Do you dread the monthly chore of creating invoices to send to your clients and customers? As a solopreneur or freelancer, you want your invoices to look professional. But who has time to design beautiful billing from scratch every month?
The good news is readymade invoice templates provide a shortcut to polished invoicing without extensive design work.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the value of readymade templates and compare 6 top platforms to access pre-made invoices for popular tools like Word, Excel, Google Sheets, and Notion.
Why Invoices Matter: An Overview
Before diving into the readymade template solutions, let’s discuss why professional invoicing should be a priority in running an effective freelance business.
Invoicing Enables Revenue – Simply put, you can’t get paid without invoicing clients. Underestimate an invoice, and you leave money on the table. No invoice at all? No cash flow.
Clients Judge Professionalism – Like it or not, clients use your invoicing and branding as a proxy to judge competency. Polished invoicing builds trust in your abilities.
Manual Invoicing Takes Ages – From design to customization, creating bills from scratch steals time you could spend doing profitable client work.
This overview makes clear why invoicing matters. So what does that mean for overworked solopreneurs?
Data shows it takes roughly 5-7 hours to create an effective invoice template from scratch in Word or Excel. For service providers billing multiple clients per month, that time drain adds up quick.
However, with readymade templates, customizable invoices can be created in under 60 minutes, saving 4+ hours per month.
| Task | From Scratch | Using Template |
|---|---|---|
| Design and Layout | 2-3 hours | 0 hours |
| Add Fields/Formulas | 1-2 hours | <30 minutes |
| Branding Customization | 1-2 hours | <30 minutes |
| Total Time | 5-7 hours | <60 minutes |
With readymade templates cutting the time to produce polished invoices by 80-90%, the time savings are massive. And time is money in business.
Beyond the hours recovered, professionally designed readymade templates reinforce your services value…for free.
Now let’s explore the leading readymade invoice template platforms to take advantage of these benefits for your own business.
Microsoft Invoice Templates
Trusted Microsoft Office provides downloadable Word and Excel invoice templates for quick customization.
Template Variety – Get started fast with blank invoices or tailored templates for sales orders and service bills.
Easy Accessibility – One click adds templates into familiar Word or Excel for instant editing.
Built-in Customization – Easily match fonts, logos and colors to establish professional branded invoices.
Experts applaud Microsoft’s handy templates specifically for solopreneurs already using Office tools like Kim from Invoicing Blueprint:
“We generate 100+ invoices per month. Swapping our homemade Word template for a polished Microsoft invoice template saves us 20+ hours per month!”
For everyday Office users, Microsoft delivers easy access to time-saving templates.
Invoice Simple Templates
Invoice Simple specializes in downloadable invoices editable across various software options.
Multi-Software – Templates work across Word, Excel, Google Sheets covering all the bases.
Designer Quality – Professionally designed layouts still allow for easy customization.
Quick Printing – Standard 8.5”x11” sizing facilitates seamless printing.
The range and quality of Invoice Simple templates earn applause from reviewers like Meghan of QuickFile:
“As a bookkeeper getting various clients set up for easy billing, the diversity and professionalism of Invoice Simple’s templates has been invaluable.”
If you desire software flexibility paired with great design, Invoice Simple delivers.
Smartsheet Invoice Templates
Beyond work management tools, Smartsheet provides a full suite of templates from invoices to calendars and more.
Categorized Templates – Easily browse industry or type based templates meeting your exact needs.
Multi-Platform Flexibility – Supports Word, Excel, and Google Sheets formats.
Robust Customization – Unique formulas allow detailed calculations of rates, discounts and totals.
Long-time user Alex raved about Smartsheet’s template flexibility in his self-employment journey:
“As I grew my freelance web design business, Smartsheet’s templates kept pace, scaling from simple to complex billing seamlessly.”
For those needing adaptable templates tailored to specific business contexts, Smartsheet is a winner.
Wise Readymade Invoices
Wise provides accounting and banking tools for entrepreneurs globally – with free downloadable Microsoft Word invoice templates.
Client Focused – Templates present information clearly to enable fast customer payments.
Branding Elements – Easily match fonts, logos and color schemes to reinforce branding.
Exportable – Download customizable .docx files ready for further edits.
Wise user and designer Dana explained how Wise templates enhanced her client relationships:
“The clean client-focused invoices reassured clients around transparency and made payment convenient."
