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When invoicing, we believe simplest is best, but we know that sometimes certain invoices require more information to better bill your client.

That's why we have implemented a Basic Form and Advanced Form to our billing templates, whether you’re invoicing, providing a quote, or issuing a receipt with Invoice Home.

There’s a lot of things that go into making an invoice, from contact information of the billed party, to taxes and organizational details. If you’re contemplating what information should be included, click here to learn more about how to fill out your invoice.

The Advanced Form allows you to provide more context, both for your client and for your own organization and filing. There's several details on the Advanced Form that are not featured on the Basic Form, such as the:

• “Ship To” address box which is for when you are shipping to a different address than the one you are billing to.
• Due date that lets you assign a date for when you expect to receive payment.
• Purchase order number that is used to match a purchase order document to an invoice.
• Quantity which allows you to reflect how many times one item was purchased.
• Unit Price which shows the price of one item, if the item is purchased more than once.

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Offering a discount is a simple way to increase customer satisfaction and boost your overall sales by incentivizing new purchases.

You can offer a discount to your regular clients who make frequent purchases, as a part of a special seasonal or holiday offer, or as a reward for when a customer refers their family or friends.

When you are invoicing your clients, applying a discount may seem like more work for you but Invoice Home calculates this discount for you and applies it to your invoice with just a few clicks.

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If you’ve been using Invoice Home to make your invoices for a while, or you offer your customers a lot of products or services, you may need an easy way to clean up your items list.

That’s why we added the archive items function!

Before You Send

Before you send an invoice (and before you even do the work), it’s important that you and your customer are on the same page. You don’t want to surprise them by asking for a payment amount that they weren’t aware of.

Even if you are working without a formal contract, you should always communicate and have your customer agree to some preliminary payment terms. Once you and the customer have reached an agreement, send a services agreement before undertaking the project. It sounds intimidating, but don’t worry. You don’t need a lawyer for this. There are plenty of templates out there for you to use.

This agreement should detail a final price, payment due dates, and any late fees should a customer pay after the due date. When the customer signs this agreement, you have proof that they have agreed to all terms and conditions of the transaction. This also serves as a resource that you can refer back to if a price or payment dispute with your customer arises.

Along with this, it is also important to inform your clients that they will be receiving emails from an email address ending in @invoicehome.com. When sending an email through our system, the email comes from a placeholder email address ending in "@invoicehome.com." For example, user @invoicehome.com. This is because Invoice Home cannot send an email from your personal email address.

Creating and Sending Your Invoice

Once you’ve completed the work, it’s time to create your invoice for your customer. Don’t worry, we’ve already put together a guide on creating your first invoice. Invoice Home makes creating an invoice easy, so head to our invoice generator and get started!

Your terms are agreed upon, the work is done, and the invoice is created. Awesome! Now let’s get you paid. Typically, it’s good practice to send an invoice to your customer immediately after delivering the final product. This will make your customer less likely to forget to pay and will make it less likely that you’ll need to "chase" the invoice.

With Invoice Home, you have the option to download your invoice and send it from your personal email account or print it. We made it easy to send emails right from Invoice Home with a simple 5-step process! Here’s how.

How to Email Your Invoice

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1. Sign in to Invoice Home here.

When invoicing and billing your client it is essential that you have everything in one place. When you create an invoice on Invoice Home, the customer is automatically saved in our system under the “My Customers” tab.

Using “My Customers” is a helpful way to stay organized and be more efficient when billing and invoicing your clients.

Want to know more about this feature? We’ve outlined how to use the “My Customers” tab below.

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In an ideal world, clients would pay the entire invoice in one go. However, sometimes that just isn't possible. Sometimes you need to add partial payments!

Your invoice may be for a large sum, you may request deposits before starting work, or your clients may request a special payment plan.

Regardless, Invoice Home has you covered. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to add partial payments to your invoices.

When your customer pays in cash, issue a cash receipt. Create and send these smaller, simpler receipts whenever you receive a payment from your customers. Once you set your invoice as paid, Invoice Home will automatically issue a cash receipt.

Send this auto-generated receipt to your customers to confirm you’ve marked their invoice as paid. And for our users on the free plan, don’t worry! This auto-generated cash receipt won’t count towards your monthly limit.

Additionally, create a cash receipt, regardless of how your customer pays. You can issue this receipt if your customer pays with card, check, money order, or other and be able to enter in your custom form of payment. The payment method will then be reflected on the receipt. This can include options such as bank transfer and online payment.

Whenever an invoice is marked as paid, your receipt will be automatically generated for you to download for your records!

All you have to do is click “Download Cash Receipt!” Here’s how:

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Sending your customer an estimate is a great way to ensure both you and your client are aware of the payment required for your services or product. Estimates should be sent during early discussions with a potential customer to discuss each party’s expectations and talk through pricing before anything is finalized.

Once you have sent the estimate and done the job or delivered your product, it is now time to bill your client by sending them an invoice. With Invoice Home, you can convert your estimate into an invoice in 5 simple steps.

If you would like to save a copy of the estimate before you convert it, click here to see how.

Now, let's convert your estimate into an invoice.

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Keeping your invoices and billing documents organized is a key element to keeping your business organized. For best business practices, it is vital to be able to group documents together from the last month, last quarter, or last year all together in a statement.

Looking to create a statement? Create statements with Invoice Home by using our “My Reports” feature in 5 simple steps.

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Life can be complicated, and so can taxes.

We get it. Sometimes you need to add a tax to just a single item on the invoice. Sometimes, you need to add two taxes. And sometimes...you need to add compounded taxes.

Don’t worry, with Invoice Home you can do it all in a snap.

Here’s how!