Many work at home moms feel a bit uneasy about asking for money, even though they´ve earned it. If you have a service that you provide, like freelance writing, you really can´t afford not to bill clients. And there´s no point in hoping they will pay you all on their own!

Keep Track

First things first, you should have an agreed on rate at the beginning of the project. Whether you are charging by project or by the hour, or page, it is vital that you keep track of your time and what you spend it on. A simple spreadsheet is perfect for this, Excel works well. You will want to keep track of the date, hours worked and what you did with those hours. This is as much for yourself as for the client. If you charge by the project, this information will help you see if you´re charging enough.

Write an Invoice

There are plenty of invoice templates out there, particularly if you have an accounting program. However, you can also make one up easily enough in Publisher or a similar program. Your company information should be in the upper right corner, with the hiring company´s information below. You will also want payment info, of course. This can be as simple as having the project name with the set cost beside it and marking it as owed.

However, if you are working by the hour or on several smaller projects, you will want something a bit more detailed. In this case, each task should be listed, with the number of hours spent (if billing by the hour) and the total cost for each task and a grand total at the bottom. Make sure that you also include the fee per hour on the invoice.

Online Billing

If you use PayPal, billing is even simpler. Just click on the “Request Money” button and you will be able to fill in the basic information which PayPal will then send to the client. This is a good way to go if you have a client who isn´t interested in paying, since you can later start a dispute in PayPal if they don´t pay up.

Follow Up

What do you do if your client doesn´t pay? If you are using an online service like PayPal, you can open a dispute, which can drop their reputation if they don´t pay, limiting further usage of the service. Most clients will pay up pretty fast if this is the case.

If you are doing things the old fashioned way, it might be a good idea to send a warning letter, but you should talk to a lawyer first to find out what your options are. This is why it is always a good idea to have a contract at the beginning of a project, particularly if it is a large one that requires plenty of hours and large sums of money. I also would get some of the cash up front or after the first task is finished.

For example, when I do a large number of articles for a client, I require them to pay me after every ten articles, to avoid issues down the road.

What do you do with non-paying clients?