Three ways to speed up invoicing
Everyone likes making money, especially small business owners. Invoicing, however, is typically one of the tasks that small business owners like the least. Chores like creating and sending invoices get set aside for other duties that are seen as more enjoyable or even more urgent.
You tell yourself you’ll get around to it tomorrow, but tomorrow becomes next week, next week becomes next month, and suddenly you realise your client hasn’t paid you in a while and your bank account is lower than expected.
The issue, of course, is that clients can’t pay you until you’ve invoiced them. You need an invoicing system that makes the process less painful—or even takes it out of your hands entirely.
Hire a bookkeeper
Bookkeepers handle your company’s day-to-day financial transactions and records. That includes invoicing and following up unpaid invoices.
A bookkeeper creates the invoices and sends them out on time. They record all payments that come in and follow up on unpaid invoices. By having a full view of your company’s financials, they’ll even be able to tell you if you’re charging enough for your services.
Think about how much easier it would be to get paid if someone else was responsible for ensuring that happened.
Use invoicing programs
Cloud-based invoicing programs such as Xero make creating, sending, and collecting on invoices much easier. You set up an invoice template and for each client or project fill in the necessary information. You can send out the invoice either as an attachment or as a link to the invoice online.
With some systems you can see when you sent the invoice and when the client viewed it. You can set up different deadlines for each client and you can often accept payment through the system. Not only will invoicing itself be faster, but it’ll be easier for clients to pay you.
Make sure you send your invoices to the right person. Sending invoices to the wrong department can create massive delays in getting paid. A cloud-based system can also keep track of when your invoices are overdue and send out reminders without you thinking about it.
Set up a payment schedule
If you have regular clients who require the same amount of work from you over a set time—such as a month or two months – set up a regular payment schedule with them.
This is easier if you do it with a cloud-based system, which you can set up to send out recurring invoices automatically . You set up how frequently the software sends out the invoices and your client learns to expect those invoices and pay them quickly.
Final thoughts
The only way for your business to bring in money is to invoice your clients. Unfortunately, invoicing is one of those boring tasks that business owners constantly put off.
Finding ways to make that process easier for you means and your clients will pay you more quickly. Isn’t that every business owner’s dream?