How many times has it happened that you call your clients repeatedly asking for payments? How many times has it happened that your client does not receive invoices on time? How many times has it happened that you end up in a spat with your client over payments receivable?

As busy entrepreneurs, hectic businessmen, demanding freelancers, busy consultants and assiduous professionals, we all have had our moment of forgetting crucial things. These slip-ups always end up in regrets, and when it is pertaining to accounts receivables the regret is quite hurting.

No matter how much one tries to be on helm of things, it is evident that everything can not be remembered. For this very purpose most of the online applications are integrated with custom alerts for almost everything. These alerts become even more crucial when it comes to invoices and billing.

The best of invoicing applications have the option of generating alerts for each and every activity. You get constant reminders for outstanding invoices, received invoices, invoices nearing due dates, sending estimates and what not.

The purpose is not to flood your email box with reminders but to keep you top of your payment tracking. This is perhaps the most hassle free way of doing it and at the same time allows businessmen to concentrate on other developmental activities of the business.

So be rest assured of getting alerts for all that you would have only hoped to remember for convenient invoicing!.

It may sound bizarre, as bizarre as people say my Lizardophobia is…but my friend Jane (Oh I’m feeling sorry for her already!), has a strange kind of phobia, which I have named as “Invoicingo Phobia”, with the least attempt of mocking her pathetic situation.

Now blame it for her being a female, or possessing a weak spirit of mind, but she always start crying when she is screwed up with the paper bills! She is however a systematized lady, and maintains separate files for her invoices. She clearly demarcates the files names like:-

• Invoices Sent
• Invoices Pending
• List of Invoices Misplaced
• Invoices with Chances of Getting Misplaced- God have Mercy on me!
• Invoices Found- Thanks God!
• Invoices from Regular Clients
• Invoices Blah Blah Blah
• Miscellaneous Invoices

So when I see her crying, or to be precise, ‘sobbing’, the first thing I ask her is- “Which Client?”, “Which file?”

She then replies while crying, “File No. 245 had 106 invoices, 76 are met, 14 are misplaced, and 16 are…boo-hoo-hoo.”

And when I console her with comforting phrases like, “The bills must be in another file”, “It’ll be OK”, “Relax Darling”, she would hoaxingly reply-“IT’S ABOUT MONEY! IT’S ABOUT MY BUSINESS!”

And then, to subside her heavy grief, she would invite me for shopping- “I’m in a soup! I have again messed up with my bills! I need to shop!”

Like this, every week we go shopping, and since she is always the host, she pays for all my bills….my clothes, my accessories, and everything I buy.

Last Sunday something unusual happened. She called me up, crying, and I asked her the usual- “Which Client?”, “Which file?”, “Don’t worry, we will find out solution of your billing woes”, she replied, “It’s not about Invoices! I had a fight with my boyfriend…boo hoo hoo.”

But believe me; her voice was less irritating, less tensed, and less sorrowful, that she generally has while managing her bills!

Data visualization has become one of the most powerful ways of interpreting business performance and many implications in business intelligence. On ground reality, dashboards have become a mechanism for in-depth analysis as well as bird’s eye view of the facts that really matter. The dashboard gives you a real-time view of your business at a glance, providing a snapshot of all necessary data. Such as:

• Quickly know what amount is outstanding and how much is paid in advance.
• The ability to drill down to see transaction details.
• A summary of all your clients account details and balances.

For most businesses availability of data is never a problem but what is more important is how effectual is the data and the insight to use it to the best effect. Studies indicate that 75% marketers find it difficult to make data driven results and measure performance based on its interpretation. The problem is not having enough data but the failure in identifying the most significant metrics that drive actions.

Dashboards are extremely useful for business of all sizes and particularly small and medium enterprises for the following reasons:

1. They provide a quick visual overview to track overall business performance and the option to customize the visual representation to make it more meaningful i.e. pie charts, moving average, needle indicator gauges, bar graphs etc.
2. Detailed information is usually available immediately by clicking on the summary data representation on the dashboard to reveal the underlying detailed information. The process is referred to as ‘drill down’.
3. Most effective dashboards display information in the form of trend analysis. The dashboard summary information ranges from the past week, past month, 6 months etc. so that the optimum time-scale to reveal meaningful trends for your business can be chosen.
4. The pictorial representation of facts makes it possible for every business to comprehend data in a more realistic way rather than acting on intuitions and reducing aberrations.

Dashboards provide veracity in understanding key performance parameters in an easy to understand manner. They are a very powerful medium of communication and assertive in driving results.

If coffee can be made instantly, then why not invoices and bills. Perhaps the comparison is too hypothetical. But the point here is not to argue about whether the comparison is worth mentioning or not. The larger point that is being put across is that even generating invoices can be as instantaneous as making a coffee.

By following just a few easy steps, the entire unwieldy process of generating invoices is compressed into a simple and easily interpreted process. Unlike for many other online billing and invoicing softwares, one does not need any accounting experience to use Invoicera 7.0. The application has been kept simple on purpose and deliberately, so you can get organized and get the desired job done faster. On one side of the table, online softwares boast of being efficient and effectual but on the other hand are governed by complexity and head scratching steps. With our billing solution, you can easily create and send invoices while being able to see the customers that have paid and those who still owe you money.

