I don't know if you'd be able to help, but do you have any advice/tips for keeping commission orders organized? I feel like every time I try I make things too convoluted and confuse myself even more. Thanks for answering if you can <3
Everyone has their own systems and ways of going about organising things, so what works for me may not work for you. With that being said, generally it helps to use online services to help keep track of where youāre up to because if your computer dies for whatever reason, you wonāt lose all those important details.Ā
The main thing youāre going to want to do is start up a Gmail account that you use exclusively for art/business stuff. That way thereās no chance that emails are going to get swallowed by spam or other personal emails.Ā
This also means that when you talk to your client via email you have what is called a āpaper trailā of all the things that have been said (if you speak to them in a phone call, follow it up with a confirmation email), so itās very clear who said what and who agreed to what - this is very important to have when youāre working by yourself and donāt have an employer to back you up.Ā
With this in place, you can typeĀ āfrom: [sender name or keyword here]ā into the search bar to bring up all emails to do with that word or name. You can also use labels to archive things into a āfinished commissionsā label once the commission is done so your main inbox only has current jobs and correspondence in it.
So that handles the correspondence side of things, but what about the financial side of things?Ā
As far as Iām aware, if youāre using PayPal as a seller for freelance work or any kind of business related transactions, you are required have a merchant account, and to use their invoicing system. Not doing so could land you a hefty fine, so donāt risk it. However, with that being said, you want to use the invoicing system anyway, because it helps you keep track of everything!
When you put together an invoice with PayPal, you get a bunch of nifty features that help you keep track of things. Namely the Status and Action columns.
With these, you can see the current status of your invoices, and more importantly, send clients reminder emails if they donāt pay you right away. You also have the option to record external payments (such as those done through bank transfers), and print PDF versions of invoices to attach to your emails for the sake of your paper trails as well.
When you make an invoice, and add all your details, logo (if you have one), etc. itāll end up looking something like this:
When it comes to invoice number, this can be anything you want as long as it makes sense to you, but by default paypal starts with 0001, and automatically increments it for you each time you make a new invoice. It helps take the guesswork out of where youāre up to, which is always a good thing.
Once youāre done filling it out, you send it to the email specified, and it pops up in the clientās inbox with an option to pay directly from the link - just make sure you account for PayPalās service fees in your cost price if your clients are going to pay that way.Ā Less mess, less chance of things getting lost, less chance of you getting confused or overwhelmed.
Hopefully that helps or at least gives you some ideas on how to set up your own system!
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