Smashing Magazine brings its usual thoroughness to the world of online invoicing. For me, the main thing with designing an invoice is to keep your end-user in mind: will the accounts department be able to find:
- how much is owing,
- when it needs to be paid,
- how to pay it and
- when they’re referring back to it later, can they tell what and when the invoice was for
Don’t fall into the trap of making it a fantastic branding exercise, or some kind of talking point if you haven’t managed to nail the basics. The accounts department is handling a lot of invoices – you want to make their job as easy as possible.