To get paid for their products and services, freelancers need access to invoicing systems that make financial tasks simpler, less mundane, and more meaningful. By creating your invoice in Google Docs, you can make a document using a word processor that is free, is user-friendly, and offers the tools necessary to create invoices that are simple, functional, and incredibly easy to manage.
By creating your invoice in Google Docs, you gain the benefit of a cloud-based invoicing solution that optimizes personal and collaborative workflows while improving the organization of digital files that you and your clients clients must deal with each pay cycle.
For freelancers that seek more guided direction for creating their digital invoices, Google Docs allows users to upload their own professional templates for updating, or they can create an invoice design by scratch. With the basic word processing and customizations tools offered by Google Docs, creating a simple invoice that reflects the unique look and feel of your brand is easy.
To begin creating your invoice in Google Docs, login using your Google account to access your Drive. From there, you can browse the template gallery or upload a professional template to edit directly in the program.
As you explore different templates in the gallery and elsewhere online, consider important business elements that may have an effect on the final capabilities of your invoice, including the placement of components such as product and service descriptions; quantities; client and customer details; and shipping and tracking information.
If you choose to build your own invoice design from scratch, take some time to explore the editing and formatting tools supported by Google Docs before composing your document.
Once you’ve decided how you will compose your document, begin updating the page with all relevant details to reflect your personal brand. Here are some elements to keep in mind as you update your template or build out your original design:
- your logo (if you have one)
- branding colors and fonts
- freelancer contact details
- payment terms, i.e. acceptable payment options, late fees, and policies
Once you’ve placed these key components into your design, you can begin to bill your vendors and clients for payment by running your first invoice. To do this, update your invoice document will all financial details relevant to the transaction, including the following elements:
- client and/or vendor contact details
- unique invoice number (for internal tracking purposes)
- invoicing/transaction date
- itemized list of products and/or services rendered
- subtotals for each product and/or service
- payment due dates
- payment totals, including taxes applicable to your area
Once you’ve updated your file, the next step is to decide how you will share the invoice with your client. Thanks to the range of options offered by Google for sharing documents, freelancers enjoy flexibility when choosing the sharing method best suited to their payment process and the needs of their clients. Depending on your preference and business needs, share your invoice with your client via email by downloading your Google Docs invoice as a PDF, or share the document directly by “adding” your client's Gmail account to the document in either view-only or editing mode.