Graphic design invoice template

What goes on a design invoice

• Each deliverable: a logo, a set of guidelines, a website design, each a line with what it included.
• The revisions included, written into the line, and any extra rounds as a line of their own.
• A deposit already paid, if you took one, so the client sees what is left to pay.
• The rights: when and how the client gets them, in the notes.
• Third-party costs, such as fonts or stock images bought for the project, at cost and on their own lines.

Revisions

"Two rounds of revisions" in the line is the cheapest protection a designer has. When the client asks for a third, both of you can see it was not in the price, and the extra round goes on the invoice at your hourly rate, as in the example. If the job grew rather than just went round again, the scope change email generator writes the email that agrees the new price before you do the work.

Deposits and stages

For anything more than a few days' work, I'd take a deposit before starting and invoice the rest at the end or in stages. Deposits and progress billing covers how, and the payment schedule calculator splits a fee into stages that add up exactly. In the invoice generator, record a deposit already received with + Add amount paid.

If a client cancels part way through, the kill fee calculator works out what to charge for the work done and the cancellation.

When the rights pass

Clients usually expect to own their logo. In both the UK and the US, though, a transfer of copyright only counts if it is in writing and signed by the owner (UK section 90(3), US 17 U.S.C. 204). An invoice is not that document. What it can do is point to it: the template's note says the rights pass as set out in your agreement once the invoice is paid in full, which ties the transfer to the payment.

Fonts and stock images are a separate question. They come with their own licences, which usually stay with whoever bought them. If you bought them for the client, say so on the invoice, and hand over the licence with the files.

Wording you can copy

Clauses for the Notes field or your terms. They are a starting point: change the numbers to your own terms, and keep anything with legal weight in a signed agreement.

• Revisions

  The fee includes the rounds of revisions listed. Further rounds are charged at the hourly rate, and I will tell you before starting one.

• Rights on payment

  Rights in the final artwork pass to the client as set out in our signed agreement once this invoice is paid in full. Concepts not chosen remain with the designer.

• Third-party assets

  Fonts and stock images bought for the project are charged at cost and licensed to the client under their makers' own terms.

• Cancellation

  If the project is cancelled, work completed to date is invoiced, plus a cancellation fee of 25% of the remaining fee.

Related

Other templates: photography, which licenses images rather than selling them, and consulting. If a client queries the invoice, the invoice dispute response generator writes the reply.