As a freelance graphic designer or self-employed entrepreneur working as a graphic designer, you will always be required to put a lot of effort into your professional activity. This also applies to writing an invoice as a graphic designer. It would help if you had a good mix of your artistic talent, your creativity, and your technical knowledge every day. But there are also a lot of organizational tasks waiting for you. Writing an invoice as a graphic designer is one of your most important tasks, as is the preparation of offers. Writing invoices usually takes a lot of time and requires a lot of care and accuracy.
Graphic designers should pay attention to this when invoicing
As a freelance graphic designer or freelance graphic designer, you are expected to be constantly creative, always required of you. With your professionalism, your customer expects you to help spread the vision of a brand or a company and its message in a, particularly visual way.
It doesn’t matter whether you run an agency yourself or the wishes and requirements of your customers as a freelancer implements. A lot of knowledge is required of you; you have to master a wide variety of techniques and use and use many aids.
Photography & artwork shouldn’t be magic words for you, and you have to know what stock photos are, what pixels are all about, and be familiar with color theory and typography.
As if that weren’t enough, you also have to deal with issues like bookkeeping. The invoicing after the completion of your projects also plays an important role. This is exactly why you must consider a few things when calculating the graphic designer.
Record times precisely
Even if a lot of creativity is required in your work as a freelance or self-employed graphic designer, you have to be precise and correct when recording working times. An approximate estimate of your working hours is by no means possible. You are doing yourself a favor by recording all working hours as accurately as possible. Time recording systems, for example, can help you here.
You have to decide for yourself how much of these times will appear on your graphic designer bill. In any case, it is always correct when you add a record of your times to your will attach. In this way, the customer is also fully aware of the composition of what is initially a high price. If you record your working hours precisely, you will always ensure the necessary transparency.
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Create invoice correctly
Your job as a graphic designer is assigned to the group of freelance professions by the tax office. For you as a freelance graphic designer, this means that your invoice must contain very specific and prescribed content. You should use a template to make your billing work easier and time-saving. With this, you can save time as a graphic design freelancer and create a legally secure invoice, as all mandatory information is already included in the invoice template for services. You can also use the template for your graphic designer invoice and is, of course, available to download free of charge.
The mandatory information at a glance
Your invoice as a graphic designer must contain the following components so that it is recognized by the tax office and from a legal point of view:
- The personal data of you as a service provider must be included.
- You must provide the exact name and details of the invoice recipient.
- Your tax number must not be missing from the graphic designer invoice.
- Don’t forget the date of the invoice.
- Always use a consecutive and unique invoice number.
- You have to describe your performance exactly on the graphic designer invoice. This means that you have to state the type and amount of your performance.
- Do not forget the time of your delivery or service provision.
- For each invoice item, the invoice amount, i.e., the graphic design prices.
- The applicable tax rate must be included as well as the total amount.
- Mention the payment deadline.
- If you use the small business regulation, there must be a corresponding note on the invoice.
When writing the invoice, make sure that all mandatory information and components of an invoice are really included and check the invoice again very carefully at the end.
Send the invoice correctly
For a long time now, you can no longer send your invoice by post. Invoices can be digitized, and the invoice can also be sent by email without any problems. All you have to do is save your graphic designer invoice template as a PDF and attach it to your email. However, with this type of invoice transmission, you have to make sure that you always observe the legal bases for the electronic creation and transmission of invoices. The same naturally applies to the archiving and retention requirements of the invoices.
Note deadlines
When creating an invoice, it is not enough that you only consider the invoice content. The invoicing deadline must also be observed. To be entitled to payment for your services, you must make sure that you write an invoice for the services you have provided within six months. An invoice is not always just an important document as proof to the tax office but is also proof of your service provision.
Peculiarity of the VAT rate for graphic designers
When it comes to writing invoices for graphic designers, there is one more point that is very important to you. This point is about VAT rates. If you do not use the small business regulation, the VAT Act allows you to charge VAT on your graphic designer bills as a freelance graphic designer.
In the Sales Tax Act, also referred to as UStG for short, the different tax rates are precisely defined. As a rule, VAT is 19 percent for all goods and services. But there are also exceptions where the lower VAT rate of 7 percent applies. These specific exceptions also include achievements that are important to you as a graphic designer. This is particularly appropriate when it comes to copyrights and their use, for example. In any case, you have to pay close attention to this when creating the invoice and listing the individual invoice items.
Conclusion
There are certain things you need to keep in mind when writing a graphic designer bill. First and foremost, you have to pay attention to all necessary mandatory information that must be included on the invoice. You can save a lot of time as a graphic designer by using an invoice template for services.
You also have to make sure that you always observe the correct VAT rates when creating the invoice. There are quite a few exceptions where, as a graphic designer, you have to apply the lower VAT rate of 7% in addition to the normal VAT rate of 19%. Everything is much easier with professional accounting software. This not only saves you a lot of time but also allows you to enjoy some other advantages.
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