Invoicing is a necessity regardless of industry. Many professionals and small business owners find invoicing to be time consuming and difficult. And it can be if you don’t have good procedures in place. Here are 4 ways you can simplify your invoicing process.
Stay On Top of Billing
Stay on top of your billing. Often, professionals wait and enter all their invoices once each month. They become overwhelmed by the sheer number of invoices they must create and the time that it takes to get the work done. Taking time each day or at the end of each week to update your invoices can make the process easier for you to manage. In addition to making this process easier for you to manage, you’ll also have more time to review invoices for mistakes and correct them before invoices are sent out.
Use Electronic Invoicing
Most, if not all, accounting programs have an option for electronic invoicing. If you’re still shopping for invoicing software, you can choose one that gets installed on your computer or you can choose one that you can access online. Electronic invoicing simplifies the process by allowing you to choose whether you’d like to email an invoice or print it for traditional mail.
Electronic invoicing solutions generally give businesses like yours the ability to take online payments. Online payments can increase how quickly you get paid on outstanding invoices.
Follow-up Procedures Should Be in Place
Invoicing can get even more complicated for small business owners and solo professionals when accounts go past due. Do you know what to do when an account is one day, seven days, 15 days, 30 days, 45 days, 60 days, or 90 days past due? Those are the key dates that most businesses rely on when it comes to past due accounts. Having written follow-up procedures are key to tracking past due accounts.
One simple way you can track your past due invoices is to set-up an Excel spreadsheet with tabs denoting each of those past due dates listed above. Set-up each tab to have cells that list pertinent account information (name, account number, invoice number, amount due, due date, when the last payment was received, the amount of the last payment, and follow-up options. Then, create a column for comments. As the account moves through the past due dates, you can move it to separate tabs to keep track of what you should do with the account.
Starting on day one of an account past due, you should reach out to the client. It could be that they got sidetracked. It could be that they’re having financial problems and can’t pay until next week. It could be that they are upset with your company and don’t want to pay because of the experience that they had. You won’t know unless you follow-up. When you find out what’s happening, you can remain a valued problem solver and protect your reputation as a professional.
Get Help with Your Invoicing
You have three options when it comes to invoicing. You can continue to do it yourself (along with everything else that you need to do for your business). You can hire a part time or full time employee who works from your office (and pay worker’s comp insurance, overhead, salary, and insurance). You can opt to use a professional service who can handle your invoicing for you. The second and third options are easier for most professionals because they can take a hands-off approach to invoicing. They can focus their time on other necessary tasks.
It can be hard to find and keep good help. It can also be expensive. Your employee would rely on their job for income. What would happen if you don’t have enough work for them each week or month? No matter how great their skills are and how much you need them, they could look for somewhere else to work. You’d be right back to square one.
Hiring a third-party solutions provider, such as Clients ARM, gives you a way to simplify your invoicing in a way that is cost-effective and dependable. Located in the United States, Clients ARM provides back-end support to professionals and small business owners who need help with their billing, collections, and even with customer service. Since we work from a remote location in the United States, you save on overhead and other business expenses.
If you’d like to learn how Clients ARM can help you simplify your invoicing process, schedule a free consultation. There’s no obligation.
