How to Invoice as a Designer or Creator (2026 Guide)

This is the guide I wish I had when I started freelancing. Simple, modern, no-accounting BS — just the steps you actually need.

If you're a designer, creator, or freelancer sending your first invoice (or your hundredth), this guide breaks down the process into clear, actionable steps. No jargon. No corporate speak. Just what works.

What you'll learn:

How to create professional invoices
What to include (and what to skip)
How to set payment terms that protect you
How to price your work
How to send invoices professionally
How to track payments simply
Common mistakes to avoid

Time to read: 10 minutes
Time to implement: Under 2 minutes per invoice

Step 1 — Create a Clean Invoice Template

Your invoice is part of your brand. It should look intentional, not like it came from a generic accounting app.

Related guides:

Designer Invoice Template Guide — Free templates and design principles
Minimalist Invoice Design — What makes a clean invoice design
Simple Invoicing for Creatives — Complete guide to simple invoicing workflow
Minimal Invoicing Principles — Core principles of minimal invoicing

What to include:

Your name or studio name — Keep it simple and professional
Contact information — Email, website (optional)
Client details — Name, company (if applicable)
Invoice number — Format like INV-2026-0001 (helps with tracking)
Date — When the invoice was created
Due date — When payment is expected
Project description — What you're invoicing for
Line items — Breakdown of services with prices
Total amount — Clear and prominent
Payment terms — How and when to pay
Payment link — If accepting card payments

Design principles:

Minimal — No clutter, no unnecessary fields
Readable — Clear typography, good spacing
Professional — Matches your brand aesthetic
Client-friendly — Easy to understand at a glance

You can create a template in inv.so, use a design tool like Figma, or start with a simple document. The key is making it reusable.

Step 2 — Add Clear Payment Terms

Payment terms set expectations and protect you. Be specific.

Related guides:

How to Write Payment Terms — Complete guide to payment terms
Why Designers Should Charge Deposits — Deposit strategies for creatives

Common payment terms for creatives:

Net 7, 14, or 30

Payment due within 7, 14, or 30 days
Example: "Net 14" means payment is due 14 days after invoice date

50% upfront, 50% on completion

Common for larger projects
Protects you from non-payment
Client pays half to start, half when work is done

Payment upon delivery

Payment due immediately when work is delivered
Good for smaller projects or one-off work

Deposit + final payment

30-50% deposit to start
Remaining balance on completion
Standard for most design work

What to include in payment terms:

Due date — Specific date (e.g., "Due: March 21, 2026")
Payment methods — Card, bank transfer, PayPal, etc.
Late fees — Optional, but can help with timely payment
Payment link — If accepting card payments via Stripe

Example payment terms:

Payment Terms:
- 50% deposit ($1,200) due upon project start
- 50% balance ($1,200) due upon final delivery
- Payment via card (link below) or bank transfer
- Late payments subject to 5% monthly interest

Keep it clear and professional. No need to be aggressive, but be firm about expectations.

Step 3 — Decide Your Pricing Structure

How you price your work affects how you invoice. Choose a structure that fits your workflow.

Related guides:

How to Price Design Work — Complete pricing guide for designers
Pricing Models for Creatives — Hourly, flat, value-based pricing

Hourly pricing

Best for: Consulting, revisions, ongoing work, uncertain scope

How to invoice:

List hours worked
Rate per hour
Total: hours × rate

Example:

UI/UX Consultation — 8 hours @ $150/hour = $1,200

Flat project pricing

Best for: Defined projects, brand identity, websites, clear deliverables

How to invoice:

Single line item or breakdown of deliverables
Fixed price per item
Total project cost

Example:

Brand Identity Design — $2,400
- Logo design
- Brand guidelines
- Color palette
- Typography system

Value-based pricing

Best for: High-impact work, strategic projects, brand partnerships

How to invoice:

Focus on value delivered, not hours
Can be flat fee or tiered
Justify with results or impact

Example:

Brand Identity & Strategy — $5,000
Complete brand system designed to increase market recognition

Retainer pricing

Best for: Ongoing work, monthly design needs, long-term clients

How to invoice:

Monthly fixed fee
Can include set number of hours or deliverables
Recurring invoice each month

Example:

Monthly Design Retainer — $2,000/month
- Up to 20 hours design work
- Social media assets
- Marketing materials

Step 4 — Send the Invoice Professionally

Related guides:

How to Send Your First Invoice — Step-by-step guide for beginners
Invoice Email Examples — 7 professional email templates
5-Step Invoicing Workflow — The perfect invoicing workflow

How you send the invoice matters. Make it easy for clients to pay.

Option 1: Send as PDF

Best for: Clients who prefer email attachments, formal documentation

How to do it:

Export invoice as PDF
Attach to professional email
Include brief message

Email template:

Subject: Invoice #INV-2026-0001 — [Project Name]

Hi [Client Name],

Attached is the invoice for [project description].

Total: $[amount]
Due: [date]

Payment can be made via [payment method] or using the link below:
[payment link]

Let me know if you have any questions!

Best,
[Your Name]

Option 2: Send as Link

Best for: Faster payment, modern clients, card payments

How to do it:

Create invoice in inv.so (or similar tool)
Get shareable link
Send link via email

Email template:

Subject: Invoice for [Project Name]

Hi [Client Name],

Your invoice is ready: [invoice link]

Total: $[amount]
Due: [date]

You can pay directly via the link above with a card, or let me know if you prefer another method.

