I'm working towards going professional, but have never worked with/for a professional photographer so I'm not sure how the paperwork and legal side is dealt with.

By that I mean documents like Terms & Conditions, booking forms, invoices, and so on.

Do you bother with these things yourself, and if you have a T&Cs document, do you have one or several tailored to different customers?

What about invoices? Do you make up and print your own, or use something else?

If you go to an average person to do some portraits, do you present them with anything, or just take the cheque/cash.

I have to be honest here and admit to be more or less totally clueless in this area...

Any hints/tips/pointers/book recommendations gratefully received.

hello,
i have been in business for over twenty five years and the best
invoicing and reporting software i can recommend is kash flow

you will find them on the net

you can do everything you need to do regarding paperwork.and it is a breeze. you simply about £15.00 per month and that it.

you enter your customers - and start sending them quotes invoices and it evens tells you via email if they are late, what interest you can charge if they are late.

also has full supporting via - spread sheets, graphs, reports etc and the email support is fantastic.

all we do now is take the books once a quarter to our accountants. very easy to learn.

best thing is that you can take money - enter on your system and email your customers in minutes

hope this helps
printingonmetal.com