Invoicing shouldn’t be tedious or complicated

Everyone knows a smooth billing process saves you time and money, yet many small businesses are frustrated by their invoicing system. This seems counter-intuitive, because making money should be fun!

So why do small businesses find the billing process such a headache? One common issue is the re-keyeing and double (or even triple) handling of invoice data. Many people with traditional invoicing software still use a manual process – typing up each new invoice to deliver it via snail mail.

Cash flow is essential for small business, and invoicing plays an integral part in their success or failure. However, getting paid on time is not something businesses are confident about at the moment. According to data published by Dun & Bradstreet, businesses are waiting 54 days to be paid. These payment delays have a negative effect on cash flow and mean that money isn’t available for small businesses to pay their own bills.

If your invoicing is easy, quick and available online, the flow of money is much faster. If you can generate an invoice while you’re out and about, or on a job, then you’re ahead of the game. The faster a customer or client receives an invoice, the sooner you get paid.

The trouble with traditional invoicing software

• You often don’t get paid on time.
• The steps involved are too manual, easy-to-mess-up and time consuming.
• Invoice templates can’t be customised.
• There’s a lack of visibility – it’s difficult to record and track what stage the billing process is at.
• You can feel disconnected from your customers if you can’t see the same information at the same time.

Invoicing should be easy and seamless

Getting paid should be simple and fun, not stressful or complicated. It should be a pleasure to do business. When we chat to the small business community, it’s clear that the billing process needs to be simple. One thing we hear about invoicing is that it would be much easier if you could do it anywhere, from any device.

With online invoicing, your customers can pay invoices immediately with the click of a button. There’s nothing to get lost in the mail, and you can see exactly when your customers have opened your invoice.

Using online invoicing also allows you to take advantage of e-invoicing networks. E-invoicing means that your invoice is sent directly to your customer’s accounting or finance software ready to be approved and paid.  No more lost emails or waiting for accounts receivable to input the bill into their system. Plus, with e-invoicing you’ll receive invoices from suppliers directly into your accounting software as a draft bill, reducing hours of data entry and ensuring that your ledger is accurate and up to date. You don’t even need to be using the same accounting software. Payment can be quicker and more secure.

Six ways your business runs faster and smarter with online invoicing

1. Automation of tasks that were traditionally manual, saves you time and money, leaving you more capacity to grow your business.
2. You have a clearer picture of your cash flow. Invoices are updated in real-time, every time you record a payment on one, edit one or reconcile one.
3. Payments are made quickly – your customers can pay online with the click
   of a button.
4. You can create professional, customisable invoices from any device, any time. When your customers have paid or even seen an invoice, you’ll be notified.
5. There’s a much better connection to your customers – you can see the same documents at the same time.
6. You have greater insight – you can see how much money you’ve made, and which clients owe the most. You can send an outstanding bills link to customers that still owe you.

Online invoicing speeds up the flow of money and data

Paying online is dramatically faster and simpler for both businesses and customers. Businesses can see when their invoices have been viewed. Meanwhile, the customers can see the most up-to-date status of their payments, including all outstanding and overdue payments.

This means the relationship between you and your customers is much more in sync. Financial transactions recorded in real-time closes the gap between money flowing and keeping proper business records.

Small business accounting has been fundamentally changed by the introduction of cloud computing. When sending invoices becomes simple and seamless, your business will reap the benefits

When it Makes Sense to Invest Into Billing and Invoicing Software

If you send customers billing for products or services you need invoicing software.

This solution is extremely popular in the B2B space.

Take a moment to assess your current billing and receivables collection process.

How efficient is it?

Are you printing and mailing invoices to customers?

Does your business fax bills to clients? If yes, we need to be forward here.

These methods are extremely outdated.

Some of you might be using spreadsheets to manually generate invoices to send via email.

Even though email is more modern, this process still isn’t as effective as using billing and invoicing software.

In addition to B2Bs, we strongly recommend billing and invoicing software to medical professionals, service businesses, and freelancers.

Billing and invoicing software is also ideal for businesses with recurring billing cycles.

Certain organizations in the B2C space might not need billing and invoicing software just yet.

It’s not at all common for retailers to bill customers at a later date for product purchases.

But B2C service businesses, like cleaning companies or plumbers, could definitely benefit from an updated billing solution.