When you finish working on a project, clicking send on the invoice is a wonderful moment. However, a good invoicing system could be hampering your business success! Upgrading to a high-quality invoice system sets you on track to get paid with as little work as possible as quickly as possible.
If you have been struggling with invoicing, getting paid, or any other aspect of your business accounts receivables process, read on to find out how upgrading to a better invoicing system can boost your business.
Get paid faster
The top benefit of a great invoicing system is getting paid as quickly as possible. Putting cash in your bank account should be priority number one, and high-quality invoicing systems help you do just that.
Late and forgotten payments can cause a big problem in any business’s cash flow. You have bills you have to pay every single month, and you have to eat, so you can’t go without getting paid. If you struggle getting your customers to follow through on their part of the bargain, it could be that your invoicing system is at fault.
Save time
Entering and sending an invoice should take no more than a few seconds. If you spend more than a minute or so preparing invoices, you are doing it wrong! When you sit down to create an invoice, you already know who is receiving it, what service or products were delivered, and what you charge. If you can’t choose a customer from a drop-down list or by name, pull up products in a few clicks, and shoot off a digital invoice immediately after, it is time to upgrade.
While moving and setting up an invoicing system is a lot of work up front, the long-term benefits are huge. Your time is very valuable, and you should spend as little of your time as possible on administrative tasks like invoicing. Once you do the hard work, invoicing should be the easy part!
Predicable cash flow
If your life seems like feast or famine, it is time to smooth out those cash flows. With poor invoicing systems and practices, you may find yourself struggling to pay the bills one month and ready to take your extended family for a steak and lobster dinner the next. This can be stressful, inefficient, and isn’t any way for a business owner to live.
Rather than use a “send and hope you get paid on time,” method of invoicing, a good invoice system makes it easy to track payments digitally. If payments are not received when they are due, your invoice system should allow you to easily send follow-up emails and messages. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as the saying goes. Make sure your clients don’t forget about you by sending regular reminders and communications, care of your invoicing system of course.
Easier on clients
What do your clients have to do when it comes time to pay? Do they have to physically write a check and send it in the mail? If so, it’s time to make it easier on your clients.
High quality invoicing systems integrate with a range of payment options. These including direct deposit/ACH and credit cards at the very least. I use an integrated ACH system so my clients can easily click on an invoice. Next they enter their bank account information (only the first time). The money shows up directly in my bank account. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Improved security
Did you know that a large portion of identity theft in the United States is a result of mail theft? If you can eliminate paper checks in the mail, you are instantly improving the security of your business. This will help both your client and the payment itself.
While the internet used to be a scary place to enter payment information, those days are long behind us. If you see that the site address starts with https, it means the site is using SSL, an internet security protocol that encrypts your connection to the website. Using an online invoice program that utilizes SSL and the established banking and card payment systems, everyone’s data, money, and information is more secure.
Less frustration
Once when using a major invoicing product, I ran into an issue getting invoices to match up to my general ledger. Figuring out how to fix everything took hours of work. Invoicing shouldn’t take hours of work. As we previously discussed, it should take a few minutes tops. And, it shouldn’t be frustrating.
Do you ever find yourself angry at your computer when dealing with invoicing and payments? If so, you are just using the wrong invoicing and payments software. Upgrading to something better should remove frustration from your business life.
Easy subscription and progressive billing
If you provide any products or services on a recurring basis, old invoicing systems required you to recreate an invoice every month. With digital invoicing, that happens automatically. Just setup the first invoice and make it recurring on a schedule. You may even be able to put a recurring charge on their card without sending an invoice!
If you bill in phases as projects roll out, quality invoicing programs allow you to quickly press a button to enter the next phase. This will trigger the next section of the invoice prompting the next payment. You might even be able to create account statements for each customer showing what they’ve paid and what they owe. That makes it easy to get customers up to date on payments.
Making invoicing great again!
Invoicing technology has come a long way. If your business has yet to update to an online invoicing system, what are you waiting for? Due.com offers simple, easy invoicing to help you succeed in getting paid as quickly, easily, and frustration free as possible. If you dread invoicing, it’s time for a change.
