One photographer’s site stated, “I specialize in fashion, beauty, weddings, portraits, children, maternity, glamour, food, product, catalog, commercial, editorial, landscape and pet photography.” Whew! Everything but the proverbial kitchen sink.

Another photographer said he was “based in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, Rome and Sydney.” Jeez, talk about covering all your bases!

The slideshows on one site contained 89, 112 and 172 pictures. Who has the time to click through that many photos?

One site required the viewer to click through four splash screens before getting to the actual content. A few Flash-based sites barely functioned. One site popped open a new window for every photo. Several sites had unreadable text. And yes, a couple of sites had music playing.

One photographer announced, “I am a very busy photographer but I have decided to accept bookings for 2012.” Gee, how considerate of that photographer!

One photographer seemed ideal for this client and I would’ve recommended them. But it turned out that this “Toronto fashion photographer” is located two hours away from Toronto.

From time to time, photographers should pretend to be a customer searching for a professional photographer. See what customers have to put up with while tediously searching through endless photographer web sites. Then apply this information to improve their own site.

A photographer’s invoice must contain the photographer’s contact information, a date, an invoice number and their tax number. The invoice should spell out what the photo assignment was. Don’t assume the client’s accounting department knows what the invoice is for. A photo editor may not remember every assignment.

Sometimes, the person who hires the photographer is not the person who receives the invoices. So make sure you know to whom the invoice is sent. Always ask the client if they require a Purchase Order number or any other reference number included on the invoice.

It’s always a good idea to never use the phrase “Sold to” on an invoice.

With professional photographers, nothing is sold but only licensed. If the invoice says “Sold to”, a client might argue that it means they bought and own the photos.

Instead of using the word “expenses”, use “costs” or “charges”. Expenses are what a company reimburses to its employees. Photographers should not be reimbursed since all expenses should be marked up (which all businesses do). There’s no reason to give expense receipts to a client because the photographer is not an employee. Photographers are required to retain receipts for their taxes.

The invoice must state the terms of payment, perhaps with the traditional and always popular “Balance due upon receipt” or something more poetic like:

Money is needed,
And time is short.
Pay up real quick,
Or I’ll see you in court!

The usage rights granted should be listed on the invoice. Don’t assume the client still has the estimate which originally stated these rights.

Similarly, repeat the Terms and Conditions either on the back of the invoice or on an attached second page. In either case, it should be indicated on the face of invoice that there’s more on the reverse side or on an attached page.

Since the invoice will be separated from the photos, usage rights should also be added to any digital files as IPTC data. The usage rights and Terms and Conditions should be added as a text file on every disc containing the images.

A smart photographer will also add their contact and copyright information to the appropriate IPTC fields. With images delivered on disc, the photographer should include their contact information and a live link to their web site.

The invoice can be sent with a cover letter which includes the usage rights, a reminder that a Terms and Conditions page is attached, and a thank-you to the client for their business.

Since every contact with a client is a marketing opportunity, the cover letter should include a casual “Please remember to call me for your next photo assignment” or similar statement. Attach a business card when possible.

Have clients make their cheques payable to the photographer’s business and not to the photographer. It’s more professional and it’s important to put incoming money through the business account to produce a cash flow.

Photography clients sometimes try to barter with professional photographers. Some things offered to photographers:

• A credit line. (But this can’t be bartered in Canada because credit lines are part of the copyright law.)

• The promise of exposure. (Contrary to popular belief, exposure rarely, if ever, generates a single dollar for the photographer. How much exposure comes from business portraits on a corporate web site, product pictures in a store’s summer sale flyer, or food pictures in a restaurant menu? In fact, a good picture will create its own exposure.)

• Future work. (If a photographer works for free in exchange for the promise of future work, why would the client ever bother to pay? The photographer has already shown they’ll work for free.)

• Gift certificates or products. There’s a big, international athletic shoe company that’s been known for offering to pay with shoes.

• An Ontario resort has tried to pay a photographer with a free weekend room (valid only during the off-season).

• A publisher might offer many free copies of its project (e.g. book, calendar, poster) so the photographer can make some money by selling the items to friends and colleagues. (What photographer wouldn’t love this! )

Here’s the deal on bartering:

Everything bartered is taxable and we’re talking both income tax and sales tax. A photographer must claim the value of goods or services received as taxable income and must remit the applicable sales tax on that value.

However, if the goods or services received by the photographer are for business use, it’s possible the value of those goods or services can be deducted as a business expense and the sales tax refunded.

Examples:

• A Toronto corporate photographer trades $1,130 worth of photography for $1,130 worth of business accounting services. ($1,130 = $1,000 + 13% HST).

1) Photographer claims $1,000 as income and remits the $130 sales tax.

2) Photographer deducts $1,000 for the business expense of the accounting services received and claims $130 as a sales tax credit.

Financially speaking, the photographer breaks even.

• A Toronto commercial photographer trades $1,130 worth of photography for $1,130 worth of gift certificates from a clothing store. ($1,130 = $1,000 + 13% HST).

1) Photographer claims $1,000 as income and remits $130 sales tax.

2) Photographer spends the gift certificates on clothing for themselves and family. Photographer can’t claim any business expenses and can’t claim a sales tax credit.

The photographer gets $1,000 worth of clothing and they’ve effectively paid the sales tax on those clothes. Photographer also has to pay income tax on $1,000.

If a photographer barters with a client, they should still send an invoice showing the value of the photography received. Proper accounting records still need to be kept.

About a year ago, the CRA stopped sending paper copies of the GST/HST tax return. So now, when filing a tax return electronically, a person has to remember (or guess) each step on the tax return. For example, a person is asked to enter a dollar amount for “Line 108″.  Uh, what the heck was Line 108 again?

I guess many folks complained about this because a couple of months ago, the CRA put a “working copy” of the GST/HST return online.

The two-page, full version of the GST/HST form appears to have been removed from the CRA site and paper copies are available only upon request.

For some reason, the Canadian government seems unwilling to supply forms as fillable PDFs. Fillable forms would make everything fast, easy and more accurate. But who wants that?

I’ve taken the liberty of converting the GST/HST working copy to a fillable PDF:

1) This version requires Adobe Reader because the form contains javascript to auto-calculate the various subtotals and total. I’m not aware of any other PDF viewer that can recognize javascript.

2) If you don’t want to install Adobe Reader, this other version should work with almost any PDF viewer, such as Apple Preview, but it won’t auto-calculate. You’ll have to do the simple arithmetic yourself.

Very important notes:

1) Don’t mail this form to the CRA. They don’t want it. It’s just for your records.

2) Use the forms at your own risk. I’m sure they work correctly but …

PayPal just announced its new PayPal Here system that will allow a business to accept credit card payments using a smart phone. This is quite similar to the already up-and-running Square system.

There are differences between PayPal Here and Square but there’s only one difference that matters to Canadian photographers: PayPal Here will be available in Canada and Square is not.

Square says that it’s looking into expanding outside the USA but it’s been saying that for over a year. Perhaps the competition from PayPal will force Square to get moving.

Apparently, the Square system is/was capable of being used for credit card fraud. The PayPal Here card reader is encrypted.

For professional photographers, accepting credit card payment on location could be a big help. Some business clients and government clients can pay on-the-spot with a corporate credit card. But not being able to accept credit cards on location means the photographer has to send an invoice and wait up to several months to get paid.