In short: To invoice a brand as a content creator, send a numbered invoice that names the campaign, lists each deliverable on its own line, states the usage rights you agreed and for how long, and sets a due date you agreed in writing first. Brands usually pay on 30 day terms, and they pay whoever is named on the purchase order, so check whether you are billing the brand or its agency before you send anything.
Your first paid brand deal is exciting right up to the moment someone in accounts payable asks you to “submit an invoice against the PO”. This guide walks through it plainly: who to bill, what to put on the invoice, how to handle usage rights, and what to do when payment is slow.
A quick example to anchor it. Say you agreed €1,200 for three short videos plus 30 days of paid usage on the brand’s own channels. That is one invoice, four lines, due in 30 days. By the end of this post you will know exactly how to lay that out.
If you want the wider money picture for creators, including expenses and what to set aside, start with bookkeeping for content creators. This post is the invoicing half.
What makes invoicing a brand different?
Invoicing a brand is not the same as invoicing a small client. Three things change.
- You are dealing with a process, not a person. Your contact is the marketing manager, but the payment comes from a finance team who never met you. Anything missing on the invoice stops it dead, and nobody tells you.
- You are selling rights, not just files. A brand is paying for what it may do with your content, where, and for how long. That belongs on the invoice.
- The terms are usually theirs. Brands tend to have standard payment terms and a purchase order system. You can negotiate, but you need to know what you agreed before you invoice.
None of that is hard. It just needs to be written down properly.
Who do you actually invoice: the brand, or its agency?
Get this wrong and your invoice sits in the wrong inbox for a month.
- Direct with the brand. You invoice the company itself, using the exact legal entity name their finance team gives you, not the brand name you see on Instagram. “Acme Beverages Limited” rather than “Acme”.
- Through an agency or talent manager. The agency booked you, so you invoice the agency, and the agency bills the brand separately. Your contract is with them.
- Through a creator platform. Some platforms handle payment themselves and you may not raise an invoice at all. Check before you send one.
Ask for three things before you invoice: the legal entity name and address, the email address invoices should go to, and a purchase order or reference number if they use one. Putting that PO number on the invoice is often the single difference between being paid in 30 days and being paid in 60.
How to invoice a brand as a content creator, step by step
- Confirm what you agreed, in writing. Fee, deliverables, usage rights, and payment terms. An email thread counts. The invoice repeats what was agreed, it does not introduce it.
- Number the invoice. One unique number, never reused. If a brand asks you to re-issue, that becomes a new number, not an edit to the old one.
- Bill the right entity. Legal name, address, and their VAT number if they have one.
- List each deliverable on its own line. Not “content creation”. See the next section.
- Add the usage rights as their own line. Even at a rate of zero, so the scope is recorded.
- Add VAT if it applies to you, and the total.
- Set the due date you agreed. Thirty days is common. Put the actual date on the invoice, not just “net 30”, so there is nothing to interpret.
- Include the PO number and how to pay you, then send it the day you deliver.
If you have never raised one before, you can build a free one in the browser with the free invoice generator, no signup needed, then move to something that numbers and tracks them for you once the deals become regular.
How to list deliverables and usage rights
This is where creator invoices differ most from ordinary freelance ones. A finance team approves what it can read. Vague lines get queried.
Write the deliverables the way the campaign was sold:
| Line | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Instagram Reel, 30 seconds, concept and edit (video 1 of 3) | €300.00 |
| 2 | Instagram Reel, 30 seconds, concept and edit (video 2 of 3) | €300.00 |
| 3 | Instagram Reel, 30 seconds, concept and edit (video 3 of 3) | €300.00 |
| 4 | Paid usage licence: brand’s own channels and paid social, 30 days from delivery | €300.00 |
Two things that matter on line 4. Where the brand may use the content, and for how long. “Organic only” is different from “paid social”, and 30 days is different from perpetual. If the brand later wants to keep running your video as an advert, that is a new conversation and a new invoice, and having the original scope written on the original invoice is what makes that conversation easy.
Keep each line short and specific. You can put up to 10 line items on a single invoice in Tally Crow, which is plenty for a campaign of this shape.
