This is the guide I wish I had had. It covers the whole money side of freelance writing for those of us working in New Zealand and Australia. Each section below is a short, useful answer on its own; where there is a fuller guide, I have linked it.
In this guide
1. How to invoice as a freelance writer
2. What to charge — setting your rates
3. Getting paid across the Tasman, in AUD
4. Do you need to register for GST?
5. When a client won't pay
6. Payment terms that protect you
7. Keeping track of it all
8. How to invoice as a freelance writer
A freelance writing invoice needs seven things to get paid promptly and keep Inland Revenue happy: your name or business name, the client's details, an invoice number and date, a clear description of the work, the amount (and whether GST applies), your payment terms, and your bank account details. If you are GST-registered, the invoice must say "tax invoice" and show your GST number and the GST amount.
The bit writers get wrong is vagueness. "Writing services — $800" invites questions and delay; "Feature article, 1,200 words, commissioned 3 March — $800" gets paid. Date every invoice, number them in sequence (it matters at tax time), and state your terms plainly: payment due within 14 days. The clearer the invoice, the faster the money.
Read the full guide: How to invoice in New Zealand
What to charge — setting your rates
There is no fixed rate card for freelance writing in New Zealand or Australia, but there are three ways to price: per word (common in journalism), per hour, or per project (usually the fairest for both sides on larger work). The most common mistake is quoting per word on a job that is really per hour — the research-heavy piece, the many interviews, the endless revisions.
Price the whole job, not just the time at the keyboard. Know your floor — what you need to earn an hour for this to be worth doing — and hold to it. Winning work by dropping below your floor only buys you a job you will resent halfway through.
Read the full guide: Setting your rates in NZ
Getting paid across the Tasman, in AUD
If you are a New Zealand writer invoicing an Australian client, you will usually be paid in Australian dollars — and the two things that quietly eat your fee are the exchange rate and the bank's international transfer charges. A standard bank transfer can cost you both a poor rate and a flat fee; a service like Wise typically gives you the mid-market rate and a lower, transparent cost.
There is a GST wrinkle worth knowing too: services you provide to a client based overseas are generally zero-rated for New Zealand GST — you charge 0%, but can still claim GST back on related expenses. The rules have edges, so confirm your own situation, but for most cross-Tasman work this is the shape of it.
Read the full guide: Getting paid in AUD from New Zealand
Do you need to register for GST?
In New Zealand, you must register for GST once your self-employment turnover passes NZ$60,000 in any twelve-month period (confirm the current threshold with Inland Revenue). Below that, registering is optional. Once registered, you add 15% GST to your New Zealand invoices and file regular GST returns. The threshold is about your total self-employed turnover, not any single client.
Registering voluntarily below the threshold can make sense if you carry significant GST-bearing expenses, but it also adds filing to your year — a real trade-off, not a free win. In Australia the equivalent threshold sits higher again (AU$75,000), so if you work seriously on both sides of the Tasman, it is worth getting advice on both.
Read the full guide: GST for freelance writers
When a client won't pay
Most late payment is not malice — it is an invoice sitting unread in a busy inbox. A friendly, specific reminder the day after your terms lapse resolves the majority of it. If it does not, the ladder is simple: a polite nudge, then a firmer reminder stating the overdue amount and the original invoice date, then a formal notice — and, for smaller sums that go nowhere, the Disputes Tribunal.
Prevention beats chasing every time. A deposit on larger jobs, terms agreed in writing before you start, and invoicing the moment the work is delivered will spare you most of these conversations. The longer you wait to invoice, the longer you wait to be paid.
Payment terms that protect you
Your terms are the quiet contract that decides how a job goes. The ones worth having: a deposit of 25–50% on larger projects, a clear payment window (14 days is standard), a kill fee — a share of the fee you keep if a commissioned piece is cancelled through no fault of yours — and a line on what happens if payment is late.
None of this needs a lawyer. Put your terms in the email that confirms the job: "Happy to start on this — my terms are a 50% deposit, balance within 14 days of delivery, and a 50% kill fee if the piece is cancelled after I have begun." Said plainly and up front, it reads as professional, not prickly — and it saves the awkward conversation later.
Read the full guide:Getting paid on time
Keeping track of it all
When you are juggling several clients and publications, the thing that slips is never the writing — it is remembering who owes you what. A simple system that records each job, what you quoted, what you invoiced, and what has been paid saves you money (the invoices you would otherwise forget to send) and spares you the scramble at tax time.
This is exactly the gap Writion was built to close: one place where every project, invoice and payment lives together, so nothing falls through — and so "how much am I actually owed right now?" is a question you can answer in a glance rather than a spreadsheet archaeology dig.
This is the part of writing Writion exists to take off your plate. Not the writing — that stays yours — but the tracking of projects, invoices and income that surrounds it, so that getting paid stops being the thing you dread and becomes something that quietly takes care of itself.
About Writion. Writion is a writing business management platform built for professional writers in New Zealand and Australia — the one place where both the commercial work and the creative work live. Founded by author Gaye Miller. Writion records only business-layer information; it never reads or stores a writer's manuscript.