice-sending moment becomes a bottleneck rarely. A thin invoice cover email will reduce this bottleneck and smoothen the payment. If an invoice email is simple and covers all the data required to convey, it will be readable and helpful for the client.

This list of advantages proves the invoice email should be simple and lightweight. In this TikTok era, nobody has time to read large emails. Our attention span is guaranteed for seconds only. So, your invoice email must be as tiny as possible.

• It eases the client's effort to recollect the work context and the payment history.
• It prompts the payment with minimal words.
• It is an easy reminder that helps clients who want to pay on time.
• The short invoice cover letter is a reference for backtracking the payment conversation.
• Minimal words reduce misinterpretations and payment delays.

The client should feel comfortable

When composing the invoice email, you should include all the critical information the client requires to proceed with payment. The invoice document attached may be elaborated to meet the audit purposes. The client will not feel comfortable reading the entire invoice document end to end.

For small projects, clients are in context and capable of getting things from your invoice email. So, the client prefers to know the payment information to proceed forward. Following are the prime details that must be shared via an invoice email.

• Work description - A short note on the completed work for which the payment is asked.
• Payment amount - A single-place occurrence of amount specification with currency.
• Account details - A mode of payment and related information or links to make the payment. If you are collecting the payment via an online gateway, share the ID or URL without any mistakes.

Shortness and relaxed tone will make the client comfortable. Urgency and strictness will annoy your client. Giving a reasonable time to let them respond to the invoice leads to a good business relationship. So, writing a practical and straightforward email will allow the client to respond coolly.

Invoice reminder and tracker mechanisms

Submitting invoices and their follow-ups should be on time. Timeliness leads to invoices being paid without fail or delay. You should have good time management skills as a freelancer. Why don't we depend on tools that automate sending friendly reminders to clients?

When you get into the online invoicing tools, it helps to create, schedule and keep a sequence of invoices sent or drafted for different clients. With this support, tracking and automating sending invoice reminders is easy. Tools ease invoice management and make the invoicing process an easy one.

Email follow-up timing and tone

When the client gives no response to the invoice submitted, you can send follow-up emails. But, there should be sufficient time intervals between the invoice submitted and the follow-up emails. If you keep sending payment reminders often, it will annoy your clients. Remember that email is a tool to record your communications. Doing the reminder and collection at the right time will avoid payment-related disputes.

If you have an online call with your client for project purposes, at the end of the meeting, ask for a minute and politely remind them about the payment. Also, when you do that, it should be one on one. Then, you can send an email and emphasize the request.

One or two follow-up emails are acceptable. Still no response, then you can take action as per the payment terms and conditions agreed upon at the time of signing the freelance contract.

Invoice automation

In this AI world, there is nothing wrong with leveraging machine automation to your advantage. By having a mechanism to automate the invoice-sending process, you can get all your invoices paid on time. It is a good practice to avoid late payments by your clients.

If you accept small jobs that run for a few hours, then in a given month, you will have many invoices to be sent. There will be multiple invoices for different clients. In that scenario, a tool to track, manage, and send automated reminders is a significant relief.

Generating and sending an invoice email is a laborious administrative job. With suitable tools, we can resolve this problem. There are tools available online to automate invoice sending and billing. You only need to pick the right one for your use case scenario. Invoice automation tools have the following advantages.

• It reduces human labor and saves time put on other freelancing priorities.
• It achieves jobs with machine perfection and on time.
• It is error-free compared to manual invoicing results.

Invoice email template

Working with standard email templates helps to present yourself in a professional format. Templates have pre-designed placeholders to enter the dynamics and prepare invoice email content in seconds. We have seen what a professional invoice email must have. Based on those inputs, the following two templates are designed and shared. It is free for your use.

Template 1

Hi [client_name],

This is to submit the invoice [unique_id] for the [service_name] completed. It was great working with you.

The payment is [amount][currency] having due on [invoice_due_date]

Please find the invoice attached for my account details and kindly proceed with the payment.

Regards,

[invoice_sender_name]

Template 2

Hi [client_name],

This is to submit the invoice [unique_id] for the [service_name] completed and delivered.

The amount is [amount][currency] having due on [invoice_due_date]

You may choose either of the following options to proceed with payment.

(1) [payment_provider] id is [business_email_address].

(2) Pay via this form [payment link].

Please find the invoice attached for more details. Feel free to contact me if you face any difficulties.

Regards,

[invoice_sender_name]

Conclusion

The invoice email templates are designed in correlation with the tips discussed. You may find it minimal, and that is intentional. They are focused on having the below list of factors.

• A clear subject line with project/phase details and invoice number.
• Addressing clients socially.
• Invoice mail body with payment links and work context.
• A gentle closure at the end after requesting payment.
• Convey best regards with your identity for brand impression.
• On the whole, minimalism.

Written by Vincy on April 5, 2023