flevyblog

Flevy Blog is an online business magazine covering Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGY, MARKETING, SALES OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANIZATION & CHANGE IT/MIS Other

Billing Disaster Alert: Follow These Tips to Avoid Accounting Woes and Save Time

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Business & Marketing Invoice Sheet (Excel workbook). The Marketing Business Invoice Form is a useful tool for businesses to maintain an organized record of services provided to their customers. This form allows businesses to accurately document the services provided, including the service dates, descriptions, and costs associated with each [read more]

* * * *

Has it ever happened to you that you received an incorrect invoice after availing service from a business? How did you feel at that moment? Pretty sure a large chunk of people who received a wrong invoice subconsciously formed a negative impression about the said business.

It’s rightly said that a bad billing experience is a bad client experience and might adversely affect your business’s overall reputation. Every client wants a professional billing experience, which goes a long way in shaping the overall client relationship.

The good news is that there are ways to improve the overall billing system within the firm to make the billing experience more delightful for your clients. Let’s go over the best tips to enhance invoice management.

Billing System Explained

Invoice management is the process of keeping track of billing estimates, generating invoices, and sending out receipts. In layman’s terms, a billing system is a process through which a business invoices and charges clients. A sound billing system helps maintain payment transparency, cash flow management, and error reduction.

According to recent data, most invoices in the US are paid late, and a whopping 61 percent are due to incorrect invoices. This reflects poorly upon your brand and impairs the cash flow, which is not good.

Having a proper billing system involves knowing how to create an invoice precisely, track payments, integrate payment processing, and many more.

How to Streamline Billing System to Prevent Accounting Woes?

As you can tell by now, having an elaborate billing system in place is a must for any business. There are a lot of critical components of a billing system that we will touch upon below.

The first and foremost step for any effective billing system is to have the right template for the invoice, billings, and receipts. Having a set template that is detailed, easy to read, and aesthetic will leave lasting impressions on your clients.

The next step is to have an efficient customer relationship management system in place. The CRM is where you keep records of your clients like names, billing addresses, and payment terms.

A good and well-maintained customer record will ensure that bills are sent out on time and without errors. According to a study, 11 percent of customers in the US never received an invoice, which can be avoided with good customer relationship management.

Another sign of a sound billing system is integrated payment processing. A business should accept as many payment methods as possible, even Dogecoin if that’s a possibility. A recent study on payment trends in the US revealed that 63 percent of consumers would switch to a new business that offers contactless payment options. Therefore, it’s in the best interest of any company to provide flexibility in payment methods and offer more digital transaction options.

As mentioned before, a whopping 61 percent of invoices in the US are paid late simply because of incorrect invoices. A good payment tracking system in place will help in reducing delinquent payments. Have a straightforward billing system to reduce invoice errors and keep a tab on due dates for the collection and recovery of past dues.

The last step in setting up an effective billing system is to ensure the safety and security of transactions. All businesses need to share sensitive financial information like bank account details, credit card information, and more to receive payments. Ensure that whatever billing platform you are using meets the payment industry standards in security.

Benefits of Having a Good Billing System in Place

The renowned advisory firm Gartner stated that most businesses today compete purely based on the client experience, 89 percent of companies to be exact. A business needs to prioritize the client experience to compete and sustain itself in the market. And as we have established so far in this article, billing experience is crucial to the client experience.

A straightforward invoicing and billing will not only help you convert new leads into returning clients but also retain the existing pool of customers. This will help your business generate new cash flow and ensure that the current cash flow is regular as well.

To summarize, a good billing system involves having a good template for invoices, bills, and receipts, efficient customer relationship management, comprehensive payment options, and safety. This will ensure your customer has a pleasant experience dealing with you.

Excel workbook
This is a standard Sales Invoice form built in MS Excel. It can be easily customized to meet your organization's needs.

Do You Want to Implement Business Best Practices?

You can download in-depth presentations on Invoice and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.

For even more best practices available on Flevy, have a look at our top 100 lists:

These best practices are of the same as those leveraged by top-tier management consulting firms, like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by utilizing these best practice frameworks, templates, and tools. Most were developed by seasoned executives and consultants with over 20+ years of experience.

Readers of This Article Are Interested in These Resources


Excel workbook
The Travel Services Invoice is a form built in MS Excel.


 
11-page Word document
 
 
9-page Word document

About Shane Avron

Shane Avron is a freelance writer, specializing in business, general management, enterprise software, and digital technologies. In addition to Flevy, Shane's articles have appeared in Huffington Post, Forbes Magazine, among other business journals.


