What Is an Invoice Number?

Receiving payment for completed orders is an integral part of the work of every freelancer, independent contractor, and in general, any business owner. You should use special payment documents, which contain important data and are the basis for providing compensation. While basic information about customers, products, and services is not questionable, IDs may be confusing. Why do invoices generally include an invoice number, and why is it essential? Let’s talk in detail about this seemingly insignificant thing.

Why Is an Invoice ID Important?

If you look at any invoice number example, you will see a unique combination of numbers, letters, and symbols separating one document from another. It allows you not to drown in a huge stream of papers, especially if you work with several clients. It helps you avoid duplicating and submitting the same files. With form IDs, you can track the delivery of documents to recipients, invoiced payments, control delays in compensations, and so on.   Also, numbered papers allow you to evaluate your own activities, track the volume of tasks performed, and analyze work with specific clients. Besides, when it comes to paying taxes, the tax office can check an invoice number on each issued document and correctly calculate the amount required to pay income tax. Bill IDs may simplify other accounting issues.   Besides the obvious benefits to entrepreneurs, numbering is important to customers. It allows them to quickly determine a sender and services they need to pay for. Of course, orderers keep records of the papers received, so well-made files with consistent numbers help them in these matters and demonstrate your professionalism.   What should be included in an invoice besides an ID? Such a document also contains:  

• issue and due date;
• business and customer info;
• a list of goods and services rendered;
• taxes, fees, shipping costs, and discounts;
• payment options;
• total amount due;
• notes, tips, manuals, etc.;
• your signature and company logo.

  Where to find an invoice number? For faster paperwork, IDs are placed at the top of documents, next to other important information about files, such as the creation date and the deadline for payment. For example, in forms generated using our editor, they can be found in the upper right corner on the second line.

Do Invoice Numbers Have to Be Sequential?

While there is no well-defined format for IDs in many countries, there is one rule that you need to adhere to when filling out templates for invoices. Numbers should be sequential. Consistency is a guarantee that your and your customers’ documentation is organized. With Saldo Invoice, you won’t have any difficulties since our editor assigns a number one point more than the previous file. So papers will be numbered in the format “001”, “002”, and so on.

Invoicing Numbering System

Since most regions don’t have clear ID format requirements, you can modify it. So, by and large, you decide how to number invoices. Choose one system and use it when creating all papers. The main thing is not to forget about the sequence rule. Also, avoid repeating numbers in the new year or cycle. It may confuse you.

How to Generate an Invoice Number?

When you make an invoice with pre-built templates, you can manually renumber it by adding the characters you want. Follow a few basic guidelines from pros.   So, for example, you can add to the file number the project or customer’s ID for which a task was made. You can use both of these data if you work with several orderers within the same project. There is also a chronological option, which adds the year, month, and even the day when a bill was issued. Such additional information is indicated at the beginning, and then the form number follows after a dash or slash. Keep in mind that there should be no spaces in the invoice ID.   The choice of the specific method is up to you. You can try one, and if it doesn’t work for you, switch to another. It’s worth doing it at the end of a fiscal year. It’ll help both you and a tax office avoid confusion when analyzing papers.