Billing across a border adds two decisions to an ordinary invoice, and an international invoice that skips them tends to arrive short. Neither decision is complicated. Both are cheaper to make before the work than after.
Decision one: whose currency
Billing in your own currency moves the exchange risk to the client. Billing in theirs moves it to you and often makes you easier to buy from.
Neither is wrong. What matters is deciding deliberately:
- Your currency suits work priced from local costs, where a swing would eat your margin.
- Their currency suits competing against local suppliers, where a foreign figure makes you feel harder to deal with.
- A third currency, usually USD or EUR, suits trade between two smaller currencies where neither party wants the other’s.
Put it on the quote, not just the invoice. A client who agreed a figure in euros and receives a bill in shillings will query it, and they will be right to.
Decision two: who pays the bank charges
International transfers commonly lose a fixed fee plus a correspondent bank charge somewhere in the middle. If nobody says whose cost that is, it comes out of your invoice.
One line in your terms settles it:
Bank charges are payable by the sender. Please remit the full invoice amount.
Say it before the first payment rather than after a short one arrives. Chasing a shortfall of a few thousand shillings costs more in emails than the shortfall.
Setting the currency on the document
The picker opens on the currency of your own country, worked out from your browser’s own settings. Nothing is looked up over the network to do it, which matters here because none of what you type leaves the page.
Change it before you export, not after. The symbol follows through to every figure, so switching afterwards means re-checking the whole document.
Every currency in common use is in the list, with the thirteen most used on this site at the top and the rest below.
State the currency in words too
A symbol alone is ambiguous. A dollar sign covers at least a dozen currencies, and more than one country uses a shilling.
Write the ISO code somewhere on the document:
Total USD 4,280.00
All amounts in United States dollars (USD).
Bank charges payable by sender.Two lines, and a payment clerk in another country has no room to guess.
What an international invoice needs beyond the usual
On top of everything a domestic invoice carries:
- Your full bank details in the format their bank expects, including SWIFT or BIC, and IBAN where it applies.
- The account name exactly as registered. Mismatches are a common reason for a transfer to be returned.
- Your address in full, since some banks require it for the beneficiary.
- The currency, stated as above.
- Any tax treatment note, where cross-border supply changes it.
Goods, not services
If you are shipping physical goods, the invoice is only part of the paperwork. Customs will want a description specific enough to classify the goods, quantities, values, country of origin and delivery terms.
Often that starts with a proforma invoice before the goods move, so the buyer can arrange payment or an import licence. The detail is in proforma invoices for customs.
A worked example
A Nairobi design studio billing a client in Berlin, having agreed euros at quote stage:
INVOICE No. INV-2026-0061
Date: 20 August 2026
Due: 19 September 2026
Description Qty Rate Amount
Brand identity, phase 2 1 3,400.00 3,400.00
Illustration set, 6 pieces 6 140.00 840.00
Subtotal 4,240.00
Total EUR 4,240.00
All amounts in euro (EUR). Bank charges payable by sender.
Beneficiary: Kilimani Studio Ltd
IBAN / Account: ____ SWIFT: ____ Bank: ____The currency appears three times: in the picker, on the total, and in words underneath. That redundancy is deliberate.
Getting paid on time across a border
Everything that works domestically still applies, and the timelines stretch. A transfer that takes two days locally can take five internationally, so a due date is a date the money should have left, not arrived.
Build that into your terms rather than chasing on day one. The general approach is in getting paid on time.
Exchange rates and when to fix them
If you bill in a currency you do not hold, the rate on the day you invoice is rarely the rate on the day you are paid.
Three approaches, in rough order of how much work they are:
- Accept the movement. Fine for small amounts and short terms. Most freelancers do this.
- Quote in your currency, invoice in theirs at an agreed rate. State the rate and its date on the document so nobody argues later.
- Price with a margin for it. Sensible where terms run to sixty days and the pair is volatile.
Whichever you pick, say it on the quote rather than introducing it at invoice stage.
Part payments across a border
A large international job often gets paid in stages, and each transfer carries its own charges.
Show what has been received so the balance is unambiguous. Add the Amount paid row from the totals block and the remaining figure is worked out for you, in the same currency as the rest of the document.
Issue a receipt for each instalment. With two currencies and two banks involved, a customer reconciling later will need it.
Try it
Open the invoice maker, change the currency in the sidebar, and check the symbol follows through to the totals. For a reusable starting point with your bank details and charges wording already in it, see a free invoice template you can edit.