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Contracts & invoices for freelance photographers

Hold the date with a booking fee, get your usage terms signed before you shoot, and release the high-res files when the balance clears.

Start freeSee pricing — $19/mo

Free: 1 client + 3 active projects. Pro: unlimited at $19/mo.

Where the money goes for photographers

  • You turned away two enquiries to hold a Saturday, and the client rescheduled on the Thursday.
  • The gallery was licensed for their own website. Fourteen months later the same image is on a billboard and a paid social campaign.
  • Second shooter, studio hire, parking, and permits all came out of your account weeks before the invoice went anywhere.
  • Retouching notes trickle in one image at a time for three weeks after the selection deadline, and each one is treated as part of the same round.
  • The client asks for the raws, and you have no written answer to point at.

What PaloWorks does about it

Every feature below is in the product today. Free covers the whole workflow for your first client; contracts, time tracking, and the calendar are on Pro.

Booking fee as a deposit invoice
The date is not held until the deposit clears. The invoice is generated from the shoot fee, so the amount is right and it is two clicks from the agreed price to their inbox.
An agreement they sign before the shoot
Generated from your scope — deliverables, retouching rounds, timeline, fee — with ownership passing on full payment, final files released once the balance clears, and a cancellation clause. It is plain text you edit before sending, which is where your usage licence, model release, and weather policy go in your own words. Signed by typed name, with the time, the IP, and a hash of the wording.
Retouching rounds on the scope
Rounds are a number on the shared scope page. You log each set of notes against it, so notes that arrive after a round is actioned become the next round, and the project says when you have run out.
Extra work priced as its own invoice
More retouched images, a second shooter, or paid-social rights for twelve months are quoted and billed as separate work rather than absorbed into the shoot fee.
Line items with quantities
Studio hire, permits, travel, and assistants bill at cost on their own lines, so the client can see the shoot fee was not quietly inflated.
Overdue reminders
The balance chase runs on a schedule you set — a few days before due, on the day, and after — so the final files are not waiting on you remembering to email.

What a photographer invoice usually holds

Line items you can type straight into an invoice. Quantities, tax, and discounts are handled for you, and duplicating an invoice re-opens the same amount, notes, and currency as a fresh draft under a new number.

Sample line itemsExample amount (USD)
  • Shoot day — 8 hours on locationExample amount: $2,400
  • Second shooter — 6 hoursExample amount: $600
  • Studio hire and lighting — half dayExample amount: $450
  • Selection gallery plus 25 retouched imagesExample amount: $1,250
  • Additional retouched images — 10Example amount: $400
  • Extended usage licence: paid social, 12 monthsExample amount: $1,500
  • Travel, parking, and permits — at costExample amount: $180
  • Rush delivery — five working daysExample amount: $500

The amounts are illustrations we wrote to show the shape of an invoice — not market rates, not a recommendation, and not figures from a real client. Amounts, tax, and discounts are yours to set, in your currency — PaloWorks does the arithmetic in whole cents so the totals never drift.

Questions photographers ask

Is PaloWorks free for photographers?

Free covers 1 client and 3 active projects: intake links, scopes, revision tracking, change orders, invoices, and card payments through your own Stripe account. Pro is $19/mo, or $192/yr ($16/mo billed yearly). It lifts both caps and adds contracts, time tracking, calendar, reports, planner, intake templates, multiple tax rates, draft from intake, and api and assistant access.

Do my clients need an account to see a scope or an invoice?

No. Every document you share — the intake form, the scope, the invoice, the project portal — opens from a link in their browser. There is nothing for them to install and no password for them to reset.

Can I send a photographer a contract to sign?

Yes, on Pro. PaloWorks generates a project agreement from the scope you already agreed, your client signs it in the browser, and the signing record keeps the time, IP address, browser and a fingerprint of the exact document signed. Whether a particular agreement is enforceable depends on its terms and the law where you both work; PaloWorks is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

What goes on a photographer invoice?

The sample lines on this page show the usual shape of one. The amounts beside them are illustrations we wrote, not market rates and not a real client's figures — you set your own, in your own currency, and PaloWorks does the arithmetic in whole cents.

Templates and guides for photographers

Not quite what you do?

The workflow is the same underneath. These pages are written in each trade’s own words.

Set up your next job before you start it

One client, one intake link, one scope with the rounds written down — the way a photographer job should have been set up in the first place. About five minutes, and nothing to pay to try it.

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