How to bill clients as a video editor or videographer

Video work has a rhythm all its own: a fixed shoot day, edit hours that creep, and revision rounds that can swallow your margin if you let them. The trick is to price every stage up front, take a deposit before you ever charge a battery, and turn that approved estimate into an invoice the second the shoot wraps. Here’s how to set it up in Fee-Lion so each phase gets paid.

Build the estimate around your production stages

Start a new estimate from the Estimates sidebar item and mix line-item types so the numbers mirror how you actually work:

1. Add a fee line for your shoot day-rate — set quantity to the number of days and the rate to your daily price. Two shoot days at $1,200? Qty 2 × $1,200.
2. Add a task line for edit time, billed as hours × your editing rate. Estimate generously; you can bill the real hours later from tracked time.
3. Add unit lines for deliverables and gear pass-throughs — a 60-second cut, three social cutdowns, drone rental, a colorist — each as qty × rate.
4. Add a fee line for included revision rounds (say, two rounds) priced into the package, then a separate line for additional revisions at a per-round rate so scope creep bills itself.
5. Set your tax and deposit %, then save. Defaults for these live at Settings → Preferences under Estimates, tax, and deposit, so you’re not retyping them every gig.

Tip: Cap revisions on their own line. Listing “2 rounds included, $X each thereafter” turns the awkward “that’s another charge” conversation into a number the client already approved.

Collect the deposit before the shoot

You don’t want to be unloading C-stands at 6am for a client who hasn’t put money down. A deposit percentage on the estimate handles that.

• Set a deposit on the estimate — say 50% — so the approved total carries a required upfront amount.
• Send the estimate from Estimates. Your client opens a magic-link portal (no login), approves, and pays the deposit by card straight into your own Stripe.
• That paid deposit locks the shoot date and covers gear, crew, and prep before production day.

Convert to an invoice when the shoot wraps

Once the estimate is approved, one click on Convert turns it into an invoice — or a project, if you want to track the edit as work. The invoice carries every line over and gives the client a Pay button.

1. While you edit, log hours with the Time tracker so your real edit time replaces the estimate’s guess.
2. Bill that tracked time onto the invoice so the final number reflects the actual cut, not the rough one.
3. Add any extra revision rounds as new line items if the client went past what was included.
4. Send the final invoice; the client pays the balance by card and the money lands in your Stripe.

Tip: Working a monthly content client — recurring reels or a podcast cut? Set up a recurring invoice with auto-pay so the retainer bills itself and you stay behind the lens, not the spreadsheet.

What’s next

• Collect a deposit on an estimate
• Price an estimate with tasks, fees, and units
• Bill tracked time to an invoice
• Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices