When running a flower shop business, you spend most of your time crafting beautiful floral arrangements and so handling the administrative part may not be your strong suit, like creating a florist invoice template.
Having a professional invoice template provides a seamless payment process for your clients. If you're unsure how and where to start when creating your florist invoice template, here are the details you need to know.
Note: If you are a flower shop looking for a free, customizable invoice template, try Bonsai today. Our custom invoice templates are easy to edit and download so you can get paid faster. Try a free trial today.
What is a florist invoice template?
A free florist invoice template is a bill for the services provided by the floral designer usually for custom flower arrangements, event styling, and other products/services. It includes the size, number, and types of flowers used, any add-ons, service charges, rush fees (if any), and delivery fees (if applicable).
Detailed invoices also help in the accounting side, making it easier to keep track of the business's cash flow.
When should you send professional invoices?
Sending a florist invoice depends on the service provided. Home decorations and customized floral arrangements are paid upfront so invoices are provided in real-time.
Event styling that entails big preparations like weddings and other special events would usually require partial or full payment before providing the service. With all the chaos that every event planning goes through, you wouldn't want your invoices to get lost along the way.
There are also recurring orders usually from hotels and offices in need of regular flower arrangement deliveries for their rooms and front desks. May it be weekly or monthly, a recurring invoice is sent on regular intervals based on your contract with the client.
What to include in your Free Florist Invoice Template?
Your free florist invoice template shouldn’t be too overcomplicated. Below are the important parts of an invoice that you should include.
Business Information
Just like any other invoices, the first important information to include in your free florist invoice template is your business information. This covers the flower shop's name, address, and contact information to ensure that the customer can contact you for any questions. It's also recommended that you include your brand's logo to identify your business amongst other florists and make it easier for clients to recognize your brand.
Customer's Information
To keep track of who you're billing to while you deal with different clients and ensure your customers that you are sending the invoice intended for them, you must add the customer's basic information. You can simply include the client's name and phone number.
However, if you're dealing with another business, like hotels with multiple locations, you may want to add/use their business name, address, and the location's direct phone number.
Invoice Number
This may not matter to individual customers but it sure is helpful when supplying another business. A hotel for example has a lot of vendors, from soaps to linens to furniture, it's sometimes hard to keep track of all the invoices they receive. Having a custom invoice number at the top of your invoice template is a huge help for these businesses.
Not only to them, but it also helps your bookkeeping easier. You won't need to always track by date. A custom invoice number helps in arranging them in chronological order.
Invoice Date and Due Date
Stating the issue date is one important requirement of an invoice template. It is simply the date on which the invoice is sent to the client. Sometimes, this is automatically added when florists use a free invoice template from any invoicing software.
Also, adding a due date to an invoice encourages a bill to be paid quickly and on time. This empowers florists to discourage ambiguity in the entire process, especially when expecting payments.
List of Services Provided
A florist invoice template must contain the services or the products like floral items purchased along with other details such as the description of the products, the cost for each item, and any other charges, like set up and delivery fees. Make sure to state in your florist invoice any discounts that you have agreed upon or provided to the customer.
Price
This is one part of the invoice template that you want to be clear and bold enough for your customers to see. Make sure to separate the subtotal, tax, and total price in an invoice so the customer has easy access to this information avoiding having to have these questions.
Payment Terms
Depending on your agreement with the clients, your payment terms must be stated in an invoice. As mentioned previously, even styling usually requires a downpayment. Make sure to indicate what percentage of the total cost needs to be paid prior to the event. For a wedding, this is usually 50%.
Mode of Payments
Also, an essential part to ensure you get paid quickly is to include your mode of payment. Financial information such as your business's bank details or eWallet numbers must be accurate and clear to avoid issues. Please don't include unnecessary sensitive information.
Tips when creating your florist invoice template
Your florist invoice can also be tool to help promote your brand. Here areHere’s a few tips on how to add value to your invoice templates.
Personal Note
Floral designers are in the business of making everything special with the beautiful creations they make through flower arrangements. Personal notes are usually added when sending these to your customer's loved ones making it more special.
A simple note of thank you for choosing you or making you a part of their special day would make you stand out from other florists. It shouldn't take you a lot of time to add a personal note at the bottom of your florist invoice templates. This also adds more value to your customer's overall experience with your service.
Format
Your free florist invoice template must be just as presentable and detailed as your arrangements are since it reflects your business's branding. The font text, layout, and even font colors if you ever decide to use any should match, if not, complement your brand's logo.
It would be off to see beautiful floral arrangements sent over together with an unpresentable invoice template. The small details in the invoice template matter.
Conclusion
There are multiple ways to obtain a free florist invoice template. You can create this from scratch through Google sheets, Google docs, Microsoft Word, and many more. You can also simply download free invoice templates from software like Bonsai. Either way, your invoice template must be detailed, clear, and presentable enough to serve its ultimate purpose - to get paid for the services provided.
One thing to keep in mind is that you are still in a business. In every service-providing business, word of mouth is the best form of marketing strategy you can have. It is free and powerful because it comes from the actual experience of a customer from the service you have provided. And so, you would want it to be the best there is by providing a seamless experience from booking to payment.
