A Sparky’s Refresher To Invoicing

Whether you’re a sparky who’s seen everything or new to the game here is a refresher to invoicing.

Invoicing. It’s that painful piece of paperwork for any job, so we’ve put together a simple list for you to know exactly what you SHOULD include, and some are what you MUST include on your electricians invoices.

Here is what  you SHOULD include –

• Presentation – Gone are the days where a hand written invoice is the norm. customers appreciate a well presented piece of paperwork, and it gives a great impression of your company (along with the good work of course). You can easily set up a template in Word to help you save a bit of time doing this, or of course signing up to YourTradebase for a 30 day free trial!
• A company email address – They’re easy to set up, it gives one contact point for your customers to email, and you look professional – all from a free email account!
• Your payment details – Not only does this speed up the process of payment for you, but again gives the impression of a well oiled machine that is your business.
• Logo – It doesn’t have to be fancy, but you’d be surprised at how much of an impression this makes on your customers.
• Due date of payment – It shows you mean business, and you run your company like one too. So make sure you clearly set out a proper payment schedule to each and every one of your customers (even if it’s a standard one you blanket use for all of them).

If you’re VAT registered here is what you MUST include –

• The amount of VAT on each line of the invoice and the VAT rate charge
• OR
• The total amount of VAT on the invoice and the rate of VAT applied to all items
• Your VAT number
• If you’re a limited registered company you MUST include your company name
• The time of supply (also known as tax point) if this is different from the invoice date

A bonus sparky tip –

And here is just one last tip for you – stick the 5 MUST include rules for your invoices on a post-it note (if you’re VAT registered), and put it somewhere on your desk. So the next time your invoicing for a client you can easily whip it out and know exactly what you need to include!

If you have any suggestions of topics you’d like to see in our blog email emma@yourtradebase.com, alternatively keep up to date with what we’re doing on our Facebook and Twitter pages!

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