Everything You Need To Know About Invoicing

<v ->Invoicing.</v> Invoicing your clients is a super important part of your SEO business. You need to make sure you stay on top of things and know what clients have paid and which ones haven’t. I remember when I first started Click Sluice, I was really bad at chasing unpaid invoices. For some reason, I always had the impression, that clients would pay for the work I was implementing. Some clients didn’t pay on time, and I never really worried about it. I always kept working away in the background, investing time and securing embark links. Only to find out that some clients would never ever pay. They would literally just disappear overnight.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t too happy about this, and I vowed to change things going forward. I don’t tell you this to scare you, but I tell you this to make sure you’re aware, of just how important invoicing is. The good news, is that you can learn from my mistakes, and avoid making the same mistakes I did, when I first started out. So first things first. Always get paid upfront before you start any SEO work. It sounds very simple and straightforward but so many people at the start, me included, don’t do this. If your client isn’t willing to pay you upfront, then just move on.

As I can almost guarantee you, that going forward, this client is going to be a headache. Getting paid upfront is a standard in this industry. So what we’re asking isn’t out of the ordinary too. When it comes to getting paid and sending invoices, you have quite a few options. You can literally make your own invoice, using Microsoft Word, or even use a Google Doc template. And literally just send that to the client, request payment directly into your bank account, via a bank transfer. The benefit of this method, is that it’s completely free and requires literally zero setup. So it’s a great starting place for most people starting off.

Sending invoices manually is actually what I did when I first started off, for about three months in total. If you do opt to send your invoices manually, then just be sure to set a reminder in your calendar, to make sure you don’t forget to send out any invoices to clients. If you’re not really fond of sending your invoices manually, and your office design is a bit more professional, and maybe running on a tight budget, then this will be the perfect solution for you. Wave apps. Wave apps is completely free, there’s no membership fees or anything like that. It’s completely free to send invoices. You can customize them, upload your logo and so on.

Customers pay online when using the wave apps, which makes it more convenient for clients as well. So there’s no bank transfer or nothing like that. Wave apps do charge 2.9% of the transaction as a fee for the service, which isn’t too bad as a actual software itself, is completely free. Wave apps, also has the ability to set recurring invoices. So you can set up a invoice once, and then set the frequency to once a month. And every month, on the day you specify, an invoice will automatically get sent to the client. Which is great as it saves you tons of time. So if you’re looking more for a automated solution, then you should definitely check out wave apps.

So just to confirm as well, wave apps is a website that have different tools underneath it. Wave invoicing is actually the one you want, and it’s the one you can see on my screen now. So, if you Google Wave apps, and then go to products, you can find a wave invoicing, or you can just Google wave invoicing, and you’ll find the page I have up on my screen now. And lastly, another solution you can use, is simply PayPal. There isn’t any right or wrong invoicing solution, it all comes down to preference. The main thing you need to bear in mind, and take into consideration, is that you want to ensure you get paid upfront, before carrying out any SEO work.

And lastly, just a pro tip as well, ask clients to set up a direct debit. This way you won’t have to worry about chasing invoices every single month, as the money will automatically leave the clients’ account and get transferred to yours. We actually use this method at the agency and it’s helped us tremendously over the last two years. SEO is a ongoing activity, and most clients are on monthly retainers, which rarely change in price. So it makes sense for clients to set up a direct debit, as it saves them time, manually paying invoices every single month. So now we’ve gone through a few different solutions, it’s time for you to pick which one suits you the most.

And remember, there’s no right or wrong solution, it all comes down to preference.