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Home › Start here › Send invoices and get paid
Start here · Money

How to invoice clients and get paid faster

To invoice clients, you send each customer a numbered, dated invoice that lists what you delivered, what they owe, when it is due and how they can pay. Accounting software creates and sends invoices, shows which ones are unpaid and records payments when they arrive. Adding a payment processor lets customers pay by card or online straight from the invoice, so paying takes them fewer steps.

By Bill Belcamino · Page updated September 23, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team
How to invoice clients and get paid faster
Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: What's the simplest way to invoice clients and get paid faster?

Send invoices from your accounting software rather than a standalone app, with a pay-online link and automatic reminders switched on, so payments land in the books without anyone retyping them.

All three tracked tools are flat per account: Xero from $27/mo with no per-user fees, FreshBooks $23/mo on Lite but limited to 5 billable clients, and QuickBooks from $38/mo, whose free plan allows only 2 invoices/month. Software speeds up the easy payers, but slow ones are usually a paperwork problem on the client's side. An invoice sent to your day-to-day contact, or missing the purchase order number their finance team files it under, can sit unapproved while everyone assumes it's handled. So at kickoff, ask who approves payment, what reference they need on every invoice and whether you must be set up as a vendor first, and take a deposit from new clients. Decide too whether you'll absorb card fees (Stripe 2.9% + 30¢, PayPal 3.49% + 49¢ on PayPal Checkout), and check the local rules before passing them on, since surcharging is restricted in some places.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 23, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

How to send invoices and get paid, step by step

The software this job takes

What to look for

Common mistakes to avoid

What to settle before you buy

Frequently asked questions

How do I invoice clients?

Send a numbered, dated invoice that lists the work, the amount, the due date and how to pay. Accounting software fills in your details, emails the invoice and tracks whether it has been paid. To see which tools fit your setup, try the finder for this job.

How can I send invoices for free?

Of the 3 accounting tools we track, QuickBooks lists a free plan or free tier (limits are in the table above); Xero and FreshBooks do not. Where a free plan exists, check its limits against how many clients you bill and how often.

How do I get paid faster?

Send invoices the day the work is delivered, let clients pay online from the invoice, and send reminders automatically when an invoice passes its due date. Agreeing clear payment terms before the work starts also heads off disputes later.

What invoicing software fits a freelancer?

Look for simple invoicing, online payment and automatic reminders at a price that makes sense for a team of one. The table above compares the 3 accounting tools we track (QuickBooks, Xero and FreshBooks), with each one's verified entry price and billing unit.

How we built this page

We start from the job, not the product. The phrasings people search for this job (for example “how to invoice clients”) come from our research into how small and mid-size teams describe it. Which software categories the job takes is our editorial judgment. Every tool, entry price, billing unit and date comes from HelpCompare’s open dataset, recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page; nothing is estimated, and where a vendor publishes no price we say so. We take no affiliate commissions and publish no scores of our own. See our methodology or download the data from Open Data.

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Cite this page: HelpCompare, “How to invoice clients and get paid faster”, helpcompare.com/start/send-invoices-get-paid/ (updated ).

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01 · CompareWhich tool fits your team, side by side.133 comparisons 02 · Price & approveSourced, dated pricing and a one-page brief for sign-off.Decision brief 03 · SwitchWhat moves, what you rebuild, what it costs.264 guides 04 · ShareDownload and cite the data. CC BY 4.0.Open data
Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
About the author

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

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