Build the invoice out of the timesheet, not out of your own totals
- Each worker's name, with the assignment or requisition they were placed on
- The week-ending date, matching the client's pay period, not your billing cycle
- Regular and overtime hours as separate quantities, never one combined figure
- The purchase order or requisition number, without which their accounts system will refuse the invoice
- The approver's name, if the agreement says a named manager signs off
The person approving your invoice has the signed timesheets and compares them line by line. Anything they cannot match in a few seconds slows things down: a worker billed under a nickname, two assignments merged into one line, or a Monday to Sunday week against their Sunday to Saturday. That is not a dispute, but it is a delay. On weekly billing, delays pile up faster than anywhere else.
The bill rate is on the invoice; the pay rate is not
Almost every client signs up to a bill rate. The rate is what they agreed to, so it is what your invoice has to show. Show the rate and the hours and let the total follow. An invoice with only a total asks the client to trust you on the two numbers behind it.
Overtime is the line that gets invoices held
The most common reason a staffing invoice sits unpaid is overtime hidden inside a total the client reads as straight time. Their timesheet already splits the hours. Split them the same way and the invoice gets approved. Don't, and it comes back with a question that takes three days to answer.
A conversion fee is a one-off against an ongoing relationship
When a client hires your worker directly, the fee usually shrinks with the hours already billed on that assignment. The longer they used the worker through you, the less it costs to keep them. Put the fee on its own line, with the worker's name and the scale you used to calculate it. Nobody expects this figure on a weekly invoice, so make it easy to check.
If you are the contractor invoicing the agency, this is a different document
If an agency placed you, you usually bill the agency, not the end client. Often it is self-billing: the agency creates the invoice and you only approve it. If you do write it yourself, address it to the agency and quote their assignment number, not the client's purchase order. The payment terms are the agency's, and they are often longer, because the agency is waiting to be paid too.
Common questions
- Should I invoice weekly or monthly?
- Weekly, for the same week the timesheets close. In staffing you bill for work that is already done by people you have already paid. On a monthly cycle you cover four weeks of payroll out of your own cash.
- The client's timesheet and mine disagree. What do I send?
- Send the hours you can prove, and leave the disputed hours off the invoice. Nobody approves an invoice with a contested line on it. An invoice with only the agreed hours gets paid while you settle the rest separately.
- What happens when an assignment ends mid-week?
- Bill the part-week on its own line, with the dates it covers, instead of folding it into a full week. The client's records close the assignment on that date. If you bill a full week for a worker who left on Wednesday, the client will re-check every other line on the invoice too.