What to include in an invoice?

[Amber Alexander]

I was recently hired as a Contract Game Artist and was told to just email the company an invoice once or twice a month but I'm not sure what I need to put in the invoice, any tips on what you guys do? Should I include my SSN? Should it be just in the body of the email or an attachment PDF?

Thanks!

[the ANGRY filipino]

well, most companies need invoices printed out...so sending it as an attachment saves them the time of writing it up in their accounting dep themselves...

[feder!co]

Generally it's best if you create a template so that you can use it over and over as well as keeping a record for your self and tax purposes.

I'm not sure where you are from but here in South Africa you would need the following:

These are the details you should get for TAX purposes from the company/person you are invoicing:

Business or person's name,
Contact person's name
Tel,
Fax,
Physical Address
Postal Address
Tax Number
and possibly a PO number - which is like a purchase number

The details they need from you for payment would be:

Business or person's name
Account name
Bank
Account number
Branch code
Contact details

If i've managed to confuse you more, have a look here:

http://www.ir35calc.co.uk/how_to_pre...n_invoice.aspx

[Qitsune]

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009...ce-like-a-pro/

I personally almost never sent an invoice for game work, I got the client to accept the quote/work order and that was it, I'd e-mail them when I was done and they would pay me as per the conditions on the quote/work order.

[Kiriko]

In the US you won't need to include any of your bank account unless you have pre-arranged for a direct bank transfer. In most cases they will send you a check. Don' include your SSN, though they may contact you for your SSN info at another time for tax purposes.

Include a brief description of the job to identify it, and if the company gave you an ID# and or purchase order # for the job, it is ESSENTIAL to include that.

State the agreed upon payment amount and to whom/where the payment should be sent.

I always send an attachment in standard pdf format.

That's it!

[Amber Alexander]

Awesome, that's perfect, thanks guys!