1
That moment after 5 years when a client told me my invoices were impossible to read
I've been doing bookkeeping for local small businesses here in ABQ since 2018. Last month this one client sends me an email at 11pm like 'hey I can't figure out which line item is the payroll tax, I've been looking for 20 minutes.' I was annoyed at first but then I opened my own invoice and honest to god I couldn't find it either. I had been burying the important stuff in a wall of text with no separators or bold headers. That person basically taught me how to format a proper invoice at 35 years old. Has anyone else had a client point out something obvious you missed for years?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
michael80313d ago
Man that's brutal but I totally get it. My first year freelancing I sent out receipts that looked like a wall of spreadsheet vomit with no dates or job numbers separated. A client finally called me out and I was so embarrassed I redid the whole template that night. It's funny how you can look at something every single day and not see what's right in front of you. Now I literally use columns and bold headers for everything, even my grocery lists.
3
ray61313d ago
Same thing happened to me last year! I had been sending out these huge blocks of text for years thinking it looked professional. A client sent me a screenshot of my invoice with red circles everywhere asking what was the total due. I felt like such an idiot when I looked at it again. Now I put the total in a box at the top with big bold font and clean lines separating everything. It's wild how we get stuck in our own little systems and nobody tells us they're broken until someone finally does.
0