Invoicing for developers
Invoicing for developers who would rather be shipping.
The short answer
Describe the milestone in one sentence. The invoice builds itself with your rate, the deposit math, and a payment link. You approve it. It sends. No template doc, no spreadsheet, no month-end reconstruction from git log.
Already working in Claude or ChatGPT? The guides show the two-minute setup.
No job left unbilled. Send invoices from inside Claude and ChatGPT. No monthly fee.
01 / How developers actually bill
Four structures, one sentence each.
Deposits that book the slot
A third to a half up front reserves your start date. That is not distrust; it is how a one-person shop books capacity. Common splits: 50 and 50, or 40, 40, and 20 on launch.
Milestones over month ends
Tie money to deliverables: design approved, staging deploy, launch. Each milestone is its own invoice with its own due date, so a paused project never strands finished work.
Retainers that draw down
A fixed block of hours each month, invoiced on the first, drawn down as you work. Recurring invoices go out on schedule; top-ups and rollovers are your call, not the client's.
Change orders, not favors
Scope creep is revenue with a name problem. Extra requests become line items on the next invoice instead of unpaid weekends.
02 / The month-end ritual
Stop rebuilding the month from your commit history.
You know the ritual. Git log across three repos, a calendar full of calls, a vague memory of a hotfix, and an invoice that goes out two weeks late because assembling it is worse than the work was.
The fix is timing, not discipline. Invoice at the merge, when the milestone is fresh and the deposit credit is one line of math.
> invoice Northwind $6,000 for the payments milestone, the 50% deposit already covered half
net 15 per your Northwind terms. PDF and payment link attached. send? (y/n)
03 / Getting paid
The money side, without the folklore.
Net terms are a negotiation
Net 15 or Net 30 is the freelance default. Enterprise clients will push Net 60 or Net 90, and that is a request, not a law. Whatever you agree prints on the invoice and drives the reminders.
Late fees need a contract
1.5% per month is the classic contract rate, but it only works if the client signed it. Name it up front, then turn on optional late fees and per-client reminders so the follow-up is not you at 11pm.
The final 20% hostage
The last payment is where clients discover new requirements. Small milestones shrink the hostage, and a clause that code ownership transfers on payment ends the standoff. Your leverage is the repo.
Five-figure invoices want ACH
Clients pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or ACH on every invoice. On big milestones, ACH keeps percentage fees sane. Checks still happen; mark the invoice paid and the books stay right.
04 / The 1099 part
January, minus the archaeology.
The $600 era is over. For payments made in 2026, a client owes you a 1099-NEC only if they paid you $2,000 or more in the year, so expect fewer forms, not fewer taxes.
Money that arrives by card or payment app rides the processor's 1099-K instead, which only triggers above $20,000 and 200 transactions. Overseas clients send no form at all. No form does not mean no tax; your own invoice records are the source of truth.
Quarterly estimated payments land in April, June, September, and January. Self-employment tax runs 15.3% before income tax, so the set-aside is not optional. A per-client year-end summary and a CSV of everything you billed beat a shoebox of deposit slips.
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The 1099 calculator estimates self-employment tax, federal income tax, and your quarterly payment. No account needed.
05 / The standard
Deploy day is invoice day.
The merge that closes the milestone should close the invoice too. Not at month end. Not after a weekend of git archaeology. If the work shipped, the invoice shipped.
The unbilled hotfix, the change request you absorbed, the deposit you never collected: that is what this ends. No job left unbilled is the standard.
06 / Pricing
Free. Actually free.
No subscription, no invoice limits, no trial clock. No monthly fee. You pay 5.9% + $0.59 only when a client pays through Stripe.
See the pricing pageCommon questions
Should I bill hourly or fixed price?
Both work if the structure is right. Hourly needs a rate card and a cap the client agreed to. Fixed price needs a deposit before you start and milestones tied to deliverables, so a stalled project never strands more than one unpaid stage. Either way, put change requests on their own line items instead of absorbing them.
How do I charge for scope creep?
Treat it as a change order, not a favor. When the request grows past what you quoted, name the new price before you write the code, then invoice it as its own line. The hard part is saying the number out loud. Once the client approves it, the invoice is just paperwork.
Do freelance developers charge sales tax?
Usually no. Most states do not tax custom development done as a service, but a few tax software, SaaS, or data processing, and the rules differ state by state. Check your state's department of revenue before your first invoice, especially if you sell licenses or subscriptions alongside the work.
Will I get a 1099-NEC from every client?
Not anymore. For payments made in 2026, a client files a 1099-NEC only when they paid you $2,000 or more in the year, up from the old $600 line. And if a client paid you by card through a payment processor, that money rides the processor's 1099-K instead, which only triggers above $20,000 and 200 transactions. The income is taxable whether or not any form shows up, so your own records are the source of truth.
What can I do when a client stops paying?
Work the leverage you already have. Remind on a schedule, apply the late fee your contract names, and pause new work until the balance moves. If your contract says code ownership transfers on payment, say so once, in writing. Most stalled invoices move long before anyone calls a lawyer.
Can I invoice from Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. Connect your account once and ask for the invoice in the same chat where you planned the work. You get a draft with a PDF and a payment link, you approve it, it sends. Setup takes a few minutes and the guides walk through it.
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Guides
Invoice from Claude or ChatGPT, and what MCP invoicing means in plain English.
Tax set-aside calculator
Self-employment tax, federal income tax, and your quarterly payment in ten seconds.
Pricing
One price. No monthly fee; 5.9% + $0.59 only when a client pays an invoice.
No job left unbilled
Your next invoice is one sentence away.
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