Complimentary Business Training Guides


Many companies develop robust strategies, but struggle with operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps. This presentation from flevy introduces 12 powerful business frameworks spanning both Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. [Learn more]

  This 48-page whitepaper, authored by consultancy Envisioning, provides the frameworks, tools, and insights needed to manage serious Change—under the backdrop of the business lifecycle. These lifecycle stages are each marked by distinct attributes, challenges, and behaviors. [Learn more]

We've developed a very comprehensive collection of Strategy & Transformation PowerPoint templates for you to use in your own business presentations, spanning topics from Growth Strategy to Brand Development to Innovation to Customer Experience to Strategic Management. [Learn more]

  We have compiled a collection of 10 Lean Six Sigma templates (Excel) and Operational Excellence guides (PowerPoint) by a multitude of LSS experts. These tools cover topics including 8 Disciplines (8D), 5 Why's, 7 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and DMAIC. [Learn more]
Recent Articles by Corporate Function

  

  

  

  

  

The Flevy Business Blog (https://flevy.com/blog) is a leading source of information on business strategies, business theories, and business stories. Most of our articles are authored by management consultants and industry executives with over 20 years of experience.

Flevy (https://flevy.com) is the marketplace for business best practices, such as management frameworks, presentation templates, and financial models. Our best practice documents are of the same caliber as those produced by top-tier consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte) and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Learn more about Flevy here.
  


OUR CORE OFFERINGS
Flevy Marketplace: Top 100
· Strategy & Transformation
· Digital Transformation
· Operational Excellence
· Organization & Change
· Financial Models
· Consulting Frameworks
· PowerPoint Templates
FlevyPro (Subscription Service)
KPI Library
Streams (Functional Bundles)
Flevy Executive Learning (FEL)
PowerPoint Services

FREE Resources

About Flevy
Management Topics
Marcus (AI-Powered Consultant)
Partner Program
LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
FAQ / Terms / Privacy / Blog
Contact Us: support@flevy.com



CONNECT WITH US!
       
TOP 100 TRENDING TOPICS
Acquisition Strategy
Agile
Analytics
Artificial Intelligence
Balanced Scorecard
Best Practices
Big Data
Breakout Strategy
Business Continuity Planning
Business Plan Financial Model
Business Transformation
CMMI
COBIT
Change Management
Cloud
Communications Strategy
Company Financial Model
Competitive Advantage
Competitive Analysis
Consulting Frameworks
Continuous Improvement
Core Competencies
Corporate Culture
Cost Reduction Assessment
Customer Experience

BROWSE BY FUNCTION
Strategy, Transformation, & Innovation
Digital Transformation
Operational Excellence and LSS
Organization, Change, & HR
Management Consulting

Customer Journey
Customer Service
Cyber Security
Data Privacy
Decision Making
Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Strategy
Due Diligence
ESG
Employee Engagement
Employee Training
Enterprise Architecture
Growth Strategy
HR Strategy
Hiring
Hoshin Kanri
ISO 27001
ITIL
Information Technology
Innovation Management
Integrated Financial Model
Kaizen
Kanban
Key Performance Indicators

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Business Strategy Frameworks
Case Studies
Consulting Training Guides
COVID-19 Trend Data
Digital Transformation
Financial Advising Services (FAS)

Knowledge Management
Leadership
Lean
Lean Manufacturing
Logistics
M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions)
Manufacturing
Market Research
Marketing Plan Development
Maturity Model
McKinsey PowerPoint
McKinsey Templates
Operational Excellence
Organizational Change
Organizational Design
Performance Management
Post-merger Integration
Pricing Strategy
Process Improvement
Process Maps
Procurement Strategy
Product Launch Strategy
Product Strategy
Project Management
Quality Management


Free Resources
KPI Library
Lean Management
Lean Six Sigma Training Guides
Marcus Insights
Operational Excellence

Real Estate
Remote Work
Restructuring
Risk Management
Robotic Process Automation
SWOT
SaaS
Sales
Scrum
Service Design
Six Sigma Project
Social Media Strategy
Strategic Planning
Strategic Thinking
Strategy Development
Supply Chain Analysis
Sustainability
Target Operating Model
Team Management
Total Productive Maintenance
Value Chain Analysis
Value Creation
Value Stream Mapping
Visual Workplace
Workplace Safety


Product Strategy
Small Business Owner
Startup Resources
Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning Process
Value Innovation Strategy


© 2012-2024 Copyright. Flevy LLC. All Rights Reserved.