Can the employer pay me before I send an invoice?

Service providers are required to send invoices to buyers for all non-Escrow payment amounts through the Elance Payment Service, per Elance's Terms of Service.

However, some employers may send payment through Elance early, even before they've received an invoice from the service provider.

Elance will then automatically generate an document number associated with that payment for the service provider, and charge the appropriate project fee.  If this happens, the service provider should not send another invoice (otherwise, Elance will charge an additional project fee).