Invoicing a Client in Another Country: What Actually Changes

The short version

A cross-border invoice is the same document with six additional decisions attached:

                        ┌─ 1. Currency ......... which one, and who bears the swing
                        │
                        ├─ 2. Tax .............. charge it, or shift it to the buyer
   Domestic invoice ────┼─ 3. Identifiers ...... both tax numbers, in full
                        │
                        ├─ 4. Bank details ..... how the account is addressed, + SWIFT/BIC
                        │
                        ├─ 5. Fees ............. who pays the transfer charges
                        │
                        └─ 6. Timing ........... days, not hours — plan the due date

The rest — number, dates, line items, totals — works exactly as it does at home. If any of those are unfamiliar, start with what to include on an invoice.

1. Currency

Three options, in order of how often they are the right one:

Your currency. Simplest for you: you know what you will receive. The client absorbs the exchange risk, which is normal for a small supplier.

Their currency. Easier for the client, and sometimes the price of winning the work. You then carry the risk between invoice and payment — for a 30-day term that is a real exposure.

A third currency, usually EUR or USD. Common when neither side wants the other's. Agree it in writing before the first invoice, not on the invoice itself.

Whatever you pick: name the currency on the total. 1 800.00 is ambiguous in a way that 1 800.00 EUR is not, and ambiguity in the amount is the one thing an invoice must never have.

2. Tax: the part that surprises people

The rule that catches most freelancers going international for the first time: for B2B services across an EU border, you generally do not charge VAT. The buyer accounts for it in their own country under the reverse-charge mechanism.

When it applies, your invoice shows:

• your VAT number;
• the client's VAT number;
• no VAT amount;
• a note such as "Reverse charge — VAT to be accounted for by the recipient".

Three things to be careful about:

• It is a B2B mechanism. Selling to a private individual is different, and for digital services to consumers there are separate rules entirely.
• The client's VAT number must be valid. For EU numbers there is an official verification service (VIES); check before you invoice, not after. An invalid number can leave the tax where you did not expect it — on you.
• Outside the EU it is a different question. "No VAT" is often the outcome, but for a different reason, and the note on the invoice differs.

Rules depend on where both parties are established, on what you are selling, and on whether you are registered for VAT at all. Confirm your own case with an accountant — this is the shape of the mechanism, not advice about your situation.

3. Identifiers

Show more than you would domestically. Your full legal name and address, your tax number, and the client's — in the exact legal form their registry holds.

Company suffixes are part of the legal name, not decoration: sp. z o.o., GmbH, B.V., s.r.o., Ltd. Dropping one is how an invoice comes back rejected.

4. Bank details

IBAN is not universal. Much of Europe treats it as the only way to address an account, and plenty of client payment forms make the field mandatory — but a number of countries, Armenia among them, use a plain account number plus SWIFT/BIC instead. If your account has no IBAN, say so explicitly on the invoice rather than leaving the field out: a client whose form insists on one will otherwise conclude your details are incomplete and stop, without telling you.

5. Who pays the transfer fee

International transfers carry charges, and there is a standing convention for who bears them — OUR (sender pays all), SHA (shared, the default), BEN (beneficiary pays all).

Under the usual default, intermediary banks can deduct from the amount in transit, and you receive slightly less than you invoiced. On a small invoice that is annoying; on a regular arrangement it adds up. One line in Notes settles it: "Bank charges: sender (OUR)" — agreed in advance, not claimed afterwards.

6. Timing

An international transfer takes days, not hours, and a 30-day term plus a slow corridor is a 35-day wait. Two consequences:

• Set the due date deliberately, and put it on the document as a date, not as "net 30".
• Do not start chasing on day 31. The sequence for when it really is late is in what to do when an invoice is overdue.

Five mistakes

1. Charging VAT where reverse charge applies — the client refuses, and you reissue.
2. Omitting the reverse-charge note — the invoice is technically incomplete for their bookkeeping even if the numbers are right.
3. No SWIFT/BIC — the payment cannot be initiated and nobody tells you.
4. Total without a currency — pay in what, exactly?
5. The client's trading name instead of the legal entity — the single most common cause of a rejected invoice anywhere, and worse abroad, where you cannot check the registry as easily.

What the builder does with this

The Kinvoice builder carries currency, tax handling and a free-text Notes block, which is where the reverse-charge wording and the bank-charge convention belong. The document language is chosen separately from your own, so a client can receive an invoice in a language you do not write — the labels translate, your text stays as you typed it.

With a PRO account the bank accounts live in the company profile, so the account details and SWIFT for each currency stop being something you copy from an old PDF.

Related

• Invoicing foreign clients from Armenia — a worked example, from the supplier's side
• What to include on an invoice
• Proforma invoice vs invoice — for a deposit before you start