Video Production Invoice Template

You'll use your invoice to get paid for the video production work you've done. Sending a detailed and accurate invoice will ease any concerns that clients may have about dealing with professionals like yourself—they can easily see what services were provided, how much was charged, when the payment is due, etc., which leads to fewer questions regarding fees or deadlines.

Accepting multiple forms of payment is easier now than ever before. Select which payment methods you accept on your invoice and invite your customers to choose the payment method that’s best for them. 

Creating an attractive invoice also means you look more professional. This is just another part of reassuring your clients about the value they are receiving.

You can use your video production invoice to bill clients for many services, such as:

• Venue hire
• Equipment rental
• Subcontractor pay
• Edits and revisions
• Software licenses

Whatever services you are billing your clients for, using a single form of billing will make life simpler. Connecting your invoices to a payment system and bank account will help you keep track of paid and unpaid bills easily.

You can bill your clients by sending them an invoice. There are a few things to get right with your billing. Here’s a short list:

• You can bill by the hour, milestone, or project.
• Hourly billing is really common and you can use Indy’s Time Tracker to track your hours easily. You can even add your time tracks to your invoices as line items.
• Milestone billing is useful for larger projects that will take place over several weeks or months. Set some milestones, such as the delivery of first proofs, and send an invoice when those milestones happen. 
• Billing by the project is very common for video producers. Once the client approves the final edit, send them the bill.
• Many freelancers take a deposit at the beginning of the project. This protects you from shady clients and sets you up for cash flow success. Deposits up to 50% are normal.
• You should set out your billing and payment terms in your contract. If you don’t have a contract, use Indy’s Contracts tool to create one before you start work.
• Once you finish the work or pass the milestone, send the client an invoice. If you don’t have an invoice, you can use Indy’s invoice generator to create a professional invoice in just a few moments.

That’s it! Those are the basics of how to bill someone for your work. 

Short answer: 

Most video producers charge between $50-$80 per hour for their work. However, there is a huge amount of variety. Small budget videos for personal use are much less expensive than Apple’s next $500,000 half-minute commercial. You can adjust your price according to your client’s size and budget.

Knowing how much to charge for your work is a complicated area. We want to help freelancers, so we’re going to give you some general tips here about settling on the best amount to charge clients for your services.

Let’s think about this from a few different perspectives:

First, how much do you want/need to earn? You should create your rates to reflect what you need to earn. Keep in mind that you won’t get paid for some of the things you must do, such as preparing your taxes, looking for more customers, and weekly admin work. So, your hourly or project rate needs to be a little higher to make up for the unpaid work that is part of every freelancer’s life.

Second, how much do others charge for similar services at your level of expertise and experience? This question can be a little difficult to answer, but you can just ask. Join a Facebook group and ask. Call a local competitor and ask. Once you know what they charge, you can go under that if you’re new to the market or over it if you’re the boss.

Another massive item you should plan for is taxes. You’ll be paying your own taxes as a freelancer, so your rates should incorporate the taxes you’ll eventually have to pay. The average tax amount paid by Americans, for all taxes, is about 29%. This means you’ll end up paying $3 in taxes out of every $10 you earn. Price your work to pay your taxes and be left with the income you want.

Your best rates will be different, because everyone’s market is different. What works on the West Coast might not be successful in Texas. Try a few different price points until you find the rate clients accept and you can live on.

This part is easy! Here’s a step by step guide to getting your invoice done:

1. Open one of Indy’s Video Production Invoice Templates.
2. Add your business branding and information.
3. Insert your client’s contact information.
4. Number your invoice in a useful way.
5. Fill in the lines with your work completed and the cost per task/hour.
6. Check the invoice total and details.

Once you’ve finished these six steps, you are ready to send your invoice to your client. Send it straight from Indy or download it as a PDF and use your own email client to send it. 

Indy offers an all-in-one platform for freelancers to manage all their admin work. When you sign up with Indy, your invoicing gets better because the other tools work together. For example, you can use Indy’s Time Tracker to note the time spent on a project. When you’re ready, the Invoice tool can automatically pull your unbilled hours for the project onto your invoice to make it ready to use. This makes your billing more accurate and saves time as well. When you set up your customers and projects with Indy, your entire workflow becomes smoother.