How To Invoice As An Online Worker

Learning how to invoice or to request for payment is one of the things online workers NEED to know if they want to get their salaries on time. Invoicing not only shows you’re a professional but also helps you keep track of your finances.

But before we get into hows of invoicing, let’s make things clear on what an invoice really is.

According to the Collins English Dictionary, an invoice is a document that lists down the goods and services that have been supplied. An invoice indicates how much money needs to be paid for the goods or services that you provide.

An invoice is completely different from a receipt. A receipt is a proof or acknowledgment that goods/services or payment has been received. Once you receive your payment, you can send your client a receipt as proof that you have received the money.

So ideally, each invoice should have a matching receipt.

When it comes to computing for taxes, what an accountant or bookkeeper would need mainly are your receipts, not the invoices. That’s because the invoices mainly serve as reminders while receipts are proof of payment received. But an invoice is still helpful because it’s a record of notes. If you forget to remind your client to pay, there’s a possibility they’ll also forget to pay.

There’s really no standard template or form for invoicing. In most cases, a simple email reminder would do. But if you want to keep track of payments, you can use a Word template. You can also use Google Docs or any invoicing software/app to send your clients invoices.

So what does a basic invoice contain? In most cases, all you would need is:

your name,
description of the goods or services you’ve provided,
the duration of work done,
the amount owed to you, and
when and how the invoice should be paid.

So for online workers, an invoice is given to a client AFTER service has been provided. It’s a reminder that the work has been done and it needs to be paid.

To make things even easier, you can use the invoicing function within your Onlinejobs.ph EasyPay account. This would allow you to keep track of payments and receipts all from one site.

Register for an Onlinejobs.ph account. Once you have an account, log in to your profile. Once you’re in your profile, you should see this on your profile page:

Once you click on the “Create An Invoice” tab, it will take you to your invoice page. It shows:

the record of the invoices you have sent,
who you sent the invoice to,
how they will pay you, and
how much you’re expecting.

The status is set to “pending” by default. You can change this to ‘paid’ once the invoice you’ve received payment.
To create a new invoice, you just click on “Create New Invoice”.

Once you click on it, it will take you to a new page. You can create your new invoice here simply by putting in all the details needed.

You can create different templates according to your needs. For every new template, just click on the drop down box beside “My Templates” and click on “Create New template”. Make sure to label your templates to make it easier for you to identify.

When you are done, you can send the invoice directly or download it as a PDF so you can email it as an attachment. You can also save the information in the invoice as a template to help save time when you want to create more invoices in the future.

Invoicing Best Practices

Be detailed in listing what products or services your employer/client is paying for. If you are being paid by the hour, indicate how many hours you have worked and how much your salary is per hour.
Have a regular schedule for sending your invoices. If you send your invoice the same day every month or week, it would make it easier for the employer to prepare your salary early.
Give your client a reasonable deadline to pay your invoice. Most business owners pay their invoices right away. But for some businesses, it might take longer because they have to process their expenses through their accountants, bookkeepers or administrators.
The payment system as well as when the salary is deposited can affect how quickly you’ll receive your payment. So take banking holidays and processing time into consideration when setting a payment due date for your invoice.

By having this invoicing system in place, you should have no worries with keeping track of your payments, especially if you plan to register and pay taxes.

If there are any other topics about online work you want us to talk about, leave a comment! If we love it, we may include it in our blog!