Invoicing for photographers

Invoice Koi is an invoice app for photographers, with the deposit, the shoot, the editing and the usage licence as four lines rather than one number.

Make an invoice free

The iPhone app is coming to the App Store.

An illustration of a camera body, a prime lens, a light meter, a roll of film and a stack of contact sheets with no images on them, with a koi swimming among them.

The shoot is the part everybody can see, and it is rarely half the work. There is the day itself, then the cull and the edit, then a licence question nobody asked about until the picture turned up on a billboard. An invoice that says one number for all of it invites the client to think they bought everything.

01On the document

What photographers
put on an invoice.

Save these items with your own rates. Tap to add them to an invoice, with the unit, price and totals filled in.

Line	Unit
Shoot day	days
Half day shoot	each
Second photographer	days
Editing and delivery	job
Usage licence, twelve months	each
Equipment hire	days
Album or prints	each

Set your own prices. The app's starter rates are placeholders. To bill one job today with nothing installed, the free photographer invoice template opens in your browser with these lines on it.

A job, grouped Subtotals per section

ON THE DAY

Shoot day£1,200

Second photographer£350

Subtotal£1,550

POST

Editing and delivery£480

Subtotal£480

LICENCE AND PRINTS

Usage licence, twelve months£300

Album, 30 spreads£420

Subtotal£720

Total£2,750

Grouped line items work on all nine templates.

A photograph of a photographer checking the back of a camera at the edge of a shoot, light stand and bag on the floor beside them.

02Why photographers use it

Three things that
save the evening.

A deposit that holds the date

Record what has been paid against the invoice as it comes in, and the balance, the status and the reports all follow from it. A date held on a part payment shows exactly what is still owed.

The day, the edit and the licence as three things

Group them with their own subtotals. A client who can see that the licence is its own line is a client who understands they are buying a use rather than the negatives.

Quoted first, invoiced after

Send the shoot as an estimate and convert it when it is agreed, with the lines, the client and your terms carried across. What changed on the day is edited before the invoice goes out.

03 · Questions

Asked by photographers.

How do I take a deposit to hold a date?

Raise the invoice and record the deposit as a payment against it. The document then shows the full price, what has been paid and the balance due after the shoot.

Can I show a usage licence as its own charge?

Yes. Keep it in the price book as a line with its own price and its own wording, so it prints on the document rather than living in an email.

Can I bill a second photographer at cost?

Put their invoice in as an expense from its receipt and re-bill it as a line, or price the line yourself. Either way it appears as its own item.

Weighing up apps? Invoice Koi vs Invoice Simple and Invoice Koi vs Wave set the features side by side, including where they win. Or see all 12 comparisons.