Invoicing & clients
Who owes you, how long they have owed it, and who is about to. For freelancers and small studios billing by project or by hour, who need the chasing to be obvious rather than remembered.
Not sure what to charge in the first place? The free freelance rate calculator works back from the income you want to keep to an hourly rate, a day rate and a retainer.
The templates side by side
Every one works in Excel and Google Sheets. "You type into" counts the tabs where your numbers go; "calculated for you" counts the tabs that need no typing at all, and "set up once" the tabs you fill in at the start.
| Template | Tabs | You type into | Calculated for you | Set up once | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business Bookkeeping (Income/Expense) | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | $4.79 |
| 1099 / Schedule C Self-Employed Tax Spreadsheet | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | $3.80 |
| S-Corp Reasonable Salary & Distribution Optimizer (US) | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | $8.69 |
| Mileage Tracker | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | $2.81 |
| Business Budget Spreadsheet | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | $3.29 |
| Profit & Loss Statement Generator | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | $3.80 |
| Pricing Calculator | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | $4.49 |
| Inventory Tracker | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | $2.69 |
| Employee Timesheet | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | $3.29 |
| Invoice Tracker & Generator | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | $2.99 |
| Cash Flow Spreadsheet | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | $3.29 |
| Employee Attendance and PTO Tracker | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | $3.29 |
| Client Tracker & CRM | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | $5.69 |
| Business Expense Tracker | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | $1.79 |
| Product Profit Tracker | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | $2.69 |
Which template do I need?
If money is going out on time and coming in late, the problem is usually visibility rather than effort. Every invoice from sent to paid shows who owes you and how overdue they are.
Clients, follow-ups and deals in one place catches the work that never got quoted. Buying the two together is the usual combination, because the invoice that never got sent and the lead that never got chased are the same problem.
What an invoice needs to say
An invoice gets paid faster when the client has nothing to ask. Give it a unique number, the date, your business name and contact, the client's name, what you did, the amount, and a due date written as a date. "Net 30" means payment is due 30 days after the invoice date, which some clients read loosely; "Due 14 November" is harder to misread.
Follow up on the day after the due date, not a month later. A short, polite note with the invoice attached again is routine for the client's accounts team and keeps you out of the pile that waits.
Pricing the work in the first place? The free freelance rate calculator works back from the income you need to an hourly rate.