Free Freelance Writing Invoice Template

Use this invoice to bill an editor or client for written work: a feature priced by the word, posts or articles priced by the piece, and any revision rounds beyond the ones your fee includes. It records which rights the client is buying, so the invoice matches your assignment terms.

For other work, these invoices fit better:

• the freelancer invoice bills any mix of fixed-price items and hourly time, with expenses passed through at cost;
• the translation invoice bills documents by source words, with a minimum charge, a rush fee, proofreading and certification;
• the creative invoice bills a creative project from concept through production, with a deposit.

The invoice is titled WRITING INVOICE and has these parts:

• Writer: name, address, and phone or email.
• Invoice details: invoice number, invoice date, payment terms, due date and assignment number, for the editor's assignment or PO number.
• Bill to (client): publication, editor and email.
• Assignment: the assignment, the delivery date and Rights, a placeholder for the rights you agreed to, such as first serial rights, with other rights staying with you.
• Writing: Item, Details, Qty, Unit, Rate and Amount, with a "Writing subtotal".
• Edits and revisions: the same columns, with a "Revisions subtotal".
• Totals: Subtotal, "Sales tax, if applicable" and Amount due.
• How to pay and Assignment notes.

Each table has one blank row for another line.

Bill a per-word piece with the word count in Qty, "word" as the unit and your rate per word. Say in the notes which count you bill on; the sample says "The feature is billed on the 1,800 words commissioned, at 0.35 a word." Bill pieces with a flat fee with the number of pieces in Qty and your fee per piece.

The notes also hold two sample terms:

• "Sample terms: one revision round is included; further rounds are billed at 60.00 an hour."
• "Sample terms: if an accepted assignment is canceled before publication, a kill fee of 25% of the agreed fee applies."

Replace both with the terms in your assignment letter or contract. If a piece is killed, bill the kill fee as its own line in the Writing table in place of the piece. With the sample's terms, killing the feature would mean a kill fee of 157.50, 25% of the 630.00 agreed on for it.

The PDF is a blank form to print and fill in by hand, with a blank for the tax percentage. It's sized for A4 paper, so if you print on US Letter, check the scaling setting in your print dialog so the whole page fits. The Word and Excel files have the same layout filled with the sample, for you to overwrite.

In the Excel file:

• each line's Amount is Qty × Rate, rounded to the cent;
• the two section subtotals and the Subtotal are formulas;
• "Sales tax, if applicable" is the Subtotal × its rate cell (0% in the sample), and Amount due is the Subtotal plus the tax;
• the Rate cells show two decimal places, so a per-word rate with more decimals displays rounded, but the Amount is worked out from the rate you typed;
• the file's tip says: to leave out the sales tax, set its rate to 0%, and don't delete these rows, because the totals refer to them.

Whether writing services are taxable depends on where you work, so check the rules there before you set a rate. In the Word file the tax line shows its rate in the label ("(0%)"), so update it if you change the rate. In Word or on the PDF, work out the amounts yourself.

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