We all hate it, but it’s something we must do if we want to get paid for our work. If you ask any freelancer or independent consultant to name their top ten least enjoyable aspects of their job, invoicing their clients and maintaining time records is probably on the list. Why? Well, it takes time. It can take significant amounts of time; Time that is taken away from our core business activities, doing what we enjoy, and time that we could be spending with our families. What they say is true. Time is money. But we can’t get paid if we don’t send out the bills.

In order to try to preserve some of that precious time, it’s important to develop an organized system that is easy to maintain. It takes a time investment upfront to develop a good system and get it in place, but it will save time in the long run you might have otherwise spent searching for the notebook you had last week that you wrote down how many hours you spent on that client’s project.

First, create a manila folder for each of your clients. This will be used to keep any hard copy material that you have for the project. Some clients might give you brochures, copies of articles, or printed items with markups of things that should be fixed. Keep all your client folders in one section of a filing cabinet, categorized into active and inactive clients, and alphabetized under each category. Now, you should never lose any pertinent client information.

Create a matching folder on your computer with the client’s name. Create sub-folders for any categories of information you might have. This can vary from client to client, and from industry to industry. A web designer would have many design files in addition to other information, but a management consultant would have entirely different information. Whatever industry you’re in, you’ll probably need a file for your contracts. It’s important to have a written agreement in place outlining the terms, scope and payment arrangements for each project.

One of the folders in this client file should be labeled “Invoicing.” Here you can keep information about the hourly or project rate that you quoted the client, billing addresses, contact information and anything else you might need in order to bill your clients. You will also keep an Excel spreadsheet, a Google spreadsheet, or a file from whatever software you have elected to use to keep track of your time and client invoices.

You should also develop a spreadsheet or other resource of your choice with a list of all your active clients. Set a certain date of the month that you will consistently bill on, and go through each client, send an invoice and document the date that you sent it. Also leave an area where you can mark that payment was received, and follow up consistently on late payments.

An alternative to this is to outsource your back-office operations. MBO Partners is a company that handles back office operations for independent consultants and freelancers, taking the invoicing completely off your hands. They also handle collections, and offer other benefits, such as tax help and easy expense reporting. It’s not free, but is very cost-effective at five percent of your gross billings. Well worth it, considering the added time you would now have to complete more billable work for your clients.

The decision is yours, but in the end, I think you will find that you are much more efficient when you’re not stressed out by a disorganized invoice management system.