Estimates, Invoices, & Payments

Assignment

Find or invent a freelance opportunity and create an estimate for it
Reference the Pricing Projects guide and the information provided on this page
Break your estimate into 2-3 phases.
Create it using any software you like. It should be fully branded similar to the BlackBOX example below.
Upload your estimate into your Collateral folder and name it like this:
- your name - estimate

Overview

Never perform work for a client without a signed estimate/contract. Verbal agreements are generally not taken seriously and impossible to re-visit or enforce in anyway. Every estimate should include:
Date
Detailed project description that includes a list of deliverables
Timing of payments
Rights Transferred. In most cases you will only want to retain the right to show in your portfolio. But that is very important. You may have to negotiate a date when you can start showing it. That might be when the media becomes available to the public or set date.
Terms for payment and cancellation
Attached detail such as , design brief, sketch layouts, site map, story-board thumbnails, etc.

Although there is time spent creating these contracts and acquiring signatures, it is up to the freelancer wether to sue a client for non-payment. When considering the expense and time commitment for following up with legal proceedings, it could be a bad investment if it is for a small dollar amount. That means obtaining signatures is somewhat ceremonial. However, a signed document is always taken far more seriously than an unsigned one between the parties involved. If you have client that is not paying on time, these strategies will often work:

With-hold delivery of the media you created until payment is received.
Negotiate a payment plan for the client to eliminate the debt over time.
Contact the client every 1-2 weeks to follow up on the payment(s)
If a client requests significant changes to the scope of a project after work has begun, the work should be stopped and a new estimate created and approved prior to re-starting. It is your responsibility to 'raise the flag' by simply saying to the client " this request is outside the scope of the original estimate and we will need to ask for additional budget".

Electronic Signature On PDFs from Adobe - Free

Instructions for creating a digital signature using Adobe Acrobat Pro

Example Estimate & Invoice

Note: Be wary of non-disclosure and non-compete clauses in agreements. Reference the 'Special Contract Language' in the 'Employment Types' section for information regarding these.

Note: The invoice, as is the case below, is often identical to the estimate. That is good business because the client will be expecting them to match.

Sample Estimate click image to enlarge

Sample Invoice click image to enlarge

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