Notes for owners · Sales management
Quoting in US dollars from India: pricing, invoices and payment terms to settle upfront
What to agree with a US client before you send the proposal: currency, how they will pay, who bears bank charges, when the invoice falls due, and what to ask your accountant first.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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Before you send a dollar proposal to a US client, settle six things in writing. They are the currency, how the money will reach you, who pays the bank's charges, when the invoice falls due, how tax is shown on it, and what happens if an invoice is late or disputed. Get your accountant's view first. Tax and bank paperwork rules for foreign receipts change, and they differ by what you sell. Then put the agreed answers in the proposal so nobody discovers them at invoice time.
Why settle this before the proposal, not after?
Because each of these is harder to negotiate once you raise it late. Once the client has approved the scope and the price, a question about bank charges feels like a new demand. Raised in the proposal, it is a line like any other.
Late discovery is also expensive. A transfer arrives short after intermediary bank deductions. An invoice sits "pending approval" for weeks. A tax question reaches your accountant after you have billed. Each is a margin you did not price, and the proposal is the cheapest place to prevent it.
The terms sheet: six rows to fill in
Put this on the last page of the proposal, in the client's currency and plain words.
| Term | The decision | A way to word it |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | The currency of price and payment | "All prices and payments are in US dollars" |
| Payment method | Bank transfer, card, or another route the client's finance team already uses | "Payment by international bank transfer to the account on the invoice" |
| Bank charges | Who bears the sender's and the receiver's charges | "The client bears charges at its own bank. We bear ours" |
| Due date | When it falls due, counted from the invoice date | "Payable within a number of days stated on the invoice" |
| Tax | How tax is stated, as advised by your accountant | A line on the invoice that your accountant has approved |
| Late or disputed invoices | What happens, and how to raise a dispute | "Raise any query in writing before the due date" |
Add a note under the table on the exchange-rate rule, if the price could move. For a fixed-price job, you carry the risk, so build in a margin. For a longer contract, you may agree that the dollar price is reviewed if the rupee moves past a stated point. Your accountant can advise on the right level.
How do you set the dollar price in the first place?
Start from your rupee cost and a margin, not from a conversion of your domestic price. A simple route has four steps:
- List your costs for this job in rupees, including the time you spend on calls at US hours.
- Add the cost of getting paid. That means bank charges you bear.
- Add your margin, and decide how much room you would give if the rupee strengthens.
- Convert to dollars at a rate you are comfortable with, round to a clean figure, and state it.
The price must sound like a US price. "USD 2,400" reads clean; "USD 2,387.50" looks computed and invites bargaining over the decimals. Whether to sell by project, by hour or by package is a separate choice. For one trade's version of it, read pricing a software or IT service.
An invented example: a Kolkata translation agency
This agency is made up, and so are the figures. It translates technical manuals for a Minnesota equipment maker. It quotes in dollars. The rate is per word, and the bill falls due in 30 days. The first transfer arrives with deductions it did not expect. The sending bank and an intermediary each took a charge, and USD 1,800 arrives as USD 1,745. The client's accounts payable team also says the invoice was never approved because it lacked a purchase order number.
Both problems could have been avoided with a few lines in the proposal. In the next proposal the agency adds a terms sheet. It asks the client for the PO number and the finance contact's name before starting. It asks who bears charges, and the client agrees to pay them all. It requests a part payment at the start of a large manual, stated as a share of the total, with the balance on delivery. It also adds a line that revisions beyond two rounds are quoted separately.
The next job is better but not perfect. The part payment arrives whole, since the client now bears the charges at its end, yet the receiving bank still takes a small fee that nobody had listed, and the balance waits a few days longer on the client's approval run. The agency's accountant confirms the invoice wording once and the template is reused. What a bank deducts differs by bank and route.
When not to ask for part payment upfront: if the client is a large buyer with a fixed policy of paying on delivery, asking can stall the order. In that case, shorten the job into stages, each invoiced when delivered.
What about disputes and late payment?
State the route before you need it. A single line works: "Queries on an invoice must be raised in writing before the due date." Follow up the day after the due date. Be polite, write it down, and attach the invoice number and bank details again. Follow-up after the quote covers the tone.
Anything involving a contract dispute or legal recovery across borders is a lawyer's job. Say so to yourself early and do not improvise.
Terms like these make the proposal stronger because the client sees the whole deal on paper, and proposal development is where we can help put it together. If you are still working out how to reach American buyers, the United States hub is the place to start.
Take the terms sheet to your accountant
Copy the table into a document, fill the rows with your best guess, and ask your chartered accountant to correct the currency, tax and bank-paperwork lines. Use the corrected sheet in every proposal after that. If you want help building the proposal around it, tell us what you need.
