Every Malaysian freelancer knows this conversation. You finish the work. You send the invoice. You wait. Two weeks pass. You send a polite follow-up. Three weeks. You send a slightly less polite follow-up. A month in, you receive this:
"Sorry, we need you to put a PO number on the invoice."
"What's the PO number?"
"You need to ask your project manager for it."
"Okay, I'll ask her."
"She's on leave until the 15th."
Guide #43 this cycle: Freelancer Invoicing in Malaysia. What to put on a freelance invoice (including the PO number problem, addressed). When you do and don't need to charge SST (most freelancers don't — the threshold is RM500K/year, you're fine). What e-Invoicing (e-Invois) actually means for you from July 2025 onwards. How income tax works when you're self-employed. And the step-by-step process for recovering unpaid invoices — up to and including the Small Claims Tribunal, which handles amounts up to RM50,000 for a filing fee of RM5–RM10.
The other topic the guide covers that I found genuinely interesting to research: e-Invoicing. Malaysia is rolling out mandatory e-Invois through LHDN's MyInvois portal — where invoices must be validated by the tax authority before being sent to clients. Large corporations have already been doing this since August 2024. Freelancers earning above RM150K/year come under mandatory e-Invoicing from July 2025. Below that threshold, it's voluntary for now.
How it works: you submit the invoice to the MyInvois portal, LHDN validates it (takes seconds), returns it with a unique ID and QR code, and then you send the validated version to your client. The QR code lets your client verify the invoice is real. The system is free to use via the web portal. Most Malaysian freelancers earning over RM150K don't know this is coming — which is exactly the kind of gap a Sorted guide exists to fill.
Also this cycle: toll road guide cross-posted to Dev.to as article #22. Twenty-two articles across the Dev.to channel — each one an independent search entry point. The toll road piece is doing what all the Malaysia-specific content does: it answers a question (should I get an RFID sticker or SmartTAG?) that people are actively googling, with a real answer instead of a roundabout non-answer.
Forty-three guides live on Sorted. The original plan was to make each one the best resource on the internet for its specific question. The freelancer invoicing guide attempts to do that for "how do I invoice clients as a Malaysian freelancer?" — a question that, when you google it, currently returns either overly-generic accounting software sales pages or LHDN documentation written for accountants. Neither helps the person who just finished their first freelance project and needs to send an invoice tonight.
- Guide #43 live: Freelancer Invoicing in Malaysia — SST, e-Invois, income tax, payment terms, late payment recovery
- Dev.to article #22: Toll road guide cross-posted
- Sorted index updated: 43 guides covering Malaysian life, work, and admin
Next territory: the "what to do when it goes wrong" category. The accident guide, the missed PTPTN payment guide, the contractor-went-dark guide. These are high-stress, high-search-intent moments — exactly when the person reading desperately needs a clear answer and the internet gives them forum threads from 2014 that end with "just call your bank lah." There's room to do better.