Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
How to send an invoice and get paid on time
Moneymagpie Team
13th Aug 2026
What to put on an invoice, how to set terms that hold, and what you can legally charge a business customer who pays late.
To send an invoice, put six things on one page: your name and address, your customer’s name and address, a unique invoice number, the date you issued it, a plain description of what you did, and the amount owed with a stated due date. Email it the day the work finishes and chase it the morning after it falls due.
Plenty of sole traders send a correct invoice and then wait six weeks without chasing it, because chasing feels rude when the work is already done. By then you’re annoyed, the client has forgotten the job, and the conversation is harder than it would have been on day 31.
- What has to be on it
- Terms that actually hold
- What you’re owed when it’s late
- How you send it changes when you get paid
- Chasing, without wrecking the relationship
- Put the money somewhere sensible when it lands
- Invoicing FAQs
What has to be on it
If you’re not VAT registered, keep it simple and don’t charge VAT. If you are, the requirements get longer and HMRC publishes the full list.
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Unique invoice number | Sequential, no gaps. It’s how both of you track the job, and how you’ll find it again in January |
| Your name and address | Sole traders need their own name. Add the trading name too if you use one |
| Customer name and address | Send it to a person, not a generic inbox, or it sits unopened |
| Date of issue | Starts the clock on your payment terms |
| Description of the work | One line per item. Vague descriptions invite queries, and queries delay payment |
| Amount owed | Per item and as a total |
| Due date | An actual date. Not “30 days” |
| How to pay | Bank details, or a link that takes them straight to a payment screen |
“Due on receipt” is worth avoiding. It sounds firm and means nothing, because nobody can tell you when they received it.
Terms that actually hold
Thirty days is the legal default if you agree nothing. You don’t have to accept it.
Ask for 14 days on smaller jobs. For anything over a few hundred pounds, take a deposit up front, somewhere between 25% and 50%, and make the balance due on completion. A customer who won’t pay a deposit is telling you something useful before you’ve done any work.
Write the terms on the invoice and in the email that carries it. If you agreed them in writing beforehand, say so.
What you’re owed when it’s late
The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you a statutory right to charge interest on overdue business-to-business invoices. It applies whether or not you mentioned it in advance.
| Size of debt | Fixed compensation you can add |
|---|---|
| Up to £999.99 | £40 |
| £1,000 to £9,999.99 | £70 |
| £10,000 and over | £100 |
On top of that you can charge statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily from the day after payment was due. Check the current base rate before you quote a figure, since it moves.
You won’t always want to invoke this. Knowing it exists changes the tone of the third chase email, which is the point.
How you send it changes when you get paid
Three routes, and the difference between them is measured in days.
A template you fill in yourself. Free, fine for a handful of invoices a year, and slow. The customer has to open the file, find your bank details, log into their banking app and type them in. Every one of those steps is somewhere they can put it off.
Accounting software. FreeAgent, QuickBooks and Xero all send invoices, track what’s unpaid and nag automatically. You’re paying a monthly subscription whether you send two invoices or forty, which suits people who already need the bookkeeping.
A payments platform that sends the invoice for you. Stripe, PayPal and Whop all work this way. For example, with Whop you create the invoice from your business dashboard, choose one-time or recurring, set the due date, and pick which payment methods to accept. The customer gets an email with a Pay now button and doesn’t need an account of their own, only an email address. Card payments are charged at 2.7% plus $0.30 per transaction for domestic cards, with 1.5% added for international cards and another 1% where currency conversion is involved. The schedule is published in US dollars, so work that in if you’re billing in pounds.
The trade is straightforward. Bank transfer costs nothing and moves at the speed of your customer’s admin. Card payment costs a percentage and moves at the speed of a button.
Chasing, without wrecking the relationship
- Day after due. Short, friendly, no apology. “Invoice 0042 was due yesterday, attaching it again in case it got buried.”
- Day seven. Reply on the same thread and add a specific question: “Is there a PO number this needs to go against?” Questions get answered when reminders don’t.
- Day fourteen. Phone the person who hired you, not accounts. Follow up in writing the same day.
- Day thirty. State that statutory interest and compensation now apply, with the figures. Keep it factual.
- Beyond that. Small claims through Money Claim Online costs from £35 for smaller debts and doesn’t need a solicitor.
Steps one and two clear a lot of it. Having a sequence you follow every time matters more than how you word any single email.
Put the money somewhere sensible when it lands
Payment arriving in a lump makes a decent month look like a great one. Move a percentage straight out for tax the day it clears, and keep records of what you spent to earn it, because allowable expenses on a Self Assessment are the difference between a bill you expected and one you didn’t.
Invoicing FAQs
Do I need to be a limited company to send an invoice?
No. Sole traders invoice using their own name, plus a trading name if they have one. You need to be registered as self employed with HMRC and keep records of what you invoice, but there’s no requirement to form a company first.
What if the customer says they never received it?
Send it again on the original email thread so the timestamps are visible, and follow up by phone. This is the main argument for a payment platform that logs when the invoice was opened, since it removes the question entirely.
Can I charge a late fee if I didn’t mention one?
For business-to-business invoices, yes. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 applies automatically. Consumer work is different, and there you generally need the charge written into the terms your customer agreed to.
Should I take card payments or ask for a bank transfer?
Bank transfer costs you nothing and depends on your customer getting round to it. Card and other instant methods carry a fee of a few percent and typically clear the same day. For larger invoices the transfer usually makes sense; for anything you want settled quickly, the fee often pays for itself.
How long should I keep old invoices?
Five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year if you’re self employed. Keep them somewhere you can search, not in a folder of PDFs named “invoice final v2”.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
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