How to create and send your first invoice

An invoice is a request for payment that also serves as an accounting record. At minimum it needs: the word “Invoice”, a unique number, the date, who is billing whom, what is being charged for, the amount with tax shown separately, the payment terms and the payment details. Miss one of those and you give the client a reason to delay.

Everything else — a logo, a thank-you note — is optional. What genuinely changes how fast you are paid is clarity about the amount, the due date and how to pay.

What goes on the invoice

• A unique invoice number. Sequential, with no gaps — this is what accountants and tax authorities look at first.
• Issue date, and a due date as an actual date rather than “net 14”. People act on dates, not on arithmetic.
• Your details: legal name, address, tax or VAT number if you have one.
• The client’s details, spelled exactly as in the contract. A wrong legal name is a legitimate reason for their finance team to reject it.
• Line items: what was delivered, quantity, rate, amount. One line per deliverable beats a single lump sum.
• Subtotal, tax as its own line, total. Never fold tax silently into the total.
• Payment details — bank account or payment link — and any reference the client needs to include.

The steps

1. Agree the amount and terms in writing before the work starts, so the invoice contains no surprises.
2. Pick a numbering scheme and stick to it — 2026-001, 2026-002. Restart the sequence each year if you like, but never reuse a number.
3. Fill in the line items in the client’s language, matching the wording of the contract or purchase order.
4. Add tax correctly for your jurisdiction and the client’s. Cross-border rules differ, and this is the line most often wrong.
5. Set the due date and state the late-payment terms if you intend to apply them.
6. Export as PDF and send it to the person who actually processes payments, not only to your day-to-day contact.
7. Record the invoice as sent, and set a reminder for a few days before the due date.

Ask, once, who handles payments and whether they need a purchase-order number. An invoice missing a PO number is often silently parked until someone chases it.

Getting paid faster

• Invoice immediately after delivery. Every day you wait is a day added to the end.
• Make the total unmissable — large, at the top or bottom, not buried in a table.
• Offer the payment method the client already uses; an unusual one adds a step and a delay.
• Follow up on the due date itself, politely and in the same email thread. Most late payments are not refusals, they are oversights.
• Keep a record of what is unpaid and how overdue it is. A list you can see beats memory.

Doing it in Ettex

Ettex Invoices covers the routine part: line items, statuses, PDF export, duplicating last month’s invoice for a recurring client, and a view of what is still unpaid. Amounts use the workspace currency, so the same setting applies across invoices, bookkeeping and the CRM.