I have 4 questions about invoices in hosting industry:

- What is the value of an emailed invoice? Is it worth like a real world one?

- Is it necessary to send an invoice to your customer?

- What causes if you don't send an invoice to your customer?

- Are there any hosts that don't send invoices and doing good job in hosting industry?

Thank you,
Leo

A couple hosting companies I used years ago didn't provide invoices. One did.

I don't sell web hosting directly but I do sell a related service, and only rarely does someone actually ask me to provide an invoice. I had one company in Estonia (?) ask my permission to produce their own invoices for the purchases they had made at my sites for their records.

I have 4 questions about invoices in hosting industry:

- What is the value of an emailed invoice? Is it worth like a real world one?

- Is it necessary to send an invoice to your customer?

- What causes if you don't send an invoice to your customer?

- Are there any hosts that don't send invoices and doing good job in hosting industry?

Thank you,
LeoHi there!

1. Yes, an emailed invoice could hold up in court, if I'm reading your question right. :)
2. I believe that it is indeed necessary to send an invoice - your customers will greatly appreciate it.
3. You may lose their business, and never know why - and yes, it could happen over something so simple as an invoice.
4. I don't know! :P

Good luck!

I have 4 questions about invoices in hosting industry:

- What is the value of an emailed invoice? Is it worth like a real world one?

- Is it necessary to send an invoice to your customer?

- What causes if you don't send an invoice to your customer?

- Are there any hosts that don't send invoices and doing good job in hosting industry?

Thank you,
Leo

1. An email invoice is as good as the real one. You may want to print them out.
2. Sending an invoice to the customers, may be neccessary. To us, we will send out the invoice to the customer and advice them to print it out, just in case.
3. Things happens when you least expect it to. But an invoice is just to tell the customer that they have to pay/ have paid for the services provided or will be provided already.
4. Currently, i know of none that doesn't.

It depends on the country you are on.

In some countries, an invoice is just a receipt note due to the translation of the word "invoice" (ex, from english to spanish), or when US companies have clients in other countries, they send an online invoice as a proof of purchase and not a printed one with taxes, etc

If you are outside of U.S. and you don't give invoice to U.S. customer (I mean it is meaningless) What happens:

- If the customer want to get an invoice?

- If the customer doesn't want to get an invoice?

Thank you,
Leo

1. They may call or email your support department and request one.
2. They won't mind receiving one anyway.

It really is best to send all of your clients an invoice, 19leo19. I highly recommend that you go ahead and do this.

Best of luck! :)

Sending invoices is simply good for business. This way you have a copy of the money request and services rendered, and they have a copy to refer to when it comes to the next billing cycle.

You will probably lose customers if you do not utilize invoices, as some people will not pay without one.

Hope this helps.

as some people will not pay without one.

Ok I know but if you are outside of U.S. as a service provider your invoice is meaningless for your U.S. customer. Right?

No, of course not. Why do you think it would be? An invoice is an invoice - in every country!

Just to add, in some countries it is a legal requirement to keep a copy of all invoices for current and old customers (just in case)

Best bet is to send it to them as then it can avoid a visit to your support section by the user asking where the invoice is :)

I did a client survey of this and it was overwhelming determined that clients want invoices in their billing area and not emailed to them as most felt that it was annoying to be emailed a note that they had paid. Others thought the invoices were confusing as if they needed to pay again. Only a select few desired invoices to be mailed to them at the end of the month.

A simple solution - email the invoice and include it in the control panel - keeps everyone happy! :)

Anytime we had a chargeback issued against us our CC underwriter always asked for a copy of the invoice for the client so yes it is important to keep these things documented. Make sure the client gets one and you keep one for your records.

if i am not wrong then Ev1 and Server Beach people also dont send invoice by post they update in the conrol panel and send an email on creation of invoice.

Ashok Shah

I agree that sending invoices is a good business practice. Most customers prefer to receive an invoice, and it also helps when unexpected things occur in business (no confusion about who owes what, and when it is due.

Strongly encourage using invoices. Helps keep finances organized and everyone informed.