Professional Design Practice :: Lesson 5 :: Invoicing Clients

Originally published 2014. Updated March 2026.

For the intrepid freelancer things are a little different. They must send out invoices to their clients, then wait to be paid. So far so straightforward — but there are several factors to consider with regard to invoicing, which I’ll be taking you through below. Getting paid on time is what keeps us all afloat, and what freelance designer doesn’t desire that?

This is Lesson 5 in our Professional Design Practice series. You might also want to read Lesson 4 on dealing with clients and Lesson 7 on graphic design contracts.

First Things First

In-voice :: noun :: a list of goods sent or services provided, with a statement of the sum due for these; a bill

Let’s get some basics out of the way. Your invoice’s list of services should correspond directly with the services you agreed to carry out at the start of the job. It’s good additional practice to include the original contract offer, itemising the services you’d agreed to, for your client’s comparison. Your invoices should contain the name or studio name of the person providing services — which, for the freelancer, usually means themselves. If you haven’t already provided your client with your bank details, include them somewhere on the invoice.

More than One Way to Skin a Cat…

It’s perfectly reasonable to design a billing template yourself using a package like Adobe InDesign, then generate your invoices from this template whenever you need to bill someone. If you care about how your invoices look and work — and you should; they’re part of your suite of materials — this method allows for the greatest creative control. Take as much time over its design as you would your letterhead or logotype.

Increasingly, people are using dedicated software to generate their invoices. Xero is the gold standard for Australian freelancers: cloud-based, accountant-friendly, and excellent for tracking project income and expenses. FreshBooks is another strong option, built specifically for creative freelancers, with time tracking, project management, and professional-looking templates. Wave offers a free tier that suits designers starting out who don’t yet need the full suite of accounting features.

All of these tools allow you to incorporate your logotype, maintain brand consistency, and keep tabs on outstanding payments at a glance.

Subernova offers users a “simple and enjoyable way to create and send invoices and estimates.” Project management and team collaboration software that comes with additional features for setting milestones, tracking time, keeping tabs on late payments, and setting deadlines. Worth a look.

For freelance designers who receive most of their money through PayPal, you can create and save billing templates and store them within your PayPal account. These work in much the same expedient ‘insert here’ way.

A Note on GST and ABN for Australian Freelancers

If you’re based in Australia and earning more than $75,000 per year, you’re required to register for GST and include it on your invoices. Even below that threshold, having an ABN (Australian Business Number) is strongly recommended — it signals professionalism and lets clients pay you without withholding tax. Most invoicing platforms (Xero, FreshBooks) handle GST calculations automatically. When in doubt, speak to an accountant early: the cost of good advice is far less than the cost of getting it wrong.

Extraneous & Unforeseen Costs

Certain extraneous costs should be carefully listed, firstly in the original service offer or estimate, then relisted in the invoice. Extraneous costs or ‘further expenses’ can include courier and delivery fees, model fees, and proof purchasing expenses. Not all expenses are foreseeable — when embarking on a new project, try to negotiate that the client assume all responsibility to cover extraneous costs. You might word this into your original service offer: “The client or commissioning party has to reimburse the commissioned party for all extraneous costs actually incurred.”

Setting Deadlines & Client Transgressions

The persisting problem of late payment is probably the largest non-creative cause for concern experienced by the freelance graphic designer. Freelancers are unlikely to take legal action against corporations for obvious time-based and financial reasons. The freelancer might also ask themselves: “Why risk losing the potential repeat work by being litigious?” Safe in this knowledge, clients need not worry excessively over paying you on time.

Exceeding payment deadlines can put a strain on a small freelance business, not to mention the strain placed on the client/designer relationship. Freelancers need cashflow to survive just like any other tradesperson, and chasing late payments is a regrettably guaranteed part of the freelancer’s lot.

The time period you should allow to elapse before sending your first reminder shouldn’t be all that long — between 2-4 weeks after the exceeding of your payment deadline is about right.

It’s good to know where you stand from a legal perspective. In Great Britain, one month after receiving an invoice and having not paid, a client goes into arrears and is obliged to pay the designer for damages caused by delay. Should a disagreement arise, the designer will have to prove the successful delivery of the invoice. Legal counsel costs may also be charged in this situation.

In Australia, the rules vary by state, and the small business community is well-supported by organisations like the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Freelance Guild. Familiarise yourself with the relevant protections early in your career.

It’s important to outline the legal implications above, but reaching a hostile legal situation can more often than not be averted. In How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul, Adrian Shaughnessy advises freelancers to handle the unfortunate chasing role not with aggression, but with courtesy and respect.

“Approach the individuals concerned with the utmost politeness; make friends with your clients’ finance departments, they are rarely the villains. When you get a cheque in the post call and thank them. Designers like to have their work praised, and so too do clerks in accounting offices.”

His quote pertains to style over law — but both are worth paying attention to in equal measures.

Summary

The more precarious position experienced by freelance designers over full-time employees — within the context of getting paid — is part and parcel of the life we have chosen for ourselves. Benefits include the ability to charge higher design fees. Impediments include a less predictable financial life and, the big fly in the ointment, the tiresome task of chasing late payments.

When it comes to billing your clients, project as professional an appearance as possible through the design of your invoice, include all your relevant terms and conditions, and make it a rule to be wholly transparent about costs. Keep track of invoicing dates and deadlines, and should any late payment situations arise, remember to handle your clients with good manners and a friendly attitude. Follow the advice above and you’ll be doing all you can to ensure a financially secure existence with good clients on board who pay on time — conditions necessary for producing great design.

Continue the series: Lesson 3 — Project Planning | Lesson 4 — Dealing with Clients | Lesson 7 — Graphic Design Contracts

Want to build these skills? Our Certificate IV in Graphic Design covers professional practice from quoting and invoicing to client management — everything you need to run a freelance design business with confidence.