How to invoice a brand
To invoice a brand as a creator, send a clear document with your details, the brand's billing details, a description of the deliverables, a separate line for usage rights, and clear payment terms. The five steps below cover exactly what to include and how to make sure you actually get paid.
- 1
Include everything a creator invoice needs
A brand invoice needs your name or business name and contact details, the brand's billing name and address, a unique invoice number, the issue date, a clear description of the deliverables, the amount for each line, and the total. Brands often pay through a finance team that has never heard of you, so the invoice has to stand on its own — vague invoices sit at the bottom of the pile.
- 2
Add the usage rights as their own line
This is the line creators forget. If the brand can run your content as a paid ad, reuse it on their own channels, or keep using it beyond the campaign, that's usage rights, and it's a separate charge from creating the content. Put it on its own line — for example, 'Usage rights: paid social, 3 months — $400' — so it's clear what the brand is paying for and you're not quietly giving away a licence for free.
- 3
Set clear payment terms
State the due date (net 14 or net 30 is standard), how you want to be paid, and any late-payment terms. 'Payment due within 14 days of invoice date' removes the ambiguity that lets an invoice drift for two months. Agreeing terms up front, before you deliver, means the invoice just confirms what's already understood rather than starting a negotiation.
- 4
Send it to the right person, promptly
Send the invoice as a PDF to the billing contact, not just your day-to-day brand contact, and copy the person you worked with so nothing stalls. Send it as soon as the work is approved — the clock on your payment terms only starts when the invoice lands, so a week's delay in sending is a week later you get paid.
- 5
Chase payment politely and on schedule
If the due date passes, follow up. A short, friendly note referencing the invoice number and due date is enough, and sending it on a set schedule — the day it's due, then a week later — keeps it professional rather than awkward. Most late payments are oversights, not refusals, and a prompt, calm chase gets them settled without damaging the relationship.
Skip the template and just make one
You don't have to build a brand invoice from scratch in Word or Canva every time. Poppi Social's free creator invoice generator gives you a professional invoice in a couple of minutes — with a proper usage rights line, your branding, colour themes, and a clean PDF to send. No account needed to try it, and no design work.
If you want a starting point you can reuse, the UGC invoice template covers the same ground for content deals specifically. And when you're managing more than the odd invoice, generating them straight from your deals in the brand deal tracker means the brand details and amounts are already filled in.
Invoicing a brand — answered
Make a brand invoice in two minutes
Use the free creator invoice generator — usage rights line, your branding, clean PDF. No account needed.
Free to use · No account required to try it