How to Invoice Brands as an Influencer Talent Manager

As an influencer talent manager, ensuring that your creators are compensated fairly and on time is one of the most critical parts of the job. Honestly, at times, it’s also the hardest thing to do. Invoices are an admin, kinda mundane task to most people. But believe me, it’s a very important part of a brand collaboration to ensure professionalism, fostering trust with brands, and keeping your agency’s cash flow steady. 

Whether you’re working with a first-time brand partner or managing long-term collaborations, having a solid invoicing process in place is essential to avoiding payment delays and not losing your marbles. Here’s what every talent manager needs to know about how to invoice brands.

Invoicing talent or invoicing brands

There’s a couple ways to do this as the Influencer Talent Manager either invoices the brand or the talent. Stay with me because this can get a bit complicated. If the Influencer Talent Manager is invoicing the talent, those invoices go out to collect our earned commission. They usually mirror when the Influencer sends their invoices to the brand. In this scenario us Influencer Talent Managers aren’t sending any invoices to the brands.  

This is a great system if you have an Influencer who is organized and on top of their finances. Conversely it doesn’t work well if your Influencer isn’t organized or perhaps isn’t home a lot to pick up checks. It does mean that as the Influencer Talent Manager you will be asking your talent to fill out a lot of vendor forms for different projects. 

Conversely, Influencer Talent Managers can send the invoice direct to the brand and collect the full payment of the project. Then, once the invoice has been paid by the brand to the Talent Manager, the Talent Manager then makes the Influencer payment that amount minus the Talent Manager’s commission. Are you still with me? The management of all this can be a lot at time, especially when you’re in the middle of a lot of Influencer campaigns. Worth noting, also a great problem to have.

This system is great because it means the Influencer Manager has eyes on overdue payments, filling out vendor forms without trying to track them down from talent and is managing the cash flow on projects. 

Who creates the invoices 

There’s a lot of invoices in this industry, that’s for sure. Influencers can create invoices to send to the brands when their collaborations wrap up. Then us Influencer Managers send invoices to our talent for our much earned commission. 

Or if you go the route of being an Influencer Manager who sends the invoices to the brands for projects, you are guaranteed to be creating a lot of invoices for each project. 

In my Influencer Talent Agency, my talent are the ones who send the invoices to the brands. I am involved because I confirm the information on each invoice, who it is going to and what the terms and amount are. When I started my Talent Agency, that was the only way I knew other people were doing it and that’s why my agency is structured this way. It works for me. 

At the end of each month, my invoice to my talent mirrors all the project invoices they sent out that month. I wait until the end of that month to send the invoices for that month’s projects. Personally I’d lose my mind if I did it one by one. 

Agreeing on invoicing terms 

Invoicing terms, meaning what’s the net payment for each invoice is determined in the agreement. That is absolutely something you can negotiate. I always ask for net 30, possibly net 45 if the agency won’t come down to net 30. We don’t do projects that are net 60. Make sure you pay attention to the wording that it’s not net 30 business days. 

Most of the time the invoicing can’t happen until the content is live across social media. It depends on the campaign. If it’s a long term partnership, you can have terms that allow for a percentage of the invoice to be paid upon execution of the agreement. Make sure you’re familiar with what yours are for each influencer marketing campaign. 

What to put on the invoice to brands

Before my talent sends out their invoice for the project, I  confirm with the brand what info to include. I also always ask if there’s a vendor form to fill out to ensure proper payment.  You’ll want to do this too.

We always include : 

• Brand’s contact information including company business address
• Project’s contact name and email address
• Invoice number
• Date of issuance and due date 
• Description of services rendered (brief description of the campaign & deliverables)
• Payment terms (this is the net 30 days)
• Total amount due
• PO number (if applicable)

What to put on the invoice to talent 

My invoices to my talent include the same information each month. 

• The project name I’m invoicing for
• The full amount of the project they earned
• My earned 20% commission
• When their invoice was sent to the brand & net terms (this goes on some of my invoices . It helps me track what is still outstanding for talent that isn’t as organized.)
• A note cheering them on and how much I appreciate them

My invoices all have a default net 30 payment term but I know that I don’t get paid until my talent gets paid. As I do one monthly invoice and payment due dates for each project are all over the map, I don’t pay attention to that. My talent knows to ignore it. 

How to invoice late fees

With late payments being a very hot button topic in this industry, the idea of late fees for delayed invoices often comes up. You can’t ask for late fees on your invoices, if it’s not part of your original agreement. I’ve never had luck including that language into an agreement. I do know of a few rare cases when other Talent Managers have been able to include late fee language in their agreements. 

Invoicing sure isn’t a glamorous part of being an Influencer Talent Manager. Does it kinda drive me crazy at times? Sure does but simultaneously I love it because I love getting paid. And believe me when I say, if you don’t send an invoice, you are NOT getting paid on a project.

I strongly encourage you to get your invoicing process dialed in so that it runs efficiently. You will have issues with late payments, there’s no way around that. Ideally when your invoice and payment process is as smooth as possible, you’ll be able to focus more of your time on closing deals and supporting your talent. 

PSST! Are you an Influencer Talent Manager & just started your own Talent Management Agency? Do you want to learn the ins and outs of the industry? Do you need help pricing your talent’s rates, figuring out systems to run a smooth agency, recruiting Influencers to build your roster & getting insight on where to find brand collabs?

Click HERE to learn about my 8 week Influencer Talent Manager Coaching Mentorship Program, taught by me, Johanna Voss, an award winning Influencer Talent Manager who has closed over $6M worth of brand deals.