Do You Need a Free Invoice Maker? Here’s How to Tell.

Hey small business owners: Here’s a question for you… do you need a free invoice maker?

Certainly, you need to invoice. There isn’t an entrepreneur or a freelancer alive who doesn’t. Invoicing is the process by which you show your customers what they owe you, and how to pay it, and they respond accordingly. If you do not invoice then you don’t get paid—and that’s obviously not ideal.

You can’t just write the word Invoice and a dollar amount on a piece of paper and stuff it in an envelope, though. You have to invoice right. You have to pay attention to some of the basics of invoice design and invoice layout. In short, you have to know how to make an invoice if you want to get paid on time and without any hassle. And that, of course, is where an invoice maker can come in handy.

Why Invoice Layout Matters

But why exactly is all this important—and really, how hard could it be?

In truth, it’s not so much hard as it’s just very precise. To invoice effectively, you have to get all the invoice elements on the page, laid out in a way that will make sense to the customer. You have to design invoices that are simple yet also thorough; straightforward yet complete.

Consider any of the following scenarios—putting yourself in the mindset of a customer:

• You receive an invoice that doesn’t tell you how you can pay—where to send checks, how to pay on PayPal, which credit cards are accepted, etc.
• You receive an invoice that just has a single dollar amount, without any details about the services/products you are being billed for or the fees/charges incurred.
• You receive an invoice that arrives weeks after the product or service was rendered—to the point where you had almost forgotten that you still owed money.
• You receive an invoice for the incorrect amount.

Any of these issues would rightly frustrate you, which hammers home a simple point: Proper invoice design enhances the customer experience, builds consumer loyalty, and saves you a lot of hassle and headache. It maximizes the odds of your invoices being paid on time and without fuss, which makes invoice design well worth learning.

The Benefits of an Invoice Maker

That’s where using an invoice maker becomes advantageous. When you use an invoice maker, you ensure that your invoices are consistent in their formatting. You ensure that they are simple yet aesthetically pleasing, and that all the elements are properly laid out.

Not only that, but using an invoice maker will give you a feel for what good invoices look like and why they matter—not the flashiest of small business skillsets, but important nevertheless.

Alternatives to an Invoice Maker

In fact, using an invoice maker is one of the very best ways to approach your small business’ invoicing needs.

The alternatives are few. You could start from scratch and just make your own invoices, though this requires you to know what a good invoice actually looks like. Meanwhile, you might find invoice templates or sample invoices, which can provide some guidance and control—yet they’re not as fast as using an online invoice maker.

The best option may be to download an invoice app, like BizXpert, which will provide you with some tools for invoicing automation, invoice management, and more. If you prefer to invest a bit more time into a slightly more manual approach, though, using a free invoice maker is a no-brainer—and a great crash course in invoice design.