It is a moment of joy for a freelancer, startup owner or small business to receive order inquiry for the job. To follow up on the same, soon you might be needing to take the action further by providing quote or estimate for the same. Well, at this point you need to keep in mind that your client might have offered your competitors the same job. Apart from your best services or fair price guarantee, what will play a major role in grabbing the said opportunity will totally depend upon how you present your offer by creating & sending the perfect invoice estimate offer. Because your estimate will determine if you’ll get the job or not. In order, to achieve this an invoice estimate app could go a long way.

Form

The basic elements of an estimate are similar to an invoice. The estimate becomes the invoice upon approval from the client. However, you’ll still need a professional header with the company’s name, your address as well as the name(s) and address of the addressee. The other details that should be included are invoice estimate serial identification number with the estimate offer date. Moreover, including corporate language for your invoice estimate will create a powerful impact on your clients. Beginning with a friendly greeting and few appreciative words could a long way in building a great professional relationship with clients. Followed by the core information, i.e, a detailed list of product(s) and/or service(s) offered and their estimated cost.

The Service

The first thing you’ll need to do is understand the job description and further break it down to calculable numbers/units. Most of the time, the jobs or work posted by clients are not clear in terms of understanding and hence, becomes difficult to put into an estimate. The units might be hours, words or photographs – depending upon the scope of work. To draft an accurate estimate, you’ll need to know from the client-side about the job description and work details. If it isn’t clear then we would recommend you to ask for it. It is also preferable to adopt a working system based at an hourly rate which will be headed under time management.

Time Management

Accounting for time is crucial for any job at hand. If you are working at an hourly rate than you’ll have to be specific about the total number of hours to complete the task. In such a scenario, it is always best to add an extra 20% to your estimated offer as it will always take more time than you think you need it on a specific task. There is no downfall to it even if you get to finish the task well before in advance, then either you can impress your client by submitting your work earlier or you can utilize the time to do a quality check on your work. Few clients do appreciate quality work and would rather be willing to wait for a certain amount of time. Hence, the time tracking feature of an online invoicing app could further aid to the cause.

Pricing

The last but the most important aspect of the estimate is ‘pricing’ which will decide to land you the job. It is better to calculate and re-calculate before presenting your final offer in the estimate to the client. Do consider adapting to the price according to your region/country and your competitors. Also, take into account various other expense factors such as rent, facilities, equipment, etc. Don’t sell your talents for cheap – quality and professional work is always valued. The key here is to not over or under-estimate your skills and experience. But also keep in mind to adapt to the market price regularly.

Wrapping Up:

Moon Invoice lets you seamlessly handle all your invoicing tasks starting from reports to payments and notifications, all of which can be easily filtered by date so that all your invoicing key data is easy to find, look and understand. You can stay updated about the product stock and inventory. You can download the Moon Invoice app for your smartphone and easily sync and merge customer details, invoice, estimates, purchase orders, etc. All-in-one summary page to get charts, quarter view and much more.

Recurring Payments Vs Recurring Invoices

Recurring Payments	Recurring Invoices
Recurring payments charge the customer’s credit card account or debit card account on a predetermined schedule for the same amount as preapproved.	Send an invoice to your customer on a regular basis. The client receives the invoice but, money is not paid unless the customer approves.
A business that takes prepayment of money and sells a monthly subscription service and product. Subscription services are excellent examples of this.	A company that provides fixed services with billable hours is an excellent choice for recurring billing. For example law firms and consulting agencies.

Pros and Cons of Recurring Invoices

Pros	Cons
You eliminate the possibility of human error by automating the billing process. If you use a recurring invoice, you will not be concerned about forgetting to charge your customers for the things they ordered.	You must exercise caution while recurring billing to prevent issuing inaccurate pricing. This also holds for price changes that could take place right once an invoice is created.
If you provide your customers with the option for recurring billing, they are more likely to buy products regularly.	It could be difficult to cope with recurring invoices if a transaction fails for any reason.

Net 45	Invoice is due in full within 45 days with no early payment discount offered
2/10 net 45 terms	2% discount if you pay within 10 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/15 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 15 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/10 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 10 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/7 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 7 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days

Category	Net Method vs. Gross Method	Explanation
Calculation Approach	- Applies tax credits first; reduces taxable income before computing tax liability.	- Doesn't apply tax credits; computes taxable income without considering tax credits.
Tax Credit Eligibility	- Allows for greater likelihood of tax credit eligibility due to reduced taxable income.	- Limits tax credit eligibility because taxable income hasn't been reduced yet.
Itemized Deduction Requirement	- Lowers threshold requirement for itemizing deductions due to decreased taxable income.	- Raises threshold requirement for itemizing deductions due to higher taxable income.
Advantages	- Leads to lower taxable income and increases chances of meeting qualifications for other tax benefits.	- Results in higher taxable income compared to net method.
Disadvantages	- May miss opportunity to reduce tax burden if taxpayer doesn't itemize deductions or take advantage of tax credits.	- Increases taxable income and may result in higher overall tax bill.