How to Make Professional Invoices

It’s always a good idea to put your best foot forward. Using a good-looking, professional invoice is a great way to do just that—and it can make or break a customer’s experience. To ensure you’re leaving the right impression on your customers, make sure your invoices aren’t merely an afterthought, but something you’re proud to send them once business has concluded.

What Makes a Good-Looking Invoice

Have you ever received an invoice and marveled at its design? An invoice is your last point of contact with a customer, and the way you handle them says a lot about your small business. To make a dazzling invoice that shows you care about all aspects of your business. You should ask yourself a few questions about your invoice’s design. 

Is Your Invoice Readable?

When customers view your invoice, they should be able to easily scan and understand its contents. If your invoice uses a stylized and/or hard-to-read font, your customers may struggle to interpret what you’ve written. Be certain to use a legible font and leave enough space between your design elements to make the invoice intuitive and easy to read.

Does Your Brand Shine Through?

Because your invoice is the final interaction you’ll have with a customer, it’s important to give them a little reminder of who you are and what you’re all about. Find ways to bring your small business’s personality into your invoice—whether that’s through a quippy comment in the footer or the included icons and design elements.

Is the Invoice’s Design Overly Complicated?

When it comes to your invoice’s design, it’s important to keep things simple. Avoid overcomplication by excluding any unnecessary elements, like thank-you notes. If you want to write your customers a nice message, consider doing it separately or limiting it to a single line.

While answering these questions is important to help you and your small business create an easy-to-understand, eye-pleasing invoice, there’s more to a good invoice than looks.

Items to Include in a Professional Invoice

When building or designing an invoice for your small business, you need to consider more than its appearance. A well-made professional invoice will have certain items listed out for the customer to notice or review. To make your invoices as useful—both to you and your customers—as possible, be sure to include the following:

Customer and Business Information

Be sure to include the name, address, and phone number of your business, as well as your customer’s information.

Create professional looking invoices

Invoice Number

Invoice numbers are incredibly important to include on your invoices. Not only are these numbers useful for bookkeeping purposes, they also add an extra level of professionalism. Consider starting your invoice numbers in the hundreds. If you’re a particularly new business—think of them like check numbers in a checkbook.

Line Items

Line items, or product and service details, are key components to any professional invoice. This section is where you detail what your customers purchased, the services you provided, and all related pricing details. 

Sales Tax and Total

Place a reserved section near the bottom of your invoice for the sales tax, if applicable, and total amount being charged to your customer. Be sure you’ve calculated the correct amount based on your state’s tax laws. 

Invoices Made Simple

If these design and content suggestions seem a little overwhelming, don’t worry. There are many free invoice templates available online. You can choose one that best fits your business and plug in the relevant information. However, there may be a better solution to your invoice needs.

If you want to make professional invoices a breeze, Lendio has a number of free services and solutions for your business—including custom invoices. Whatever option you choose, make certain you put your best foot forward along every step of your customers’ experience and wow them into repeat business.