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Poll: Do you include your terms and conditions in your invoices?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Julian Holmes
Julian Holmes  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 14:03
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
No way! Nov 2, 2015

Mario Freitas wrote:

... a standard invoice should contain all applicable information about the terms agreed. There is usually a standard field in the invoice for that exact purpose, so it's a commercial practice to mention them therein.


There is no should.
There is no standard field in the invoice.
And, what new universal commercial practice has suddenly been invented?

If I did this here in Japan, my Japanese customers would definitely think I was a pushy, aggressive son of a whatsit and shy away from giving me work.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 01:03
English to Spanish
+ ...
Terms and conditions Nov 2, 2015

It has now occurred to me that there's some confusion unwittingly created in this poll.

A bill or invoice for products or services is one thing. It is generated at the end of a commercial transaction. That we all know for sure.

The phrase terms and conditions implies a contract, agreement, covenant, or similar legal instrument. Needless to say, it's a document of an entirely different nature.

In my practice (which goes 25 years in the past), terms an
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It has now occurred to me that there's some confusion unwittingly created in this poll.

A bill or invoice for products or services is one thing. It is generated at the end of a commercial transaction. That we all know for sure.

The phrase terms and conditions implies a contract, agreement, covenant, or similar legal instrument. Needless to say, it's a document of an entirely different nature.

In my practice (which goes 25 years in the past), terms and conditions can be as simple and short as a couple of emails detailing what is being done, for what amount of money and in what period of time should be delivered.

Having said that, a contract is not a bible or the Qoran: terms and clauses can be negotiated in good faith.

Terms and conditions, at least in the market I work (America) have no place in an invoice. As many colleagues have clearly pointed out, those conditions ought to have been discussed and resolved before work is performed and billed.
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 02:03
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Japanese exceptions Nov 4, 2015

Julian Holmes wrote:

Mario Freitas wrote:

... a standard invoice should contain all applicable information about the terms agreed. There is usually a standard field in the invoice for that exact purpose, so it's a commercial practice to mention them therein.


There is no should.
There is no standard field in the invoice.
And, what new universal commercial practice has suddenly been invented?

If I did this here in Japan, my Japanese customers would definitely think I was a pushy, aggressive son of a whatsit and shy away from giving me work.


In Japan everything is different. I only issue invoices in North America and Europe, where the standards are surely different than in Japan. Nobody ever thought I was being pushy for stating in an invoice what we had formally agreed before. The strange and out-of-standard is certainly not the way I work, following the commercial practices of the western world.


 
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Poll: Do you include your terms and conditions in your invoices?






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