Bought a $40 label maker for my invoices and it cut my disputes in half

I used to hand write invoice numbers and due dates on paper invoices for my cleaning jobs, and people would argue about the amount or timing at least once a month. After spending $40 on a simple label maker from an office supply store and sticking clear labels on each invoice with a bold due date, I haven't had a single payment dispute in 6 weeks. Has anyone else tried a cheap system like this to stop clients from claiming they misread the details?

3 comments

3 Comments

brian_hart8d ago

Start laughing at myself because I spent three hours hand lettering my invoices last year with a sharpie and a ruler, thinking I looked professional. Now I realize I could have saved myself a whole lot of headache and a few scratched out due dates for the price of a burrito and a label maker. I bet my clients were just squinting at my terrible handwriting and guessing half the time. Honestly, a clear label probably does more for your business than a fancy website ever will.

shanes667d ago

I was pretty skeptical about something that simple making a difference. A label maker just seemed like overkill when you could type something up on the computer. But reading this and @hunt.hayden's comment about his fancy Canva templates makes me see it differently now. People probably skim invoices more than we think, or they get distracted and misread the hand-scrawled dates. A clean, bold label right there in their face takes all the guesswork out of it. I bet half my past disputes were just people not wanting to look like they missed something obvious. This really makes me want to try it for my own billing.

hunt.hayden7d ago

Start laughing at myself" is right, I spent a whole weekend designing "artisan" invoice templates in Canva and my clients still argued about dates. A burrito and a label maker would have saved me way more money than that weekend wasted. You're totally right that clear info beats fancy looks every time.