7 Effective Tips for Better Invoicing & Maximizing Cash Flow

As the invoice is sent, the waiting process is started. Yeah, it really feels like the long waiting game. For the business organization, the biggest challenge is to get fast payment from the clients. The business organization has to face many difficulties due to the late payments from the client.

If they take a bit more time to make invoices payment, it may hamper the business’s operation as they also have to make various payments on their side. What are the tips for better invoicing? Or, more importantly, how do you get them to pay sooner politely?

The most important thing is that you can’t force clients to pay faster. But there are many other things that you can do to encourage them to pay on time. Simply sending the invoices to the clients and waiting for them to pay sooner is just the ordinary process that can’t help you get paid on time.

If you want to get your clients to pay faster, you need to make a simple and understandable payment method. Remember that the client’s top priority is not to process the invoices. So it is your work to make it convenient and easy, and they’ll be much more likely to pay.

Tips for Better Invoicing & Maximizing Cash Flow

Here are seven ways to change your invoicing process that can help to encourage your clients to pay:

1. Make It clear that It’s an Invoice.

Yeah, it sounds a bit strange, but sometimes people may have confusion on the design and layout of invoices with other documents. It especially occurs in large companies. That business organization has processes that automatically route paper and email invoices directly to the accounts department. If the recipient doesn’t know it’s an invoice, then that process is slowed down. As a result, you get slow payment.

Well, to avoid that you can follow these measures. If you are sending the paper invoices, you have to make sure that the outside of the cover is clearly marked as “invoice”. That way, it’s more likely to be sent directly to the account section than left in a pile of emails. And, the great thing about invoicing software is that it sends online invoices with accurate billing information. It is mandatory to add the word “invoice” in the email invoice’s subject line so the recipient will recognize it and forward it to the concerned department.

2. Send It to the Right Person with the Right Information.

Well, it’s better to think about your customer’s payment systems and a way to transfer your invoice quickly through those systems. It is always not a case where your main contact at the business is the person who processes invoices. For instance, the deal of the business may happen with the project manager or other purchasing agent. And you may only have their contact details, so you directly email them your invoice, then it could stay in their inbox for many days.

Instead of waiting for the long process, you can ask the client for the department or individual who handles the payment for invoices so that you could directly send them to the accounting department. Also, you have to be definite to include any required details on your invoices.

The details like purchase order numbers can help your customer identify invoices and see if they’re approved. If you don’t include that detail then, the concerned department may have to find out the purchaser, get approval, and record it in the system. This process also adds few days for the payment.

3. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Having multiple payment options can help you to get the payment faster. You can use online invoicing software to create and send the invoices. An efficient way to get clients to pay faster is by adding the “pay now” button on an electronic invoice. Accepting online credit card payments, collecting checks and cash, etc., are also the famous medium for payment applied to all the business organization.

But the methods of online payments and checks are not mostly used in recent business practice. The new methods for invoice payment are introduced, like using invoicing software which is simpler and efficient for the business operation. These invoices have direct links that allow your customers to pay through PayPal, Stripe, credit card, and wire transfer.

4. Reduce Your Payment Terms.

Most of the business owners accompany net-30 payment terms as they don’t want to offend the customer. However, net-30 is often a business killer in many industries. Think about it. You’re fronting the cash for the labor, materials, and other resources needed to try to do the work. Then you’re billing when the work is complete and waiting another 30 days to urge paid. In some cases, you’ll be going 60 or 90 days between the time work is started and, therefore, the time you get paid.

There’s no rule saying that you simply need to bill like this. You can decide your own payment terms. Try switching to net-15. Better yet, try billing for a few or all of the work upfront. Cash flow problems are the most important explanation for business failure. You don’t have to let your business go under because you don’t want to offend others.

5. Send More Invoices

You have to send more invoices to accomplish several things at once. If you send a deposit invoice, it sets the realistic expectations of the payment with the clients. The business is held for-profit, and you have to do everything for your payment. The deposit invoice also minimizes the risk of a no-pay situation.

The milestone invoices and payments can encourage your customers to pay you more regularly. It makes your clients familiar with paying you at a regular time, and you will get the regular payment. This type of method helps you to persuade your clients on some additional projects or services.

As a smart business owner, you have to find methods to minimize risk and get payment from clients and customers faster. Thus, you must normalize your cash flow and stay in business with profit.

6. Switch to Invoicing Software

It is no secret that all the business organization wants a simpler and efficient way for their day to day operation. In that sense, an invoicing method must be faster and simpler. The traditional method to create invoices manually on paper takes a lot of time and effort. Just to get the payment, you have to hire one employee for invoice management. That individual also has to be capable create invoices without any errors.

