An invoice is not a request for money. It is a document that has to clear somebody else's accounts payable system, and that system rejects on technicalities. Eleven fields decide whether yours enters the payment queue or sits in an exception folder: your legal name and address, the brand's legal entity and billing address, a unique invoice number, the issue and due dates, the PO number if they use one, an itemised description of what you delivered, the amount and currency, applicable tax, your payment details, and the payment terms in writing.
Two of those cause most of the trouble. The PO number is the single biggest cause of a silent hold — most mid-size and large companies require one, and an invoice without it never enters the queue at all, which is why the template below asks for it before you raise the invoice rather than after. The due date is the other: write an actual calendar date, not "Net 30". Net 30 from when — the date you sent it, the date they opened it, the end of the month? An explicit date removes the argument.
Send it as a PDF, not a document the brand can edit, and put the invoice number in the email subject so it can be found later. If you agreed a late fee in the contract, restate it on the invoice itself. It costs nothing while the brand pays on time, and it turns your first follow-up from a favour you are asking into a term you are enforcing.
INVOICE
From
[Your legal name or registered company name]
[Your address]
[Your email]
[Tax registration number, if you have one]
Bill to
[Brand's legal entity name — not the trading name]
[Billing address]
[Accounts payable email]
Invoice number: [YYYY-NNN, unique and sequential]
Purchase order number: [PO number, or "not applicable"]
Issue date: [DD Month YYYY]
Due date: [DD Month YYYY] (Net 7 from issue date)
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Description Amount
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[Deliverable 1 — e.g. 1 x Instagram Reel, published
to @yourhandle, [date]] [0,000]
[Deliverable 2 — e.g. 3 x Instagram Story frames
with link sticker, published [date]] [0,000]
[Usage rights — e.g. 90 days paid usage on the
brand's Meta ad accounts] [0,000]
[Production — e.g. one-day shoot, props] [0,000]
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Subtotal [0,000]
Tax [rate]% [000]
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TOTAL DUE [0,000]
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Payment details
Account name: [name]
[Bank details / IBAN / routing and account number]
Reference: [invoice number]
Payment terms
Payment is due by [due date]. A late fee of 1.5% per month
applies to any balance outstanding after that date, as agreed
in our contract dated [date].
Thank you — [Your name]