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Self-Employment
in the Creative
Industries
Record Keeping
It is a requirement to keep records (paper or digital based) of all income
and payments when self-employed.
These records, which may include invoices, receipts of business or over
head costs and/or bank statements, must be kept for 6 years.
There are various methods you can use to file and store the information including using basic Microsoft Excel, accounting software or outsourcing the work to
a specialist firm for a small fee.
Record keeping is not only required for legal reasons, it is also a useful way to
track your performance and will make the process of providing tax information
at the end of the year much easier.
The HMRC website contains a wealth of information on the topic of record
keeping, and they also run short courses across the country covering a range of
finance-related topics:
Government advice on what records to keep if you are self-employed
How to claim expenses if you are self-employed
HMRC e-learning course
Contacts
It may be that prior to the contract you are asked to provide a quote for the
work. In this case you will provide upfront details of the costs and you may also
choose to send your terms of service that will include information similar to
that included in the contract (payment terms, the process for rebilling any extra
costs and ownership of the work). A quote gives the client a chance to see the
conditions of work clearly set out. They can then make a decision on whether
or not to go ahead with the work which would be confirmed this within the
signed contract.
Invoicing
You will need to have an invoicing template in place to send to any customers
once your work is completed. In general, you should include the following
details as a minimum:
Business information such as the company name and address, VAT number
if applicable and invoice number.
The total amount that needs to be paid. This may also be broken down to
itemise and detail any individual costs.
Payment terms including how to pay and by when. Ensure you include all
details required to make payment for example your bank account or Paypal
details.