It may retire soon, but for now the withholding tax is a payment method widely used by freelancers and atypical workers. Let’s create an invoice for our translation, copywriting, and text production work.
Let’s create a note for our translation, copywriting, and text production work.
First of all, let’s create a professional header. At the top right, insert the sender. From the Format menu, choose Tabs. In the dialog box, input the tab position by checking the centimeters with the ruler, which we should have activated in the meantime (View menu / Ruler). We need to ensure that the data stays on the line: if necessary, adjust directly with the pointer on the ruler to create appropriate new tabs.
Now, insert the address of the company to which the note must be sent. Moving down a few lines with a line break, enter the data on the left and perhaps use bold (from the formatting bar or from Format menu / Font, Type tab, Style: bold). Then a few lines below, put the document title, in bold, all uppercase, and with an appropriate size (from the formatting bar or from Format menu / Font, Type tab, Size: 18).
Beyond the title, it is appropriate to insert the author’s name again, on a new line, with less emphasis than the previous line. Now center this whole heading in the middle of the line. After selecting the text, use the formatting bar or the Format menu / Paragraph tab Indents and Spacing, Alignment: Centered. If any preliminary explanations about the calculations are necessary, insert the required text here, with an appropriate size.
Now let’s create a table with details of the work done. From the Table menu, we can choose Draw Table or Insert / Table. Let’s use the first method, which is more intuitive. Use the drawing tools on the toolbar (which can also be accessed from View / Toolbars / Tables and Borders): select the pencil and then drag with the mouse to draw the outer rectangle of the table.
Still using the pencil, draw the rows of the table: a header, then a first row of labels, then as many rows as there were jobs done. If it looks like uneven row heights were created, use the Distribute Rows Evenly command from the Tables and Borders toolbar. If the previously drawn space is too small, insert another row via Table menu / Insert / Rows below.
Now draw the columns, still using the pencil: we will only draw where necessary (so not on the header row). In case of mistakes, use the eraser to delete, while to resize rows and columns you can use the mouse to drag, shrink, and move any element (including the whole table). Then insert all the text, using the table formatting options available on the Tables and Borders toolbar.
After entering all the work details, it is necessary to insert a final row for the total. Positioning in the last written row, from the Table menu choose Insert / Rows below. We don’t need all the columns in the new row, so delete the excess ones with the eraser from the Tables and Borders toolbar. Keep one column for the text “GROSS TOTAL” and one for the sum, to be performed automatically with the AutoSum command.
Let’s now improve the table’s presentation by using font style and background fill color for some cells. For the font, you can use bold from the formatting bar or from Format menu / Font tab Type / Style: bold after selecting the text to highlight. For background fill, use the Background Color command on the Tables and Borders toolbar.
The net sum calculation can be done manually and then entered in a new table row. However, we automate this calculation so that in the future the same sheet can be used, appropriately modified with the new gross sum value. To do this, we introduce Excel into our document. From the Insert menu / Object, in the window choose the Create New Object tab / Microsoft Excel Worksheet.
In the Excel sheet that opened, write in the first rows of the first column on the left “Gross total,” “20% Withholding,” and “Net total.” In the second column enter “780” as the gross total, then opposite 20% withholding introduce the formula “=B1*20%” and opposite net total the formula “=B1-B2”. Thus, in the future, when changing the value entered in the gross total field, the calculation will automatically update.
Now let’s try to give a presentable form to this calculation made with an Excel sheet. First, resize it by pointing with the mouse at the midpoints on the edges and corners of the worksheet. We need to make only the columns we filled appear. Then, still working on Excel, select the Rows command from the Insert menu after positioning in a cell of the first row. This gets us a header row.
In the header row, insert the text “COMPENSATION CALCULATION.” Working in Excel, first select the two cells of the first header row, then from Format menu / Cells select the Alignment tab and activate the Merge Cells box in Text Control. Then give the text visibility by selecting it and applying bold and an appropriate size from Format menu / Cells tab Font.
Complete the Excel sheet setup: from Tools menu / Options choose the View tab, then under Window Options uncheck the Gridlines box so that the cells are no longer visible. Then from Format menu / Cells choose the Border tab and create a strong border outlining the visible cells, perhaps also separating the last row from the previous ones with a border.
Now all that’s left is to insert the last necessary texts, starting with a reference note to the Euro as currency for all the amounts mentioned. Alternatively, both in the Table and in the Excel sheet, we would have needed to add a right column containing the word “euro”: inserting this word in the amounts column would invalidate the automatic calculations. So we finish with payment methods and a space for the signature.
The last operation is a check. As seen, with the last entries we moved to a second page, just for a few lines. It’s worth recovering them on a single page. From File menu / Page Setup… choose the Margins tab and enter smaller values for Top and Bottom. If this is still insufficient, recover some line breaks at the top of our sheet. Check the result with File / Print Preview, then we will be ready to collect.
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