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Designing your sales invoice | Return to menu |
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| Introduction | We
suggest below the information you should disclose on a sales invoice for
our hypothetical company, Samples Limited. In this case, the company produces the body of the invoice in MS Excel, and prints out the end result directly on to their ordinary letterhead paper. If startup funds are tight, and they nearly always are. Then a little careful thought about all the different business stationery you are going to need, may mean you only need to have one standard business stationery page printed. It can save you a small fortune on your printing bill. If you do decide to print a separate sales invoice, then avoid a common mistake. If the invoices are to be completed by hand, it is sensible to include text boxes to help the user complete the relevant parts of the form. If you will be using a computer generated invoice, then avoid boxes on the preprinted form. Trying to align the paper so that the computer-printer output goes into the boxes can become most frustrating at times. Even if it works today, who is to say it will work when you change the printer tomorrow? |
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| Tips on what you should include on your invoice |
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| Further Points |
Tax
point date and invoice date Most businesses fail to understand the significance of distinguishing between the invoice date (when the invoice was raised) and the tax point date (which is when the transaction is recognised for tax purposes). In practice the two dates are often one and the same, but not always. The tax point date can be defined as the earlier of: The invoice date is often the date the invoice was raised and sent to the customer. It is significant because it is from the invoice date that most businesses allow their normal credit period to run from. More than one business has suffered, because a visiting tax inspector has determined that the tax point date for a large transaction, was in fact earlier than the reported invoice date used. The interest for late payment, combined with possible penalties, makes it well worth your while to ensure you report and use both dates properly. Include your bank details if your clients are likely to pay by direct automated transfers More businesses are taking advantage of the cost savings to be gained by paying their suppliers directly by bank automated transfers. It will certainly do you no harm to include your business bank details on the face of your invoice. You need to name the bank, branch, sortcode, account name and account number to be safe. Consider stating your terms of business on the invoice It is always worth stating your credit terms on the invoice itself, in the hope that your customer may observe them. You never know! If you also supply goods as part of your trade, it is always wise to include a statement to the effect that the goods remain your property until they are paid for in full. In the event that you do not receive payment, the inclusion of this simple sentence increases significantly the chances you may be able to exercise your right to reclaim the goods from a defaulting customer. |
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