Our detailed dashboard (which I will be talking about in the next post) allows every businessman, consultant, freelancer, etc to remain on top of their payment tracking. Spending less time on calculating down payments and accounts receivables enables you to spend more time virtually on every aspect of your business, which would ultimately result in overall development and expansion.

If you are still skeptical about the instantaneity of generating invoices, then what better way to try it yourself? Register for the free beta version on the homepage and experience the difference.

Billing software enhances the transparency in your business framework and your accounting transactions. This increases the efficiency of the company and also facilitates increase in the bottom line, which is the reason why organisations exist. You will be in a better position to manage your business, and the strategic planning that you have for your company. Double entry book keeping can be managed with utmost ease through online billing which otherwise is an unwieldy process.

At the micro level, online billing and invoicing software is largely helpful to small and medium enterprises, freelancers, consultants and contractors. It helps them by reducing manpower cost, timely accounts receivables and payable, increasing cash flows to name a few.

Therefore, one of the foremost decisions any small business owner has to make is to decide on what online billing, invoicing and accounting software to use. It is extremely important to select the right online billing software that matches their business requirements or that can be integrated to suit the business needs.

Here are some of the characteristics that a good online billing and invoicing software should have:

1. User-friendly: you aren’t an accountant and you shouldn’t have to be in order to understand your software. Look for an interface that resembles that of traditional paper accounting. The more familiar you are with the layout, the easier it’ll be.
2. Internet and e-commerce friendly: so you can automatically pay and be paid directly. Especially important if you are running an online business.
3. Compatibility with your current programs: make sure it integrates with your basic programs such as Word, Excel, etc.
4. Useful Report Generation: there are millions that can be created and only a few you actually need. Make sure the program has the basics and check to see if there are so many it just confuses things
5. Multiple format generation: Make sure to check whether invoices can be sent in multiple formats like HTML, PDF, CSV, etc. This ensures that compatibility issues are eradicated.
6. Expandability: If you have plans to grow your company, you want to ensure that your software can grow with you. No sense in having to put out money for accounting software twice.

Apart the above mentioned characteristics there are a few other features that good software should have. High quality software must be reliable, easily maintainable, easy to operate and should meet the functional requirements of its domain. I would be wrong to say that these are the only features that good online billing software should have. But certainly, these are some of the highlights of standout invoicing software. I really hope that these guidelines will help in selecting appropriate software that will mitigate your billing woes.

It was a bright sunny morning and everything, it seemed was fresh and glowing. The wind was perfect and what more it was Sunday. It was a day to be just laidback and enjoy a cup of coffee. For some, it was a day to shop and hang out with some old buddies. But there was one young and enthusiastic lad, Nicolas who had learned a very important business lesson that particular day. He was a son of a very famous business personality. Just like his father Nicolas too wanted to earn the same fame and dreamt of continuing the legacy after his father had retired. But for this he needed to learn some very significant lessons.

Aware of this fact his dad took Nicolas along with him for a golf match. After having learned this, Nicolas started to tell himself that this is the moment. He wanted to defeat his dad even though he had never played the game before. Perhaps this was the only motivation. They both reached the golf course and this is how the conversation went about.

Nicolas: Dad I have never played this game before, first teach me the techniques and the usability of each golf stick, so that my every shot is perfect.

Father: I can only pass on the theoretical knowledge to you, ultimately it is you who has to execute it and figure out which is right way.

Nicolas had gained some confidence as far as playing shot was concerned after having played many games, but did not exactly know how to estimate the speed at which to hit, the direction of the wind so on and so forth.

Nicolas: Dad if you can help me out with all the required estimates, then probably I can win this final game.

Father: Alright my son, I would love to lose (like every father would say).

His dad gave him all the estimates for the speed of the wind, the direction and with how much power to hit. Nicolas, like a good son obeyed his father only to learn his ball was in bunker. Nicolas was furious at himself as he had lost the game. It was only after that his father came up to him and confessed that it was because of wrong estimates which he had deliberately given, that he might have goofed up.

Nicolas: But why dad? Why did you give me wrong estimates?

Father: I did that purposely. The reason why I got you along to the golf course was to make you learn an important lesson, something that all of my staff learnt the hard way few days back. Only a few days back we lost one of our prominent client and future export consignment because of negligence on part of our accounting team. We sent him wrong estimates of the bill amount only to realize later that the actual bill amount was much more than what we had estimated (may be because of some miscommunication between the sales and accounting department).

Nicolas: (Very curiously) so what have you done to prevent this in future?

Father: I have now decided to install an online billing and invoicing software which allows sending estimates to clients. These estimates can be viewed and edited by the clients easily. Generating estimates before reaching on final consensus of the bill amount helps a great deal. The desired amount of discount can be given and further confirmed by the client without much communication. The amount of time and money saved through online billing can be staggering. It is so simple to use that I have stopped relying on any other person for billing matters. I myself generate estimates and final invoices on a click of a mouse. Generating estimates through online billing helps in client retention as final invoice is prepared after mutual agreement.

After eagerly listening to what his dad just told him, Nicolas immediately responded by saying, “I have now caught hold of the right chord”. He then understood the relation between what had happened in the morning and in his father’s office.

‘Generating estimates’ before sending the final invoice to the clients is extremely important. It only enhances the transparency in the whole process and heightens the firm-client relation. In all, ‘estimates generation’ only widens the online billing spectrum.