When to Invoice Your Virtual Assistant Clients

When should you invoice a client? Before working with them or after? 

If you send your bill before you do the work, will it have a negative impact on your relationship?

If you ask them to pay after you complete their work, what if they don’t pay?

In today's episode, I shed some light on the topic and share what I recommend most VAs do.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Episode on protecting your business from scams: https://desiretodone.com/protect-your-virtual-assistant-business-from-scams/
• Introvert VA Club: https://introvertvaclub.com/

More resources:

• Episode on creating your client processes: https://desiretodone.com/before-working-with-virtual-assistant-clients/
• Episode on figuring out your ideal client: https://desiretodone.com/youridealclient/
• Create your contract and business policies: https://desiretodone.com/virtual-assistant-contracts/

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🦄 Join my membership program: https://introvertvaclub.com

Transcript

When to Invoice Your Virtual Assistant Clients

When should you invoice a client? Before working with them or after? 

If you send your bill before you do the work, will it have a negative impact on your relationship? Will the potential client run away?

If you ask them to pay after you complete their work, what if they don’t pay? What if you don’t get your money?

Hello! Welcome to the Desire to Done Podcast! I’m your host Billie Gardner. 

If you feel uneasy about invoicing clients, you’re not alone! New VAs are always worried about this, and the topic comes up a lot inside my membership community.

Here’s what I usually recommend to VAs: have your clients pay before you do any work. 

This might make you feel uncomfortable, but there are a few reasons why this is a good idea.

For one, you won’t have to hunt down your hard-earned money after completing the job. The reality is not everyone is good at paying their bills. It’s not fair to you to have to chase down your money or not get paid at all. It’s a waste of your time and energy.

Getting paid upfront also ensures the client is legit and serious about working with you. 

Asking people to pay beforehand will also eliminate anyone trying to scam you out of money.

The truth is, it’s not unusual in the VA world to ask for money upfront. When I was a VA, I never ran across anyone who had a problem with it. 

If a client refuses to follow your payment process or objects to any of your core policies,  they’re not the client for you. I simply would have turned a client away if they didn’t want to follow my rules.

If the potential client feels nervous and doesn’t want to pay right away because they don’t want to get ripped off either, you could offer them a trial package or a few hours so they can try your services and establish a relationship. 

That being said, there are some situations where you may not want to ask for money upfront or won’t be able to. 

For example, the payment process will be different if you’re a sub-contractor for another Virtual Assistant or agency. When you’re a sub-contractor, you’re hired to assist with someone else’s client work. Typically, you’ll be paid according to the number of hours you work and will therefore be paid after you do the work.

Another reason for not invoicing a client in full immediately is if you’re doing a large project like designing a website. You could invoice them 50% before you start the work and 50% right before completing their work. 

And another reason why you might want to send a bill later is if you have a client you’ve worked with before and trust. Sometimes it’s easier to do some work for a client and bill them afterward. As long as you know they are a good payer, there shouldn’t be a problem. As with anything, listen to your gut. Don’t do it if you feel uncomfortable with it.

I want to address the fact that scammers are trying to scam VAs all the time. Typically, these people are on job sites like Upwork or Fiverr, but they may also reach out to you directly. 

And the way they try to scam VAs vary. 

They may refuse to pay upfront or to pay the way you want them to. They may pay too much and ask you to give them the extra money back, which is a scam where they steal money from you. Or they may ask you to pay for equipment.  

Another thing they’ll do is they’ll ask you to invoice them through Quickbooks.

I have a podcast episode on this topic if you want to learn more. I’ll link to it in this week's episode description. 

My main advice is this: Do not be so desperate to get a client that you throw your processes or intuition out the window. You tell the client when and how you invoice them. You also have the right to turn down a client or stop communicating with someone whose demands are out of line. 

You are your own boss. You are now responsible for getting your money. 

Follow your gut, follow YOUR processes, and be confident. Your ideal client will have no problem with this!

Be sure to have your business policies in place BEFORE you book your first client. Include them in your contract and be prepared to discuss them on your discovery calls. Your policies include when and how you get paid, your work hours, how clients can reach you, and so on.

Need help starting your VA business? I’d love for you to check out the Introvert VA Club! It’s full of amazing resources for starting your VA business, such as courses, templates, and a forum where you can ask all the questions you want and get the answers you need from me, my team, and other introverted VAs! 

It’s a supportive community, and we’re always having discussions like this one! 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe! Talk to you soon! Bye!