Get the details before you invoice
Ask for the billing entity, not the brand name you know. The company on the invoice is often a holding company or an agency, and finance teams reject documents addressed to the wrong one. Two questions cover it: who should this be addressed to, and is there a purchase order number.
Ask once, at the start, while everyone is still keen. Chasing a billing address after you have delivered is the slowest conversation in this business.
What goes on the document
An invoice is a short, boring document that answers five questions: who is billing, who is being billed, what for, how much, and how to pay. Anything else is decoration.
The five things
- Your legal name and address, plus any tax numbers your country requires.
- The brand's billing entity and address.
- A sequential invoice number, and the date you issued it.
- One line describing the work, including usage terms.
- The amount, in one currency, and where to send it.
Here is that document with nothing missing and nothing extra:
Describing the work
Write what you delivered and what the brand is allowed to do with it. Usage is the part creators leave off, and it is the part that decides whether you can charge again in six months when the same reel turns up as a paid ad.
Usage is not a detail. It is half of what you sold.
One line is enough: what, how many, where it runs, for how long. Instagram Reels × 4 — skincare launch. Usage: paid + organic, 90 days.
Sending it, and chasing it
Send it the day you deliver, to the finance address if they gave you one, and to your contact as well. Keep the file name boring and searchable.
If nothing has landed by the due date, one plain message beats three apologetic ones. Reference the invoice number, restate the amount, and ask when it is scheduled for payment. That last question is the one that gets an answer.