Freelance Writing

Managing Invoices and Payments as a Freelance Writer

As a freelance writer you are in charge of sending invoices and collecting payments. All of this may sound easy enough, but as your client list grows you will find this to be quite confusing if you are not organized 100 percent of the time. This is not to say that managing invoices and payments is so difficult that you will stumble time after time. But you definitely need to know that it will take time to setup a system, and that you will need to stay on top of things day in and day out.

Sending invoices is a big part of my freelance writing career. Some clients need an invoice for every job I complete, and others send the money without any type of documentation. This is something you will need to hash out with each client. I like dealing with invoices because it helps to keep me organized, and it shows the client exactly what I did and how much I owe.

Once you send an invoice you need to be prepared for the real fun. This is when you will either receive the money you are owed, or find that the client is late. If you have waited too long you will need to get back in touch with the client, and in many cases resend the invoice. You are going to run into clients that are slow when it comes to paying. This does not mean you are going to get scammed, but it does mean that a reminder or two is more than necessary if you want to get paid soon enough.

Managing invoices and payments is an important task of any freelance writer. If you want to be a success you need to have a system for managing this part of your career. Fortunately, once you settle in you should not have any issues sending invoices and receiving payments on a regular basis.