What does a Professional Invoice Template look like to You?
One thing we understand is that, for many small businesses, the look and feel of the invoice is very important. Let’s face it – sometimes we do judge a book by its cover. An invoice can tell a bit about your company – are you expensive and fancy? Serious and formal? A little funky? Whatever it is, pretty much everyone we meet wants to ensure their invoice reflects an ‘air of legitimacy’ – one thing the invoice should say is “hey, my business is real – take me seriously!”. You might be working from the kitchen table, but your customers don’t need to know. You want to look professional.
But, what does Professional mean to you? Pictures are worth a thousand words indeed. We’ve spent a lot of time with small businesses looking at their invoices and understanding their “invoice journey”. Did they start with a logo? A word template? An invoice from somebody else? Do they like their invoice? Why?
Today, in Billing Manager, we offer a choice from 5 professional invoice templates (professional? at least we think so, and hope you do too) plus you can add your own logo to the template. But is that good enough? I doubt it. But it’s a start.
As you can see below from the 3 examples - the differences are subtle – yet each has a distinct style and feel.
Logo is in a different place on this one -
Perhaps, the most ‘traditional’ looking invoice of all?
So, what next? What are the features that you would need to be able to create a professional invoice using Billing Manager? Would you want to…
- Choose the columns that appear on the invoice?
- Choose the font?
- Choose the font sizes?
- Choose the font colors?
- Manipulate the layout?
- Choose to hide some of the data from the invoice?
- Change the size or placement of your logo?
- Preview your customized invoice after each change?
What else would you want to do?
June 28, 2008 at 7:50 am
Need the ability to do the following:
Choose the columns that appear on the invoice
Manipulate the layout
Choose to hide some of the data from the invoice
Preview your customized invoice after each change
June 28, 2008 at 10:04 am
nannyc: Thanks for the feedback. The team has definitely considered this type of stuff. What’s the most important of the things on your list? Which ones make our invoices un-usable to you? All of them? Some of them? We did add a preview button when you’re in Edit mode so hope that helps. Are things like changing the fonts and font sizes important to you?
Heather
September 8, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I really really need to be able to add a Purchase Order field so I can input that data for my customers as their reference. I almost can’t believe this isn’t standard on here already. HELP! A column we can customize would be great too. (Country of Origin etc.)
Another option I would love is the ability to change font size and more layout options.
September 8, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Rebecca, Thanks for the feedback. We hear you loud and clear on the purchase order request. One work around I’d suggest for now is to use the Invoice Notes field to put in the number there. It’s not a perfect solution but one that will hopefully work.
Keyvan
October 8, 2008 at 11:37 am
[...] Here are some examples of what a professional invoice looks like. Billing Manager, a company with a history of helping [...]
November 17, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Nubby knows! Listen to this person and make some changes fast please!
July 13, 2009 at 10:45 am
How on earth are they gonna pay you if you leave your banking no. out?
July 16, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Is anyone else experiencing the font of the Windows Invoice template as to small?
November 17, 2009 at 2:32 pm
On a MAC too!! It is terrible!
August 18, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I have the same problem with the extremely small text when printed out. It is so difficult to read.
November 17, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I agree 100%!
November 17, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Features that would be greatly appreciated:
1 Choose the columns that appear on the invoice
2 Choose the font sizes
3 Manipulate the layout
Also changing the remittance page to be something useful. The layout is TERRIBLE!!!
November 17, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Thanks Denise for your comments! Some customization on invoices has been a requested feature. Curious, what other columns would you like to appear on the invoice? What ways do you want to change the layout?
Thanks for your input!
December 20, 2009 at 11:34 am
I seem to fall in step with most other comments. It would be great if we had more flexibility with fonts, colors and physical layout of the invoices. I would love to be able to select/customize the columns and headers.
Another thing that would be a great help to me would be a line at the top of the invoice detail area called “Name” or “Project” or something like that. This would give me a field within which I could write something like “2009 Brochure Design” or “Logo Development”. Then, if that title line was visible in the list of paid and unpaid invoices, users would know, at a glance which one of many invoices o the same client they were looking at. So, not only would we see invoice number and dollar amount, we would know what the invoice was for, at a glance.
Thanks
Marcia
December 26, 2009 at 8:52 am
i like the second design the best. i have recently been making my new company a little more professional by making sure nothing lets us down, and the invoice definitely was. i am looking for new design ideas to inspire me to make things much simpler and easier for me and i think number 2 will do this.
adam
December 29, 2009 at 8:03 am
I would like to pick a choice such as Miles, Food, tolls,room, other than just item.
January 7, 2010 at 11:46 pm
This is a very neat and good invoice to follow up. It’s just as simple as ABC but really need to fill in some emptyness… e.g: signature, name, chop and sign or etc. But seriously, nice invoice done here… keep it up
January 19, 2010 at 2:16 am
What I need in the invoice is some additional business information. F.e. the bank-account-number, VAT-number, Chamber-of-Commerce number.
The layouts are good, but some flexibility would be nice. In NL, f.e. the ZIP-code is placed before the City. The current places it US-style.
What I do NOT need, is the “Remittance Slip”, as that doesnt make sense with only Money-Transfer is allowed. The settings now allows for the “Remittance Slip” to not show in the generated PDF, but it does show in the mail, that is send to the customer, in the link to the invoice. So I would rather have either the mail-body customizable OR no Remittance Slip when the setting is Unchecked.
March 12, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I agree with the remittance slip issue. I am not using Billing Manager Merchant Services. So the remittance slip does not offer credit card sales. I think there is a bug because it continues to be attached to the invoice even with the box checked to do otherwise. Also, we invoice on the spot from the trucks with laptops and we collect upon completion.
The subject line on the email says ” You have received an invoice from WyattWorks due on xx/xx/xxxx. ” This does not work for COD businesses. So the techs have to edit each subject line before it goes out. Is it possible to make the subject line editable as a default?
February 23, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I use Billing Manager for my computer repair/technician business, and would love a place to put system information (make/model/serial/OS, etc.). Some sort of customizable fields to put in. Could be like that for auto repair to, for vehicle info.
March 30, 2010 at 1:25 pm
For European customers
1) we absolutely need to include our banking information on the invoice — this is standard practice in Europe.
2) we have two bank accounts, to accommodate different European customers. We would appreciate having two invoices available simultaneously.
3) I agree that the European zip placement suggested by another respondent should be available.
Thanks,