How to Bill a Client Professionally |

You completed the project on time and sent the invoice. That’s when things started getting weird. The client came back saying the payment terms were different from what they were expecting. 

They expected the VAT to be inclusive of the total billing, whereas you thought it was to be charged in addition to the services provided. Any consultant, freelancer, or small business owner would find this relatable. To save you some sobs, we’ve written this guide for you. 

In this guide, we show you how to bill a client, some pro tips, and how to use to automate your client billing process. 

When Should You Bill a Client?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The right time depends on your project type and what you’ve agreed upon with your client. Here are five common billing approaches:

1. Upfront billing 

Best for: First-time clients, one-off strategy projects, or small projects (less than 2 weeks)

You send an invoice before the project starts, and the client releases upfront payment in whole or in part before you begin. 

2. Milestone-based billing 

Best for: Projects with clear phases (e.g. branding, website builds, reports)

You define project stages and associate each with a payment. At the end of each stage, you typically send an invoice for the services rendered. 

3. Post-completion billing 

Best for: Corporate clients with procurement departments

As soon as you complete the work, you invoice clients and add a due date (usually 15–30 days).

If you’re using this model, always ensure your paperwork is in place: a signed contract, agreed deliverables, payment details ironed out, and clear payment terms. It’s also wise to factor in payment delays when forecasting your cash flow. 

4. Recurring billing (retainers) 

Best for: Ongoing services (e.g., content, design, advisory, ops)

The client pays a fixed amount at regular intervals (usually monthly), often for a set number of hours or deliverables.

But retainers only work when the scope is clear and respected on both sides. Be sure to define what’s included, how unused hours are handled, and when you’ll revisit the terms, say, every 3 or 6 months.

5. Time and materials (hourly billing) 

Best for: Open-ended work (consulting, troubleshooting, coaching) and clients with variable time usage

You log time as you go and invoice regularly (weekly, biweekly, or monthly). 

For client satisfaction and to build trust, share regular updates and time logs, especially if the client isn’t seeing immediate deliverables. You can also offer capped hours per week/month to give clients budget control without locking yourself into fixed fees.

What to Include in a Client Invoice?

Once you know what to include in your invoice, you can templatize it and send invoices faster. 

Invoice element	What to Include
Your information	Your name, business name (if any), contact details, and tax ID if applicable
Client information	Client’s full name, company name, address, and email
Invoice number	A unique, sequential ID (e.g., INV-0012) to track invoices
Invoice date	The date you’re sending the invoice
Due date	When payment is expected (e.g., “Due within 15 days”)
Project/Service description	Brief summary of the work (e.g., “Website wireframes – Phase 1”)
Breakdown of charges	Itemized list: hours worked, deliverables, quantity, rate per unit/hour
Subtotal	Total before taxes or discounts
Taxes (if applicable)	Refund policy, late payment terms, or thank-you message
Total amount due	Final payable amount
Payment Instructions	Bank details, PayPal link, etc.
Terms and notes otes	Refund policy, late payment terms, or thank-you message

You can either do this manually or use free invoice templates to standardize this process. 

How to Bill a Client (Step-by-Step)

If you’re wondering how to bill a client for the first time, follow these steps. 

Step 1: Finalize deliverables and confirm completion

Before you send that invoice, make sure the client agrees that the work is complete. 

Equally important is for your client to acknowledge the receipt and give their sign-off on this. The written acknowledgement is a paper trail in client billing. 

Now, manually doing this for 1-2 clients over spreadsheets is fairly simple.

But as your business grows, it’s easy to lose track of what’s been delivered, approved, and ready to bill. 

, the everything app for work, centralizes your project work, task tracking, and client approvals. When all your work, invoices, and billing reside under one roof, you don’t have to Work Sprawl, jumping between multiple tools that only serve one purpose.

Here’s how to use as your invoicing software. 

Use Brain to draft emails, reports, and give you conversation summaries

Use ’s built-in AI assistant, Brain, to generate invoice summary emails. You can add the deliverables, milestones, terms, and everything else associated with the project, and Brain will draft the email for you.

If you need to ask for payments or follow up regarding the payment dates, Brain does that for you. You can even use Brain to draft the payment terms and conditions for your freelance business. 

What’s more, throughout your project, Brain does the analysis heavy-lifting for you. Have a detailed report and need a summary? Ask Brain to do it. 

Need to extract the key talking points from conversation threads? Brain does that for you, too. In short, Brain is your AI writing assistant throughout the entire project roadmap. 

Track project milestones using Kanban Boards 

You also need a visual way to track project progress, so you can know what’s ready to bill and avoid client disputes. 

