Invoicing

The invoice is the point where a sale starts turning into cash. A slow or unclear one is among the most avoidable reasons a won deal takes months to collect. A missing purchase order number or a vague line item can leave an invoice sitting in a customer's approval queue for weeks. Clear invoicing removes the excuses: amount, terms and due date are not open to interpretation.

• Send the invoice when the work is delivered or the contract starts, not at the end of the month.
• Put everything the customer's finance team needs on it, such as the purchase order number, a named contact and exact terms.
• State the due date as a date, not as a number of days, so there is nothing to interpret.
• Schedule reminders for a few days before and after the due date, so chasing does not depend on someone remembering.
• Match payments against the bank account every week, so a missed payment is noticed early.

An invoice is the document that asks for payment. It states who is billing whom, what was delivered, the amount, the tax and the date by which it must be paid. Invoicing is everything around it: deciding when to bill, producing the document, sending it, chasing it and matching the payment when it arrives. The exact contents a valid invoice needs vary by country, so check the local rules for numbering and tax details.

• Waiting to invoice until a batch is ready, which delays cash for no reason.
• Sending invoices to a general address instead of the person who approves payment.