What Does a Professional Invoice Template Look Like?

Invoices are the bread and butter of every business. But what does a professional invoice look like? Which of its elements hold the most meaning for your company, and why? 

Well, you’ve come to the right place to find answers. In this article, we’ll go over each aspect of a professional email template, explain its use and meaning, and teach you how to leverage them to get paid earlier and build better, long-lasting relationships with your clients. 

But before we get into all that, let’s take a step back…

Why are Professional Invoices important?

Imagine a situation like this: You’ve finally wrapped up a project, sent the invoice, and… nothing. You wait ten, thirty, sixty, maybe even ninety days, and yet no payment is in sight. Instead, all you receive are more and more questions regarding your invoice and requested amendments. What’s going on?

Aside from shady customers, the case may be that you need to rethink your approach to invoicing. Professional invoices are supposed to be easily legible and only mention the necessary transactional and legal details to ensure no problems arise. This allows you to complete your projects and sales with minimal hassle and get paid as quickly as possible. 

The question is, what details should you include to create a professional invoice?

What to Include on a Professional Invoice

There are several vital pieces of information each professional invoice needs to include. To help you double-check your existing invoices for potential faults, we’ll detail each necessary aspect below, as well as highlight it in the following image. 

1. Invoice Number & Name:

Each invoice must include a unique identification number. Typically, this combines the year and the invoice’s number (i.e., 2023001).

Furthermore, depending on the customer’s country of origin, you may need to use a different name for the invoice according to local legislation. For example, VAT invoice in the UK or tax invoice in Australia and New Zealand.

2. Your Business Information:

All your invoices need to include your business information, including the name, address, contact information, and identification number of your company.

3. Customer’s Business Information:

Similarly, as in the previous step, you’ll want to include the name, address, contact information, and identification number of your customer’s company.

Furthermore, depending on the customer, you may need to include a TIN (tax identification number). This is particularly relevant for non-profit and child-care service industries.

4. Issue & Delivery Date:

For legal and taxation purposes, each invoice must include when it was issued and delivered.

5. Logo, Stamp, and/or Signature:

A professional invoice should also include a visual confirmation of your (the sender’s) identity, either in the form of a logo, stamp, or signature. This gives your invoices more weight and makes you look more trustworthy as a professional. A logo especially helps customers easily differentiate your invoices at a glance.

6. List of Services or Products Delivered:

To help your customers rest easy knowing that you’re not scamming them, you should include a list of all products or services provided, their amount, price per unit, and total price per item. You can also add a description underneath each item to make the invoice (and price) as clear as possible.

7. Total Price:

Your invoice should include the total price at the bottom of the page and any taxes or extra costs the customer needs to pay.

8. Fine Print / Boilerplate:

Every professional invoice template has a space for your business boilerplate / fine print to list your Terms & Conditions. This typically includes the number of days a customer has to pay, accepted payment methods, and potential penalties and late fees.
This is vital because if you do not state these details explicitly, your customers may take weeks, if not months, to pay you, and you’d have no legal ground to stand on.

9. Thank-You Box:

At the bottom of your invoice, there’s space you can attach a small “thank you”. On top of being a nice customer service gesture, this provides a unique branding opportunity where you can address your clientele to ensure your company stays on their mind for a long time. 

How to design a Professional Invoice

Often, companies and small freelance businesses don’t tend to worry about design and just opt for a standard, blank invoice template. And while there’s nothing wrong with that inherently, it means you forego the unique branding opportunity well-designed invoices can provide. 

Branding has a noticeable effect on sales, and even professional-looking invoices can help transform one-off customers into long-term clients. Especially so if you operate in the commercial sphere, where your invoices might be seen by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people every month.

“But how do I design a professional AND visually engaging branded invoice?”, you may ask. Well, as it turns out, quite easily. Consider these three steps to designing invoices:

1. Use a Logo:

We’ve touched on this in the previous section, but to reiterate, using a logo on your invoices is a fantastic way of easily setting yourself apart from the competition. 

2. Incorporate Company Colors:

Think about your website, e-shop, or ads. Ideally, you should be using the same colors repeatedly to make your customers associate them with your business. Why not double down on your efforts and design your invoices in your company colors?

3. Speak To Your Clientele in the Thank-You Box:

Each business should have a specific target customer in mind. These people have a unique way of speaking, which gives you the perfect opportunity to build a relationship with them even in your invoice’s thank-you box.

There are also a number of other design basics you should keep in mind when creating your business invoice. These include: 

• Consider the Structure of the Invoice:
  Most customers will do with a digital email invoice. But for the clients who may want to print out a physical copy, you’ll want to work within the standard margins of an 8.5 x 11” page. Also, make sure to leave enough room for all the necessary information.
  

• Make the Invoice Easy to Read:
  Readability is a key aspect of every invoice. Keep this in mind while designing, and try to work clear invoice layouts, like grids.
  

• Highlight the Most Important Information:
  To further improve your invoice legibility, you can use different sizes and colors to differentiate the most important information, like deadlines and total prices. 
  

But thankfully, you don’t need to worry about these aspects with Billdu’s free invoice templates. Each comes in a variety of formats, is easily customizable with logos and colors, and can be downloaded in Word, Excel, PDF, or Google Docs.

Final thoughts on Professional Invoice Design

Throughout this article, we’ve explored the importance of professional business invoices and how to design them. As we’ve explained, each one of your invoices offers a unique opportunity to build rapport with your clients, strengthen your company branding, and solidify your standing as a professional.

Furthermore, by including all necessary information on your business invoices in a clear and intuitive way, you can ensure you always get paid on time. And if not, you at least have a legal leg to stand on to persuade non-payers to give you what’s yours. 

And you can do all of this with our free online invoice generator. You don’t even need to sign up for one our free 30-day trial! But as you’ll find Billdu is much more than just an invoice maker. So, why not power up all your financial documents with options like the free profit and loss template and see how we can help your small business grow?

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