7 Steps for Improving Billing Process

Are you a small business owner searching for solutions to streamline your invoicing and billing process? And, Yes!, delayed payments can give you nightmares. You want to automate the whole time-consuming process by implementing online billing software.

Sending on-time invoices can drastically increase your chances of getting paid on time. Failing to do so is going to mess up the cash flow of your small business. It is going to push you in a corner and may cause you to worry endlessly. Here are a few steps to make your billing process more effective.

How to Make Your Billing Process More Effective

1#

Transparency in Terms and Conditions

Right at the start, while discussing the project with your client, explain your payment terms and conditions. It goes a long way toward avoiding future problems.

Be open about your fees, hourly or project-based billing, additional fees, project completion date, payment modes, credit period, and the penalty for late payments.

2#

Decide Time to Send Invoice

You may not believe it, but sending invoices during a certain period or day or date can get you paid on time. It is more effective to send invoices on weekends. As per the study, your payment will arrive 10 days sooner.

Invoicing your customer on the 1^st of the month is also efficient. Doing so will get your payment a week earlier. However, avoid sending invoices at the end of the month. These take the most time to get paid.

3#

Prepare Your Invoice to Get Paid Faster

Sending invoices instantly works. However, you can make them more specific and effective. Customize your invoices to show payment terms. It will increase the chances of you getting paid by 1.5 times.

Customize your invoice by adding the company name and logo. It will be good for your branding. The chances of getting on-time payment will rise by 3 times.

Prepare your invoices to reflect the due date. The chances of you getting paid on time will rise by 8 times.

4#

Switch to Online Invoicing Software

You need to stop preparing invoices using paper and pen or Excel spreadsheets. It wastes time and effort. Most disturbingly, it causes manual errors and inaccurate invoices. It is true, especially if you are working with Excel. A typo can ruin your relationship with a high-value customer.

Implementation of online billing software helps in reducing data redundancy and promotes reuse of data in the database. It drastically reduces human errors. Invoicing and billing software system brings simplicity to the preparation of accurate proposals, estimates, quotes, bills, and invoices.

5#

Benefit from Automated Invoicing and Billing

Online billing software enables you to take care of the scheduling of recurring bills automatically, track overdue invoices so that you can send reminders, email instant invoices to encourage on-time payments, prepare proposal-based invoices, track billable time and credit invoices.

6#

Invest in Online Invoicing & Billing Software

Online billing software assists you in keeping in touch with your business' financial data. The data remains in web servers, which means you can access it 24X7.

You can access it using internet-capable smartphones, laptops, tablets, or using a desktop at your home over the weekend. You do not have to rush to the office for verifying a small detail before making a promise to your customer.

7#

Integrate and Centralize

The days when small business owners use to search for tools to solve specific problems are long gone. Choosing accounting software that comes with specialized modules for invoice or inventory management is far more effective. The system comes integrated.

Moreover, the software maintains all your business data in a centralized location. It stores all your proposals, estimates, quotes, and financial transactions, documents, and reports in one place. It is highly convenient.

Streamlining of invoicing and billing process is a challenging task for the small business owners. It can create a cash flow problem for them. The solution is to automate the process with online billing software.