Video editing is the creative discipline most vulnerable to unbilled work, because revisions are cheap to request and expensive to execute. “Can we just try it 4 seconds shorter?” is ten words to type and forty minutes to deliver across five formats.
This template makes rounds, formats and assets countable — which is the only way to bill them.
Invoice your edit
Edit time, revisions, deliverables and licences on one professional PDF. Free.
Key takeaways
The single most useful discipline in video invoicing: one deliverable = one aspect ratio at one duration. A brand film in 16:9 at 90 seconds, a 60-second cutdown, a 30-second cutdown, and 9:16 and 1:1 versions of each is not “a video.” It is nine deliverables, and each involves reframing, retiming and re-exporting.
| Description | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit — brand film, 16:9 master, 90s (incl. 2 revision rounds) | 1 | €1,800 | €1,800 |
| Cutdowns — 60s and 30s, 16:9 | 2 | €280 | €560 |
| Vertical reversions — 9:16, 90s/60s/30s | 3 | €220 | €660 |
| Colour grade | 1 | €450 | €450 |
| Motion graphics — lower thirds and end card | 1 | €380 | €380 |
| Revision round 3 — requested 18 Sep, beyond agreed scope | 1 | €240 | €240 |
| Music licence — Artlist, commercial (at cost) | 1 | €165 | €165 |
| Stock footage — 4 clips (at cost) | 4 | €79 | €316 |
Your studio branding on every invoice
Free PDF invoices with your logo, itemised deliverables and pass-through licences.
Define a round precisely in your proposal, and restate it on the invoice:
“A revision round is one consolidated set of written notes covering all deliverables, delivered within 5 working days of the review link. Notes received after a round has begun are carried to the next round. Included: 2 rounds. Additional rounds: €240 each.”
The word consolidated is doing the work. Without it you get five separate emails from three stakeholders over eight days, and each one is a de facto round.
Music, stock footage, sound effects and fonts should be licensed in the client’s name where possible, and passed through at cost otherwise. Two reasons: the client needs to own the licence for the usage they intend, and you do not want to be the party holding a commercial music licence for a campaign you have no control over.
Always name the source and licence type on the invoice line. If usage later expands beyond what the licence covers, that record is what protects you.
Delivered exports are the product. Project files, raw footage and grade sessions are not automatically included — they let anyone re-edit your work indefinitely. Either exclude them, or price them as a deliverable with an archive-delivery line. State the retention period too: “Project files archived for 90 days from delivery; retrieval after this period billed at €120.”
Two is standard for commercial work, three for longer-form. What matters more than the number is defining a round as one consolidated set of notes with a deadline.
Yes. Reframing a 16:9 edit to 9:16 is not an export setting — it requires repositioning subjects, retiming and often re-doing graphics on every shot. Price it per deliverable.
The client, in their name, wherever the platform allows. It gives them the rights they need and removes you from any later usage dispute. Where you must buy it, pass it through at cost and name it on the invoice.
Only if it was agreed and priced. Project files let anyone modify your work; treat them as a separate, chargeable deliverable.
Create your video invoice
Free professional invoices with deliverables, revisions and licence pass-throughs.