Writing an invoice: mandatory facts and pitfalls

As a performer you write your invoice yourself, because you work self-employed and nobody bills for you. That is not laborious once you know what belongs in it: an invoice is not a free text form, but a document with fixed mandatory facts. If one of them is missing, the production cannot deduct input VAT, sends the document back and your payment shifts by weeks. This article goes through the facts in order, explains the special case of the small-business VAT scheme and names the point at which anonymity and the invoice duty really collide.

The mandatory facts in order

These facts belong on every invoice. Order and layout are free, completeness is not.

• Your full name and your address. The civil name, not the stage name.
• Name and address of the recipient of the service. The production company with the correct legal form, as it stands in the contract.
• Your tax number or VAT identification number. One of the two is enough. You can apply for the identification number at the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (Federal Central Tax Office) and give it instead of the tax number, which is a small data-protection gain.
• A consecutive invoice number. Issued once, without gaps in the system.
• The date of issue.
• The time or period of the service. Meaning the shoot day or the shoot days. This fact is missing most often, and it is mandatory even if it coincides with the invoice date.
• The description of the service. Quantity and kind of the service, so concrete that a third party can assign it.
• The consideration, split by tax rates, and tax rate and tax amount shown separately.
• For small-business operators instead of tax rate and tax amount a note on the tax exemption under the small-business VAT scheme (Kleinunternehmerregelung).

On top come practically, even if they do not stand in this list: bank details and a payment deadline. Without a payment deadline what stands in the contract applies, and on our placements that is fourteen days.

What you write in the description of the service

It has to designate the service unambiguously, but it does not have to illustrate what happened on set. Usual and sufficient are formulations such as “Participation as a performer in the production with the title X on 14 May” or “Performance as a performer and grant of the contractually agreed usage rights”.

If fee and usage rights are valued separately in the contract, write them separately in the invoice as well. If a total amount as a Buyout stands there, the invoice maps that the same way.

Side costs belong visibly with it: reimbursed travel costs, overnight stay, waiting time or agreed supplements as own items. Everything you do not invoice you also do not receive.

The conflict of aims: a stage name is not enough here

This is the point at which many get stuck, and we say it openly: on the invoice your civil name has to stand with an address at which you can be reached. A stage name alone is not enough, neither for the client’s input-VAT deduction nor for your bookkeeping.

That is a real conflict of aims and not a formality that can be talked away. Anyone who works under a pseudonym still gives the production the real data with the invoice. What by contrast nobody learns: the public. Invoices are business records, they are not published, and the production has your data at the latest through the contract and the age proof anyway.

Two things soften the problem. First the VAT identification number instead of the tax number. Second the question whether an address that can be served other than the home address is possible, for example through a tax adviser. Whether that holds in the individual case you settle with them, not with us. What is realistically possible with a pseudonym and what is not we have collected in working anonymously: what works, what does not.

Invoice numbers, number ranges and corrections

The invoice number has to be unique and follow a traceable system. What has proved itself is year plus running number, meaning for example 2026-001. Separate number ranges per client are allowed as long as the system stays recognisable.

An invoice that has been sent is not overwritten and not deleted. If it is wrong, you correct it with a document of its own that refers to the original invoice number. Both documents stay in your records.

And a banal point that costs money: send the invoice promptly after the shoot. As long as it is not issued, no payment deadline runs, and in many contracts the period only starts with receipt of the invoice.

Keep, order, find again

Invoices and the associated receipts you have to keep for several years, electronically or on paper, unchangeable and readable. The periods are regulated by statute and were last changed, so we deliberately name no year figure here: ask the current value at the tax office or your tax adviser.

Practically a folder in the cloud with two subfolders for outgoing invoices and receipts is enough, plus a simple table with date, number, client, amount and receipt of payment. This table is at the same time your answer to the question whether a payment is still open.

Anyone who shoots regularly needs a cash-basis profit calculation (Einnahmenüberschussrechnung) anyway. How business, taxes and advance payments hang together is in our article on business and taxes for performers.

If payment is not made

If the money stays out after the payment deadline has expired, the first step is a factual reminder by mail, with invoice number, amount and a new date. In most cases an apology and a transfer follow from that, because invoices go under in bookkeepings without anyone meaning anything bad.

If that does not help, a reminder follows with a clear deadline and the note that you will then take further steps. From default you can demand default interest, even if the contract says nothing about that.

On placements through us you do not have to go this path alone. We speak to the production, because we continue to work with it and it does not want to put that at risk over an open day rate. Our standard is payout within fourteen days by transfer with a statement, not in cash into the hand.

The five most common mistakes

1. Time of the service is missing. The classic, because the invoice date is confused with the date of the service.
2. Stage name as the issuer of the invoice. Leads to a query and delays the payment.
3. Tax shown although the small-business VAT scheme is used. Anyone who shows VAT without being allowed to show it still owes the amount.
4. Double or jumping invoice numbers, usually because two templates are used in parallel.
5. Unclear recipient fact, for example the director’s name instead of the company that stands in the contract.

If a production tells you it needs no invoice, that is not an advantage, but a warning sign. Expenses are booked, and the other side of that booking is you. How our billing with the productions runs and when money flows is under process.

Note: This article places the practice in general terms and is not a substitute for tax or legal advice.