Can I correct my invoice?
I invoiced a client last month and made a math error (What can I say? I’m a word person, not a doctor, Jim.)
I discovered the error when I was invoicing that client this month. Do I just have to eat the $63.50 or can I correct it?
If the latter, would you just do it on the invoice or would you talk to them first?
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6 Answers
I would send a letter explaining how you made the error and enclose a new invoice with new amount owed.
I would talk to the person. Undercharging is one of those things that only people who own your ass can get away with correcting unilaterally (like the government or a university bursar). It also creates a lot of bad will to just say “we undercharged you, so here’s a bill with no explanation.” My undergraduate college did that to me three years after I had finished school. I told them to fuck off, at which point they said they would write to the admissions department of my graduate school and say they had no record of sending an official transcript on my behalf (meaning that I would have had to use a forgery in my application). This was a complete lie, but it would have gotten me expelled with no way of proving my case. So I sent them the money and never donated a penny after.
Depending on what country you are in there are different rules regarding invoice correction, so check your local laws regarding invoices. Either prepare another invoice (the new invoice number should pertain to the one being corrected thus) or an adjustment note – in that case the customer fills out the adjustment note form, snail-mails it to you, you sign it as to verify that you agree with those changes, and send the whole thing back to them also via standard mail.
Personally, I would write it off as “cost of doing business”, but maybe that’s because in any business that I’d be a part of, that amount would be roughly equivalent to an hour’s worth of billing time.
Really? An hour’s time? It’s a write-off for goodwill and “not having to worry about it or follow it up any more”. Let it go.
I would take the time to write a note that stated you were not charging them but to advise them in the future what the true amount would be. Let them know that it would cost them $63.50 more for the same service.
A note like this requires diplomacy and proper phrasing, so spend time on it and let a trusted advisor look at it.
Follow what @CWOTUS said about good will but avoid precedence for the wrong rate.
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