Check and double check

When I was new to this writing game there were a lot of things that I was not up to speed with. One of the matters I was very slow about was the fact that some magazines expect you to supply an invoice to them before they can pay you. I don't come from a very business or money minded family, so all this was alien to me. Even now, this week, I've had two reminders to send in invoices - tut,tut. It's a good job they did as I had forgotten about them. It's not good business sense to forget to request payment is it?!

But my brain just doesn't work in a logical, business manner. And although I can be super dooper organised when I need to be, I am a creative type, after all, and most of the time the money end of game flies out of the window and gets lost in the ether. I have to take myself in hand and reign the business part of my brain back in again.

So, what do you put in an invoice? Well they are common sense usually: Name, address, contact details, name of company the invoice is for, date of invoice, date/issue your work was published in and amount to be paid is usually sufficient as if you've been published by them before, they should have sent you a form to fill in re: your bank details, so they know which bank to send the cheque to.

You will need to keep copies of invoices sent for your accounts and to be able to fill in your tax return too. So it makes good business sense and practice to ensure your invoices are sent and recorded.

Don't forget now!

Happy writing

Julie xx