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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]
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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