Using ’s Kanban Board, you can see every deliverable’s status at a glance. This visual workflow prevents revenue from getting stuck in limbo because you forgot to invoice for a completed task. 

Step 2: Choose a template or invoicing tool 

With a pre-built invoicing template, you can plug and play your project and business details, and voila. You’re ready to send it. 

If you’re already managing tasks, deliverables, and time tracking in , it makes sense to keep your invoicing process integrated. 

You can use ’s Invoice Template to bring everything into one place, from logging billable time to generating and organizing invoices.

Here’s how this template works for you: 

• Branded docs: Create professional invoices inside Docs, complete with your logo, colors, and terms
• Linked data: Pull billable hours directly from tracked time in tasks
• Organized invoices: Store all invoices in one Folder or List, so you can filter by client, due date, or payment status
• Custom Fields: Add fields like Invoice #, Amount, Payment Due Date, or Paid/Unpaid status to make reporting effortless

And if you want to scale beyond solo consulting, for Finance Teams gives you a more structured setup. It expands invoicing into a complete financial operations hub. From tracking budgets and expenses to monitoring client payment history, everything happens within the same platform where your work happens.

What’s more, you can automate your invoice math with ’s Formula Fields. Add calculations directly inside tasks. 

For example, you can auto-calculate totals, add taxes, track outstanding balances, and forecast income across projects based on billable hours logged. These billing features make sure you get paid on time and avoid mistakes or missed payments. 

Step 3: Input client and project details 

When it comes to filling in client-specific and project-related information, an incorrect project ID, a missing due date, or a name is likely to cause payment delays.

makes this process easier by letting you standardize details with Custom Fields. Instead of retyping client data or digging through old invoices, you can create fields that automatically surface in every invoice task. 

For agencies or businesses with tiered or usage-based billing, Custom Fields let you capture details of each pricing structure—whether it’s hourly rates, retainer models, or project-based fees. This makes it easy to see exactly which pricing arrangement applies to each client.

Pair this with ’s invoicing features—like linking billable hours directly to tasks, attaching receipts or agreements, and marking invoices as Paid/Unpaid—to maintain a complete financial trail inside the same workspace where your projects live.

At this stage, you can even use the beginner-friendly Payment History Template to record and store information about your customers and monitor payment histories to identify potential issues. Beyond just logging transactions, you can track missed or delayed payments and spot recurring patterns that might affect your cash flow.

Step 4: Set payment terms 

The more clearly you define your payment terms, the less room there is for disputes. 

Docs is where you store all information about the payment terms and is accessible by all stakeholders. 

Create a Payment Terms Template in Docs with standardized language (e.g., Net 15, late fees, accepted methods). Duplicate this Doc each time you onboard a client, and tweak it for project-specific needs. And link the Doc directly to the client’s project or billing list so the team has access.

The best part of Docs is that you get version control capabilities. Suppose a client negotiates payment cycles or late fee terms. Instead of updating random invoices, keep all versions in Docs with timestamps.

Example: Client A agreed to Net 15, no late fees → stored in “Client A Terms” Doc

Step 5: Review for accuracy

The last thing you want is your invoice being rejected by the client’s finance team, sending you back to square one.

For collaborative review, use Docs’ commenting and assignments to tag teammates or finance reviewers. The built-in suggestion mode lets reviewers propose edits without overwriting your draft. 

Custom field validation also helps. Create mandatory Custom Fields like Invoice #, Due Date, and Total Amount.

When fields are missing, it’s instantly visible on the task, reducing human error. Add a “Reviewed: Yes/No” dropdown field so invoices cannot be sent until marked as reviewed.

Step 6: Send via email or invoicing tool

When your invoice is ready, you want to make sure the right person receives it, it’s stored in the right place, and you have a system to track whether it’s been acknowledged or paid.

A few common mistakes at this stage:  

• Sending invoices to the wrong contact (e.g., your project lead instead of their accounts team)
• Losing track of whether the invoice was sent, and when
• No visibility into whether the client opened or received the invoice
• Managing invoices across siloed tools (Docs in one place, email in another, payments somewhere else)

integrates with Gmail, Outlook, and other providers so you can send invoices without leaving the platform.

• Send the invoice PDF directly from the task where it’s stored
• Use email templates or AI-generated emails (via Brain) for consistent, professional messaging
• Track when and to whom the invoice was sent, logged automatically in the task activity

Additionally, Integrations work with your finance tools, such as:

• QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks: Push invoice data directly from tasks into your accounting system. This means no duplicate entry; the invoice lives in both and your finance tool
• Zapier/Make integrations: Automate connections to PayPal, Stripe, or other gateways. For example: When invoice status changes to “Sent” → create invoice in Stripe → email payment link to client
• Calendars and reminders: Sync invoice due dates with Google Calendar or Outlook so you get notified as deadlines approach

Step 7: Follow up on unpaid invoices

As a small business owner or agency managing multiple clients, manually sending payment reminders is both time-consuming and prone to mistakes. It’s easy to forget who you followed up with, when the last reminder went out, or which invoice is crossing into overdue territory. 

