🤯 I once chased an invoice for 6 MONTHS! And it was for only £160… So ONE thing you absolutely MUST do when you start as a Medical Writer is…
📋 Set yourself up for success with a simple Excel spreadsheet to track your income!
💰 Whether you’re employed or going freelance, it’s so so so important to keep track of your money.
📆 Yes you send an email one day saying “please pay this invoice in 30 days” and then… 31 days later you’ve received a bunch of new emails and you forget to chase up that invoice.
🤷♀️ What happens next? You lose track of the invoices you have sent out, and you also feel a bit frustrated that you didn’t chase it up sooner – as you wait even longer to get paid for that job you completed over a month ago.
🎨 So create your own super simple spreadsheet with these columns to keep track:
1. Invoice number (You make this up to keep track of what you send out, and how many jobs you do, something like 0001 , then 0002. )
2. Who you sent the invoice to (Your client’s name or their company name – bonus: include their email here)
3. The job you did
4. The purchase order number (if there is one)
5. The date you sent out your invoice
6. The date you expect to receive payment (maybe in 30 days time)
7. The date you got paid (when the money is actually in your account)
🧠 At the end of every week you want to look at your spreadsheet, and check if you have received the payments you were expecting.
💡 If not, you’ve got all the details you need to write a follow up email like this:
“Dear Client,
I really enjoyed working with you on project XXX, and I hope everything is going well with the business.
I wanted to ask if you could check that you’ve received the invoice I sent on YYY, based on the purchase order number ZZZ.
Please let me know if you have received it, and if not I am happy to send you another copy of the invoice.
Otherwise, could you kindly let me know if the payment is being processed and when I should expect to receive it?…”
🚨 Sometimes invoices get lost, people go on holiday or they get ill, or staff members change, and it’s totally nobody’s fault! So don’t make it personal or sound frustrated, be professional.
⚡ But what happens if you don’t get paid? That’s when your insurance comes in handy – find an insurance provider that will cover you for late or unpaid invoices 💫
🏄♂️ 🏄♀️ What more tips on Medical Writing or to learn how to set yourself up for success as a freelance Medical Writer? Speak to Hassan Thwaini or Virginia Chachati MPharm