Invoicing, deposits, and getting paid

Clients ask for Form W-9 so they know your legal name, tax classification, and taxpayer ID for year-end contractor reporting. You give the completed form to the payer, not to the IRS. Fill it carefully—single-member LLC classification on the form is a common mistake.

If you pay other musicians as contractors and may need to issue them Form 1099-NEC, you should collect their W-9 before you pay them (or as early as possible). That’s normal business hygiene, not rudeness.

If you have an EIN, many sole proprietors and LLCs prefer it so every venue isn’t holding your Social Security number. Follow the IRS instructions for your entity type.

No. When you are paid as a contractor, the client may send you a Form 1099-NEC. You send Forms 1099 when you pay other contractors above the threshold.

Every invoice should be easy to pay without a phone call: invoice number, your business name, client name, date(s) of service, itemized fees, deposit/balance if any, due date, payment methods, and late or cancellation terms. Tie the invoice to the gig date.

Mark what’s outstanding, follow up with the invoice and date of service, and decide when chronic non-payers stop getting new holds. Reputation cuts both ways—chase calmly and document everything.

Put it in writing before the date is firm: deposit amount and due date, when the deposit becomes nonrefundable, cancellation deadlines, and any cancellation fee (for example, keep the deposit, or X% of the fee inside 30/14/7 days). Track deposit received, balance due, and whether a cancelled date kept or refunded money. Verbal “we’ll figure it out” is how bandleaders eat costs when a wedding moves.

Yes in principle—signed agreements, riders, and venue terms belong with the booking. You don’t need full e-signature software on day one; a PDF attached to the gig or client is enough for most one-person operations.

Many freelancers keep private rate cards by service type (ceremony, cocktail hour, club, session, corporate). Consistency stops you from improvising a discount every text thread. Public rate pages are optional and industry-dependent.

Card processors charge fees (often deductible as a business expense). Traceable payments are easier to bookkeep than unmarked cash.

A separate bank account (or sub-account), clean invoices, confirmed bookings with deposits, a written cancellation policy, and tax-ready records beat a fancy logo on a chaotic spreadsheet.