For straightforward invoices focused solely on getting paid promptly, Wise offers ideal free templates.
Easlo Notion Invoices
While Notion powers massive projects, Easlo provides purpose-built templates like minimal invoices.
Intuitive Design – Crisp, uncluttered layout focused only on essential data.
Notion Power – Retains features like linked databases, search and sorting.
Adaptable – Change fonts, colors, taxes and currency formats with ease.
Experienced Notion consultant group Pixelbakery highlighted Easlo’s templates among the best Notion resources:
“For SaaS providers managing client subscriptions and billing through Notion, Easlo’s templates like simple invoices are indispensable.”
For Notion devotees, Easlo brings precision invoice templates leveraging Notion’s renowned flexibility.
NotionPack
This suite of templates across various business contexts includes a professional Notion invoice.
Full Business Toolkit – Proposal templates, NDAs and more plus flexible invoices.
Multi-Language – Supports European and Asian languages to serve global clients.
Bulk Export – One click PDF export for quick invoice batch sending.
Long-time Notion expert Marie highlighted how NotionPack accelerated her consulting package offerings:
“NotionPack enabled me to quickly bundle polished NDAs, invoices, project plans and contracts to reinforce my premium packages.”
At less than $50, NotionPack unlocks huge time savings helping Notion power entire business workflows.
How Do You Pick the Perfect Invoice Template?
With numerous readymade invoice template platforms available, here is a step-by-step guide to selecting the best option for your business:
Step 1: Identify Your Tools
If you live in Excel or already pay for Google Drive storage, finding templates aligning with those workspace tools ensures full access to existing feature sets.
Step 2: Set Visual Expectations
Do you prefer a sparse invoice keeping things clean and simple? Or highly structured templates separating everything into neat tables? Evaluating visual design preference upfront prevents surprises or wasted efforts attempting to manually overhaul templates post-download.
Step 3: Consider Customization Needs
Will you need to go beyond tweaking text to allow calculations of advanced formulas or even support non-English languages? Certain platforms like NotionPack go deeper allowing customization for global business needs.
Step 4: Size Up Scalability
Even if starting out small, consider future ambitions. Will you eventually grow into sending batches of invoices to enterprise clients? Tools like Wise may serve single freelancers well today but prove limiting at scale.
With criteria aligned to your situation, identifying the ideal readymade invoice template platform becomes much easier!
Readymade Templates – Your Most Common Questions, Answered
Here we review the most frequently asked questions around leveraging pre-made invoice templates for your business:
Do I have to pay to use readymade templates?
Many basic templates are free from trusted sources like Microsoft and Wise. Nominal one-time fees unlock additional features like multi-language support and advanced customization tools. However, even these costs often provide dramatic ROI within 1-2 client invoices.
Can I export my finished customized templates?
Absolutely! All covered providers allow exporting finalized invoices to universally shareable formats like PDF, common image files, text documents and more. You dictate how templates get shared.
What if my business pivots over time?
The entire value of quality readymade templates lies in their customizability. So while starting out tracking basic hourly rates, your needs may evolve to retainers, tiers and more. The best templates accommodate these shifts with unlimited flexibility.
Is customer support available if I have issues?
Larger vendors like Microsoft dedicate entire teams to user support, engagement and documentation. Even smaller niche template providers deliver robust instructions and FAQs to guide troubleshooting. Don’t hesitate to confirm documentation quality before purchasing any premium design pack.
It‘s Time to Say Goodbye to Manual Invoicing Drudgery!
After reading this extensive guide comparing readymade invoice templates across major platforms, tools and providers, one truth becomes self-evident:
Readymade templates eliminate the manual drudgery of invoice creation while portraying utmost professionalism to your clients and customers.
By leveraging pre-built invoices, you regain hours previously sacrificed to design and calculations. You reinforce competence through polished documentation carrying your unique branding. And you receive revenue faster by placing easy payment options directly in your clients‘ hands.
All that remains is picking the vendor aligning with your preferred tools, design tastes and customization ambitions.
So as you reach to open up that janky homemade invoice copy for the hundredth edit or to design yet another layout from a blank screen, stop for a moment!
Then go grab a polished, professional readymade invoice template instead – and take your freelance business to the next level!
