The work of a consultant is to provide professional advice in different fields to clients of a business or organization. After such services are offered, the organization must pay the consultant. For this exact purpose, the consultant needs to send an invoice to their clients to facilitate fast and complete payment from the company for their services provided to the clients.
A consultant invoice is a document given by the consultant to the client indicating the payable bill for the consultancy services provided. It also includes the description of the consultancy, the number of visits and sessions, and the due date of payment.
A consultant invoice also provides a record of the services and sales made between the consultant and the client for future reference.
Things to be Included
Since it is important to prepare a consultant invoice for the customers after providing them with their required services, it is best that a company understands what they need to include in an invoice. Here is what should be included in the invoice:
- Company logo: This is the consultant company logo. This is the first part of a standard consultant invoice, and it is located at the top part of the document.
- Company details: The company details include the following:
- Business name
- Contact details of the company, that is, business address, telephone number and email address
- Date and invoice number: This is the third part of a consultant invoice and is also located at the top of the invoice. It includes the invoice number, the date when the invoice was created, and the due date of payment.
- Consultancy description: The company should describe the consultation services they are offering to their clients or customers. Alongside the description of services, the company should also add the following information:
- Include breakdown of hours worked- the invoice is about payment for services offered. It is best for the company to breakdown the time they spent providing their professional services in hours. This can help to break down the fees per hour and ensure that the client understands how their money is being spent. Through this, the company is also assured of being paid in full. This breakdown will also help the consultancy company to identify how long they spent providing each service for future references.
- Details of payment- for this section, the company should sum up all the breakdown fees they have complied based on the professional services they provided. From the total, they should subtract any discounts, or add any applicable taxes, or deposits to clearly indicate the final payment.
- Include breakdown of hours worked- the invoice is about payment for services offered. It is best for the company to breakdown the time they spent providing their professional services in hours. This can help to break down the fees per hour and ensure that the client understands how their money is being spent. Through this, the company is also assured of being paid in full. This breakdown will also help the consultancy company to identify how long they spent providing each service for future references.
- Client details: This includes the name of the client, address, phone number, and email address.
- Terms and conditions: The terms and conditions section of the consultant invoice is also essential. Since the invoice serves as a contract, a consultant company must include it in the invoice.
For example, additional details of the payment terms can help the client understand the company’s payment policy, which is based on when and how the payment should be done by the client.
Another example of the terms and conditions in a consultant invoice includes the policies surrounding late payment penalties. The consultant provider might decide to suspend any more services until the payments have been made in full.
Consulting Invoice Templates
A consulting invoice template is a fill-in-the-blank document easily tailored to fit multiple needs. One constant is your company’s name, logo, address, and contact information. How you layout other fields is up to you; you may want different formats for differing services, instead of a long list of every invoice. A template allows you to configure each document just the way you want it to appear.
Here are consulting invoice templates to get you started:
Conclusion
A company or business that offers its professional advice to clients or customers regarding their issues is a consultancy. Such customers must pay for these services in full and it is best if a company sends its clients a consultant invoice to speed up the payment process. In case a business lacks a consultant invoice template, they can still create an effective invoice by including the elements mentioned above in the consultant invoice.