Thanks!
[Your Name]

Best practices:

Send promptly — Don't wait weeks after completing work
Be professional — Friendly but businesslike
Make payment easy — Include payment link if possible
Follow up — If unpaid after due date, send a reminder

Step 5 — Track Paid / Sent / Draft

Related guides:

How to Track Invoice Payments — Simple tracking without accounting software
How to Follow Up on Late Payments — Professional follow-up strategies

You need to know the status of every invoice. Simple tracking beats complex accounting.

Status categories:

Draft

Invoice created but not sent
Still editing or waiting to send

Sent

Invoice delivered to client
Awaiting payment
Past due date = overdue

Paid

Payment received
Mark as paid when money arrives

How to track:

Option 1: Simple spreadsheet

List invoices with status
Update manually when status changes
Works for low volume

Option 2: Invoicing tool (like inv.so)

Automatic status tracking
Visual dashboard
Payment notifications
No manual updates needed

Option 3: Simple list

Text file or notes app
List invoices with dates and status
Update as needed

What to track:

Invoice number
Client name
Amount
Date sent
Due date
Status (draft/sent/paid)
Payment date (when paid)

You don't need complex accounting software. Just a simple system that shows you what's paid, what's sent, and what's still a draft.

Example Invoice (Complete Layout)

Here's what a clean, professional invoice looks like. Use this as a reference when creating your own:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Your Name / Studio]
[Your Email]
[Your Website] (optional)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

INVOICE #INV-2026-0001
Date: March 7, 2026
Due: March 21, 2026

Bill To:
[Client Name]
[Client Company]
[Client Email]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Project: Brand Identity Design — Full Package

Services:
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Logo Design                                    $800
Brand Guidelines Document                      $600
Typography System                              $400
Color Palette & Application Examples           $400
Brand Application Mockups (3)                  $200
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                                                    TOTAL: $2,400

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Payment Terms:
- 50% deposit ($1,200) paid on project start
- 50% balance ($1,200) due upon final delivery
- Payment via card: [payment link]
- Or bank transfer: [account details]

Notes:
Thank you for the opportunity to work on this project. Excited to see the brand come to life!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Clean. Professional. Easy to read. No clutter.

Common Invoicing Mistakes to Avoid

Related guide: 10 Invoicing Mistakes Freelancers Make — Complete guide to avoiding common errors

1. Vague descriptions

Bad: "Design work — $2,400"
Good: "Brand Identity Design — Logo, guidelines, typography, color palette"

Be specific so clients know what they're paying for.

2. Missing payment terms

Always include:

Due date
Payment methods
Payment link (if applicable)

3. Sending too late

Send invoices promptly after completing work. Don't wait weeks or months.

4. No invoice number

Use a consistent numbering system (INV-2026-0001, etc.). Helps with tracking and organization.

5. Unclear pricing

Break down line items clearly. Clients want to understand what they're paying for.

6. No follow-up system

If an invoice is overdue, follow up professionally. Don't assume clients will remember.

7. Overcomplicating

Keep it simple. You don't need 20 fields or complex accounting features. Just the essentials.

FAQs

How do I invoice for design work?

Include:

Project description
Breakdown of deliverables
Total price
Payment terms
Due date
Payment method/link

Keep it clear and professional.

What should be included on an invoice?

Minimum requirements:

Your name/studio
Client name
Invoice number
Date and due date
Description of work
Amount due
Payment terms

Optional but helpful:

Payment link
Notes section
Usage rights (if applicable)

Should I charge deposits?

Yes — it's standard and protects you. Most designers charge 30-50% upfront for larger projects.

How do I handle revisions in my invoice?

Options:

Include set number of revisions in base price
Charge for revisions as separate line item
Specify revision policy in payment terms

What payment methods should I accept?

Most common:

Credit/debit cards (via Stripe)
Bank transfers
PayPal (less common now)

Card payments are fastest and most convenient.

How long should payment terms be?

Common terms:

Net 7 (7 days)
Net 14 (14 days)
Net 30 (30 days)

For deposits, payment is usually due immediately or within a few days.

What if a client doesn't pay?

Send a friendly reminder after due date
Follow up again if still unpaid
Consider late fees (if specified in terms)
As last resort, pause work or seek legal advice

Most clients pay on time. Clear terms and professional communication help.

Quick Reference: Invoice Checklist

Before sending any invoice, check:

✅ Client name and email correct
✅ Project description clear and specific
✅ Line items broken down clearly
✅ Prices accurate
✅ Total correct
✅ Invoice number included
✅ Due date set
✅ Payment terms clear
✅ Payment link included (if using card payments)
✅ No typos or errors
✅ Professional design/layout

30-second review prevents mistakes.

Next Steps

If This Is Your First Invoice

Read: Send Your First Invoice
Choose: Simple invoicing tool (like inv.so)
Create: Your first invoice using this guide
Send: Promptly after completing work
Track: Payment status

If You're Already Invoicing

Review: Your current process
Improve: Based on this guide
Optimize: Speed up your workflow
Automate: Use tools to save time

Ready to simplify your invoicing? Try inv.so free — create and send your first invoice in under 2 minutes.