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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Making great looking quotations and invoices

By Susan Bapsnill


Making professionally formatted quotes and invoices is a great way to create a positive image for your small business. If you do it right your quotes and invoices can nurture trust in your clients and keep them coming back in future.

There are 3 important factors to consider when researching professional invoice making and issuing. 1st is layout and design. Ask yourself, how does your invoice appear to others? Not just to you, but put yourself in your customer\'s shoes.

The next point to investigate in all of this is the point of necessary fields. Almost all tax regulations require you to place certain fields on the invoices you make and send. Check with your local tax authority what these are to make sure the invoices you make are legal and have the necessary fields.

Lastly investigate at the spelling and grammar used on your invoices. Now that you have determined what your invoices look like and what fields they should contain, make sure that the information you put in them is correct. Ask yourself what your clients will think of your business if you spell their company name incorrectly on an invoice.

We look at each of these topics in the article below:

Look and layout

You don\'t need to spend thousands on getting a professional designer to make your invoices for you. There are lots of web-based systems and software solutions out there that can generate professional looking invoices for your business. Many of these are free of charge or cost a nominal monthly or once-off fee. If you are going to be creating your invoices yourself research how other businesses lay theirs out, take the best from each and incorporate it into your design.

Necessary fields

Whether you are generating tax or non-tax invoices it is key to have all required fields present on the quote or invoice. If you are creating tax invoices check your local tax rules to make sure that all legally necessary fields appear.

Correct spelling and grammar

Got spellchecker? Use it! By just spelling your clients business name incorrectly in a quotation or invoice can make them think twice about using your services again. Incorrect spelling makes you look unprofessional, like you don\'t give attention to detail. Always check spelling, not only for customer\'s details, but in your service descriptions and any other text that appears on your invoices.

So heed the tips above and implement it in your business. You might just be shocked at the great rewards you get.




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