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CENTILIO BILL / MONEY · AURORA
Getting paid, whatever you invoice with.
Bill is not out yet, so this is not a manual for it. It is the six things we would tell any small business about invoicing — how to write one that gets paid, what terms to set, how to chase without damage, when to ask for a deposit, what an Indian GST invoice must carry, and how to hand a quarter to your accountant. The free invoice generator will do the document for you today.
6 guidesuseful before Bill shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Bill has not shipped. All features, screens and prices are proposals.
Bill has not shipped yet.
Bill is not available yet. These are proposed screens, features and prices—not a beta, payment service or live invoicing product. All console actions affect fictional data in this page only.
Guides
The six things people ask first.
Illustrative invoicing guidance, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your required invoice fields, tax treatment and payment terms with a qualified adviser; these examples are not an exhaustive compliance checklist.
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How to send an invoice that gets paid
The eight things that decide whether it is paid this week or next month.
- Name the work, not the category. "Website design · 6 templates" is paid faster than "Professional services". The person approving it must recognise what they bought.
- Put the due date in numbers. A date, not "on receipt". Net 14 collects faster than Net 30 for a small business, and both beat a blank.
- Give one obvious way to pay. A link at the top. Every extra step between reading and paying costs you days.
- Send it to a person and a finance inbox. The person approves, the inbox pays. One without the other is where invoices go quiet.
How to write payment terms
Short, specific and boring, which is what gets them accepted.
- Set the days. Net 14 for new customers, Net 30 for the ones who have earned it, on receipt for one-off work.
- Say what late means. A named interest rate or a fee, and the point at which work pauses. You will rarely use it; having it changes behaviour.
- Ask for a deposit where it is fair. Half up front when the work costs you money before it earns any, or when history says so.
- Put them on the quote, not just the invoice. Terms agreed before the work are terms; terms introduced with the invoice are a surprise.
How to chase an unpaid invoice
Early, short, by the calendar — not by mood.
- Three days before it is due. A heads-up with the link. This one prevents more late payments than everything after it.
- On the day. One line: it is due today, here is the link, tell me if anything needs changing.
- A week after. Ask when it is scheduled rather than whether it will be paid, and offer to split it.
- Three weeks after. Name the consequence you are willing to carry out, and pick up the phone. Keep every version of this in writing.
How to price a deposit
The number that protects the work without losing it.
- Cover your cost, not your profit. Enough to pay for what you must buy or subcontract before you are paid.
- Use history. A customer who has paid 12 days late three times is telling you something. Half up front is a normal answer.
- Make it a line, not a conversation. A deposit line on the quote is accepted far more often than a deposit request after it.
- Invoice the balance the day the work lands. Not the end of the month. The gap between finishing and invoicing is the most expensive week in a small business.
How to make a GST invoice in India
What has to be on it for it to count.
- The two GSTINs. Yours and the customer's, plus their state — the place of supply decides IGST against CGST and SGST.
- An unbroken number. Sequential for the financial year, per entity, with no gaps. Auditors look at this before anything else.
- HSN or SAC per line. The code and the taxable value on each line, then the tax split shown separately.
- Keep the record and the copy. The document and the trail have to survive the year they were filed in; filing itself stays with your CA or the portal.
How to hand over to your accountant
Ten minutes at the end of a quarter instead of a weekend.
- Give them read-only access. Free, no seat, their own login through Account. They see everything and can change nothing.
- Export in their columns. Invoices, payments and credit notes as CSV, in the shape their system imports.
- Close the period. Lock it so nothing moves after they have read it; corrections become credit notes, which is what they wanted anyway.
- Send the ageing with it. What is owed, by whom, and how old. It is the first thing they will ask for.
Questions
Quick ones.
What should my payment terms say?
Three things: when it is due in days rather than "on receipt", what happens if it is late, and how to pay. Shorter terms get paid sooner; Net 14 collects faster than Net 30 for a business of this size.
When should I ask for a deposit?
When the work costs you money before it earns any, or when the customer has been late before. Half up front on a new customer is normal and nobody is offended by it.
How do I chase without damaging the relationship?
Early, briefly and by the calendar rather than by mood. A note three days before it is due prevents more late payments than three angry ones after.
What has to be on an Indian GST invoice?
Your GSTIN and theirs, an invoice number in an unbroken series for the financial year, the date, the place of supply, the HSN or SAC code, the taxable value and the CGST/SGST or IGST split, and a signature or digital signature.
Next for you
What people add after Bill.
The tools Bill sits between. Check each product’s current stage while Bill is built.
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Wave 2 is the next build after the currently available tools. Leave your name and you will hear before the announcement — and in the meantime the free invoice generator is yours.