A worked example: a €1,200 three-video campaign
Putting it together, invoiced on 16 September 2026 with 30 day terms:
- Bill to: the brand’s legal entity, with their address, VAT number, and PO number
- Lines: three videos at €300 each, plus €300 for 30 days of paid usage
- Subtotal: €1,200.00
- VAT: whatever applies to you (see below)
- Due: 16 October 2026
- Pay by: bank transfer, or the pay-now link on the invoice
That is a complete, professional creator invoice. It tells the finance team what they bought, what they may do with it, what they owe, and when.
What payment terms do brands use?
Thirty days from the invoice date is the most common starting point, and larger brands sometimes ask for 45 or 60. You are allowed to push back, especially if the shoot cost you money up front, and asking for a deposit on a larger campaign is normal and reasonable.
Two practical habits:
- Invoice the day you deliver. Terms run from the invoice date, so a week sitting in your drafts is a week added to when you get paid.
- Set the client’s usual terms once. In Tally Crow each client carries their own due date, anywhere from 1 to 365 days, so a 30 day brand and a 14 day local client each get the right date without you working it out every time.
What if the brand pays late?
Late payment from a big company is usually process, not malice. The invoice is missing a PO number, it went to the wrong inbox, or it missed a payment run. A polite, early nudge fixes most of it.
Send a short reminder a few days before the due date, and another when it passes. Tally Crow sends the due-soon reminder automatically, and an overdue reminder is a one-click nudge when you want to send it, so chasing does not depend on you remembering. For the full approach, see how to get clients to pay on time.
Tally Crow gives every brand invoice its own number, a polished PDF, an optional pay-now link, and reminders that go out without you chasing.
Start invoicing freeIf a campaign is cancelled or cut back after you have already invoiced, do not edit the invoice you sent. Issue a credit note against it instead, which keeps one invoice number tied to one document and keeps your records straight.
How to invoice a brand in another currency
Plenty of creator work is cross-border: a German brand, a US agency, a regional campaign run out of somewhere else entirely. Invoice in the currency you agreed, and say so clearly on the document.
With Tally Crow you can invoice and issue credit notes in any currency. One honest caveat worth knowing before you promise a brand anything: bank transfer works for any currency, while the online pay-now button covers the currencies Stripe supports. So if you invoice in a currency the pay link does not cover, the brand can still pay you by transfer, you just will not have the one-click button on that one.
On VAT: whether you charge it depends on where you are, whether you are registered, and where the brand is. Cross-border work between businesses in the EU often uses the reverse charge, which means your business client accounts for the VAT instead of you, and your invoice shows no VAT but says so. Get this settled once for your situation rather than guessing per campaign.
Keep your brand deals in one place
Brand work arrives in bursts, and the admin is what slips. You need every campaign invoiced the day it lands, numbered properly, with the usage scope recorded and the payment tracked. Tally Crow does that: professional invoices in any currency, a clear view of what is unpaid, reminders that send themselves, and credit notes when a campaign changes. Starting free, with 2 invoices a month and no credit card. See features and pricing for the detail, or read the freelance invoicing guide for the fundamentals behind all of this.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to common questions.
In most places you can invoice as a self-employed individual without forming a company, but the rules on registering as self-employed, and when you must, vary by country. Brands will usually ask for your legal name, address, and a tax or VAT number if you have one. Check what your country requires, or ask an accountant.
Your details and the brand’s legal entity details, a unique invoice number, the invoice date and due date, their PO or reference number, one line per deliverable, a line stating the usage rights and their duration, the subtotal, any VAT, the total, and how to pay you.
Yes. It records what the brand may do with the content and for how long, which protects you if they later want to extend the licence or run it as a paid advert. Even when the rights are included in the headline fee, name the scope on its own line.
Thirty days from the invoice date is the usual starting point, and some brands ask for 45 or 60. Agree it before you start, put the actual due date on the invoice, and ask for a deposit on larger campaigns.
It depends on whether you are VAT-registered and where the brand is based. Cross-border B2B work in the EU often uses the reverse charge, where the client accounts for the VAT rather than you. It is worth settling once for your situation rather than deciding campaign by campaign.
Do not edit or delete the invoice you already sent. Issue a credit note against it for the amount being cancelled, and raise a new invoice if a reduced fee was agreed. That keeps one invoice number tied to one document, which is what your records and your accountant need.
