Designing A High-Impact Invoice

If you’re struggling with late payments, you may be wondering what is causing it. There are a lot of different factors that can lead to customers paying late, but one of the things you might not think of is your invoices. It’s surprising, but many businesses make fundamental errors in their invoicing that cause problems down the line. And since invoicing on time is a crucial part of credit control, it’s important to get it right. So today we’re going to go over what needs to be included in your invoices.

So What Should My Invoice Include?

A surprising amount of information! But here are the absolute essentials that need to be on every invoice you send out:

Address the invoice to the most relevant person: Step 1, always make sure you have the right, relevant person’s details to send the invoices to. Sometimes this may be the person you are directly working with, but often it will be someone within their accounting team. This is all the more important when dealing with a large business, where the person you’re speaking with likely won’t be in charge of paying you. The easy way to do this is to ask who to address invoices to when you onboard new clients.

Quote reference numbers: Any reference numbers relevant to the transaction should be included for both your records and your customer’s. They will help keep a clear paper trail for each and every transaction, which can be followed up if needed for chasing or auditing. These reference numbers should also be quoted on any following correspondence relating to the payment of this specific invoice.

Provide a specific payment date: Surprisingly, many businesses fail to state the exact date that the payment must be received by. This is an important step, and will reduce the chances of your customers missing the deadline for payment.

Provide a description of the product or service provided: Any invoice should include a description of the product or service that you have provided. Try to be as detailed with this as possible, so that there can be no doubt about what the customer is being billed for. If a specific person made the purchase and isn’t the person the invoice is addressed to, include their name here. Make sure you don’t add on any undiscussed fees, as this could lead to disputes and stop your invoice from being paid on time.

Clearly state payment terms: Always, and we mean always include your credit terms in a visible position on the invoice. Somewhere the client can clearly see and that cannot be missed. This is one of the most important pieces of information on your invoice. If they aren’t easy to see, your customer may put it to the bottom of their payment pile thinking it wasn’t urgent.

Provide an IBAN number: If you are invoicing a client outside of the UK, you’ll need to give them your IBAN and BIC code. These numbers are what enables them to make payment to you from abroad with no delays. If you have customers outside the UK, then it’s a good idea to include them on all of your invoices so that they’re not missed off.

Give details of all acceptable payment methods: Make it as easy as possible for your customers to pay you. Include all of your acceptable payment methods on your invoice. If you’re able, give customers a few different options, being clear about how to pay via each and what any details they might need. This way you’re pre-empting excuses.

Provide contact details: You also need to clearly provide your own contact details. More specifically, the details of your accounting team, or whoever manages the payments in and out of your business. In the event of a dispute, this helps your customer raise the dispute with the right people sooner, so you can get to work on resolving it quickly.

Make reference to your late payment procedure: This is a good tactic to make sure that every customer is aware of your late payment procedure from day 1. State it clearly at the bottom of your invoice, so that they know what next steps will be if they don’t pay on time. Sometimes these policies can be quite lengthy, so you can put a one-line summary and then point them towards your online Terms and Conditions instead.

Say thank you: Let’s not forget our manners! It’s always nice to say thank you, as it improves customer relationships, shows that you appreciate their business and can actually lead to further sales.

All of these things come together to create a high-impact invoice that improves the chances of your invoice being paid. If late payment is affecting your cash flow, you’re spending too much time chasing late payments or you don’t have the resource in house, you can always outsource it. At Debtcol, we provide specialist debt collection and credit control services to help you reduce late payments permanently. If you’d like to find out more, just get in touch with the team today to book a free, no obligation consultation.