Automations eliminate the repetitive, error-prone parts of invoice follow-ups:

• Trigger: When an invoice’s due date passes and the “Payment Status” field is still set to Pending
• Action: Automatically send a reminder email, update the task status to Overdue, and assign a follow-up task to you (or your finance manager)
• Escalation: Set tiered reminders: a polite nudge after 1 day, a stronger follow-up at 7 days, and an escalation note at 30 days

Here’s a video that gives you quick hacks for using Automations within . 

For agencies handling dozens of invoices each month, Custom Autopilot Agents add intelligence to the workflow:

• Monitor: Agents track invoice tasks continuously
• Decide: If an invoice remains unpaid after a set number of days, they can check conditions (e.g., invoice amount > $5,000) before acting
• Act: Agents can draft personalized reminder emails, ping your team in Chat, or even escalate the task to a manager automatically

Step 8: Track payments and cash flow 

For finance teams, invoicing means maintaining a reliable view of company-wide cash flow. When you’re managing dozens of clients and projects simultaneously, missing a single overdue invoice can affect budgets and payroll.

That’s why Dashboards become your finance team’s central hub. It pulls together invoice data, payment statuses, and client histories into a single view. 

Why do finance teams rely on Dashboards? 

• Consolidated visibility: Instead of reconciling multiple spreadsheets, all invoice statuses (Pending, Paid, Overdue) are visible in one place
• Cash flow forecasting: Teams can predict inflows over the next 30, 60, or 90 days to plan expenses or investments
• Performance monitoring: Identify which clients or projects consistently delay payments, and adjust contract terms accordingly
• Collaboration across teams: Finance can cross-check data with project managers or client services directly inside , reducing back-and-forth emails

Tips for Billing Clients Professionally

These billing best practices help you get paid faster and reduce awkward follow-ups. 

1. Track Your Hours

One of the most common reasons for billing disputes is unclear time records. If a client questions your invoice, having a detailed log of hours worked on specific tasks is the fastest way to resolve the issue. It also gives you insight into whether projects are profitable and how much time you spend on non-billable work.

Examples:

• A consultant charging hourly for strategy calls can show exactly how long each session lasted
• Agencies offering retainer packages can monitor whether they’re over-delivering compared to the hours included

2. Be polite with your invoice language

The words you choose on your invoice can influence how quickly a client pays. Harsh or overly formal wording can create friction, while polite, professional phrasing maintains goodwill and gently nudges clients to prioritize your payment.

You could even add a short thank-you note at the bottom of your invoice to foster a positive client relationship.  

3. Send payment reminders at regular intervals 

Even the most organized clients sometimes miss deadlines, and without reminders, invoices can easily fall through the cracks. Consistent, structured reminders help you receive payments faster without feeling like you’re nagging.

Here’s a reminder framework you can set up in Automations for your first invoice and the subsequent ones: 

Time frame	Reminder type	Message example
3 days before due	Polite reminder	“Just a quick note — Invoice #123 is due in 3 days. Please let us know if you have any questions.”
On the due date	Gentle prompt	“This is a friendly reminder that Invoice #123 is due today. Thank you for your timely payment.”
7 days overdue	Strong nudge	“Our records show Invoice #123 is still outstanding. Kindly process payment at your earliest convenience.”
30 days overdue	Escalation nudge	“Invoice #123 is now 30 days overdue. Please confirm payment status so we can avoid any disruption to your services.”

4. Discount early payments

One of the simplest ways to encourage clients to pay faster is to reward them for doing so. Offering a small discount for early settlement improves your cash flow and builds goodwill.

Examples:

• “2% discount if paid within 10 days of invoice date”
• “5% off if payment is made upfront for the quarter”

This works especially well with long-term clients who appreciate flexibility and predictability. While you sacrifice a small portion of revenue, you gain peace of mind and faster access to cash.

Say Goodbye to Billing Headaches with  

Billing shouldn’t drain your energy or strain your client relationships. As a business owner, you shouldn’t be chasing unpaid invoices. Or when you invoice clients, the last thing you want to do is waste time on spreadsheets.

Let turn your billing into a stress-free workflow. 

With ’s Invoice Templates, Automations, and Dashboards, you gain full visibility into your cash flow and the confidence that every client invoice is accurate, professional, and on time.

Ready to simplify your billing process? Sign up on for free. 

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