Thus, switching to online invoicing software is the best and efficient way to send the invoice and get the payment faster. It minimizes the unnecessary steps like duplicating the invoice template, double-checking, exporting as pdf, sending the mail,, etc. Therefore the invoicing application will save you time and effort. It also ensures your accuracy and helps to get the payment faster.

For the business organization, every second counts, and it is better to have an efficient way to get the payment. Thus leaving the manual way to create the invoice and using automated invoicing software like OutInvoice will be profitable for your organization. OutInvoice is the best invoicing software for small businesses, freelancers, a startup company, and large companies. This invoicing app helps to send invoices faster, manages the finance, and also allows access to billing information and client information from its dashboard.

7. Prompt Invoicing

When you think about getting payment faster, you must be able to send it faster. If you want to send professional-looking invoices with accurate details, then you have to ditch the paper invoices and invest in the online invoicing software.

You can send the invoices in just a few seconds with the help of invoicing software. The online invoices are more accurate in the billing terms; also, it automatically calculates the total price with the tax and other expenses and sends it to the preferred clients.

In the case where you forget or delay sending an invoice to the clients, you can’t expect faster payment. Thus, you can send invoices faster with the help of invoice apps and maintain the business’s cash flow.

What Startups should know about Invoicing

Most startup business owners don’t know about invoicing and its importance in business. It is better to learn and take suggestions from an experienced source.

Business is all about saving time and effort. You can’t even imagine that just creating the invoices take most of your work time. Even sending and tracking its record adds up a lot of time. It’s better for the startup business to have the perfect accounting strategy and invest in legal and efficient invoicing software.

The invoicing software can create and send the invoices in less time, and you can get a chance to get paid faster. You can also learn more about advantages of online invoicing software.

OutInvoice is the best invoicing software for the startup business. It offers a free trial for 30 days with amazing features like unlimited business profiles, unlimited customer profiles, unlimited Invoices, and no transaction fees. Hurry up and grab the offer!

Common Invoicing Mistakes to Avoid

Some of the common invoicing mistakes made by companies that must be avoided are listed below:

Invoicing the Wrong Client

Yes, manual work has lots of mistakes, and sending invoices to the wrong clients is one of the worst ones. The main thing is you may offend your customers with the wrong invoice. The clients may lose trust in your company as the confidential information can be revealed to another person, especially if their businesses are competing.

You might charge different rates to each client, and if you send the invoice to the wrong clients and they may find out about the low rates that you’re currently charging to them. It could ruin your relationship with that client, and you may lose your potential clients.

Thus, you can use the invoicing app to have the systematic invoicing method.

Inaccurate Details

There are chances of calculation mistakes if you manually calculate and create the invoices. You may forget to add tax, and you may unknowingly charge more or fewer rates, etc. This types of mistakes are the most common one and also the dangerous one. You might offend your clients with inaccurate details. Further misunderstanding can make you lose your potential clients.

Not Seeking Professional Help

It is not possible to have knowledge of every aspect for the business owners. They might not be qualified for accounting. Thus, you must seek help and guidance from professionals in terms of managing your accounts.

The mistake of accounting and bookkeeping can bring problems while auditing, and you may have to face some legal action. It’s better to get help from professionals about keeping the accounting records or have online invoicing software like OutInvoice. This software maintains and manages the invoices, basically the flow of cash in the business.

Forget to Send an Invoice.

It is normal for people to forget things, but in the business, forgetting to send an invoice can cause some serious problems. If your business still doesn’t have a proper invoicing system and you are dependent on your employee to create and send invoices manually, then it’s possible to forget to send an invoice.

Invoices are the medium to get payment. If you forget to send it, then it may lead to the loss of your business. You can’t expect your clients to pay without a proper invoice. Thus, switching to automated invoicing software is one of the best solutions for this problem.

Conclusion

All business organizations must have a proper invoicing system and strategies. As for small companies and startup companies, it’s essential for you to create good relationships with your clients, which can help you get paid on time.

You can take professional help from others and use online invoicing applications. It is important for your business operation to find out the method to save time and money. The best solution can be using invoicing software to solve complications on billing and accounting. As I mentioned above, online invoicing software has many benefits, such as saving the hiring employee’s cost, sending invoices faster, get paid fast, systemization and automation, finance management, and others.

Thus, you can follow the above-mentioned tips for better invoices to make your business a huge success.