So you’ve finally found someone that wants to purchase some of your images. Cool! But now what? Well, legally, you’re required to have invoices for these types of things to report some extra income that you’ve made through the year. But if you ask most budding photographers how to write an invoice, they’d be totally perplexed.
Here’s how to do the most simple of business tasks as you become a full-fledged professional photographer or even a semi-pro.
The Important Elements
An invoice needs specific things in it. For example, have you ever looked at a bill that you’ve received in the mail? It has specifics of what you’re paying for.
Below is a sample invoice that we’ve put together based on our actual invoices when folks license images from us or buy them.
Since we’re a more established company, we’ve got out logo on top and on the top right, we’ve got our contact info.
Then you want to add the Date of Invoice specifically to tell the client what date it is being sent.
Next, add their name address and more contact information.
After this, you always want to include an invoice number. The reason for this is due to references in a system if you’re dealing with a bigger company or later on for taxes or court needs. Usually, we do the date and a number after it depending on how many we’re sending out each day.
Then we include what we’re charging for, the price and more instructions.
That’s it. This is how you’ll ensure that you and your company get paid in the future. You’ll want to include it in the contract for a wedding, portraits, headshot sessions, events, etc.
Some photographers include things like, “Please pay within 30 days.” which is called NET 30. But it varies.