Invoicing fees for clients paying by standing order in advance

Newbie

I have a couple of clients who I have taken on who are setup on a monthly standing order from the beginning of their year running to year end, I am keen to avoid a monthly invoice as I wont be doing any work other than reply to emails until the year end, is it acceptable to raise the invoice in month 12 when the work starts or do other forum members invoice at the beginning this way seems you are paying the tax potentially a year early?

Monsoon

I thought round and round this one and eventually decided this:

Don't go there with prepayments and work in progress. Do you really want a client to have paid you £500, which arguably you can't touch because you might owe it them back? And have to fiddle about with working out who's paid what on tick? Tooooo complicated!

We quote monthly, not annually. We invoice every month. Because we are acting for them every month, the fees are non-refundable and are essentially like a retainer. We just happen to do more work some months than others, and make sure all months in the financial year are paid for. Keep It Simple, Stupid

There are loads of monthly automatic invoicing software packages out there, so it can just happen automatically.

Sod when the tax is due. You've had the money. Pay the tax - the hassle of deferring it until the y/e work is completed is just not worth it, IMO, all things considered.

Newbie

Thanks monsoon, I think its time to change my bookkeeping package

AK002

Old place used to invoive quarterly in arrears.

deanshepherd

I operate on a monthly subscription basis. Everyone pays via direct debit at the beginning of the month. They are free to cancel at any time. No WIP, no debtors, no timesheets, no working out what is or isn't when a client leaves.

I raise a single invoice each year denoting the monthly subscriptions for the year ahead.

Newbie

I cant seem to decide what to do with this, if I invoice monthly I need to send the invoice to the client each month which is a hassle, if I invoice yearly for the coming year do I do it at a fixed point say April each year or from the date of signing up the client, oh confusion, TGIF

Monsoon

deanshepherd wrote: »

I raise a single invoice each year denoting the monthly subscriptions for the year ahead.

When you do that, does that become your VAT point? Or does it state VAT points every month?

deanshepherd

It states VAT points every month.