How to... invoice for your gardening services?

If you're working for private people they don't usually want invoices/receipts.

Invoices are used to give to customers and the implication is that they will pay another time. Whereas a receipt is given if they pay you on the spot.

As I say, most private people aren't even interested in a receipt as they are only likely to pay you if they have seen that you've done the work.

If you're working for businesses you should be able to get a small, duplicate, invoice book and use a rubber stamp (cheap to buy) on the invoice with your name and details.

Even cheaper, you can get a small duplicate receipt book and use a rubber stamp.

A third option is to have business cards printed (printers such as vistaprint are quite cheap) and write your receipt on the back.

Duplicate books are an easy way of recording your work so that your accountant can see a record of what you have done. Depending on the type of work you do and how much you do, that may be all your accountant may require from you.

If you want to keep a record of your work and a good analysis of all the different types of work you do (a good thing to do if you want to make a living out of it) you can also get an Analysis Book to record everything into.

Analysis Books are not cheap but they have plenty of columns printed in them so that you can head each column with a different type of work you do. You enter the name of the client on the left hand side and then, in the first column, you put what they have paid. The other columns that you have headed with the different types of work you do can then, also, have the money entered into that column.

e.g Mr Smith £30 (if you cut his lawn) you also enter £30 under the 'LAWN' column - and in line with where you have put 'Mr Smith'.

That way, when you add up your columns you can see how much you have taken for cutting lawns and how much you have taken for other services. This becomes particularly helpful when you find you are getting more work than you can cope with. Your analysis can show you which jobs bring in the best money for you.