1. Sound Credit Practices – It is always important to follow sound credit practices, especially while dealing with a new customer. Conducting a trade reference and a bank reference is helpful to know the credit worthiness of your new client. Credit reports, available from Dun and Bradstreet and others, report on a company’s general financial health as well as how quickly or slowly it pays its bills.

2. Invoice Promptly – Make sure to invoice your customers without any delay. The faster you mail an invoice, the faster you will be paid. If deliveries do not automatically trigger an invoice, establish a set billing schedule, preferably weekly. All invoices should include a payment due date along with invoice notes and terms and conditions.

3. Follow up on Default Payments – Don’t allow an invoice to remain overdue for a very long time. As soon as a bill becomes overdue, call the customer and ask when you can expect payment. Ask delinquent customers with genuine financial problems to try to pay at least a small amount periodically. When necessary, don’t hesitate to seek professional help from an attorney or collection agency.

4. Offer Trade Discounts – Offering discounts on prompt payments is a widely used technique to encourage customers for making timely payments. Given an incentive, some customers will pay sooner rather than later. Trade discounts typically give 1% – 2% off the total amount due if customers pay within a certain no. of days.

5. Deposit Payments Promptly – It is always a healthy business sign when you have optimum working capital available. And sooner you make a deposit, the sooner you can put the money to work for your business. This speeds up your business cash flow and makes funds available for daily expenses.

6. Review and Reduce Expenses – If you’re not sure an expense is necessary, hold back until you are confident it will have a favorable impact on the bottom line. Reduce operating costs such as switching from a weekly to a biweekly payroll to reduce payroll processing costs. Be careful not to cut costs that could hurt profits. For instance, rather than cutting the marketing budget, redirect the money to areas where it has a more positive impact.

7. Pay Bills on Time – Even though you are required to pay for your bills on time, you can take the liberty to pay as late as possible but only to an extent where you do not incur late fees or interest charges. Exception could be made for bills where trade discounts are offered.

8. Manage Inventory Efficiently – Inventory management is essential to maintain proper cash flow. Less cash tied up in inventory would invariably result in better cash flow. Also, make sure to order for additional inventory when current inventory level is down to bare minimum.

These tips could prove useful to small and medium businesses in keeping the money flowing and maintaining a healthy cash flow. If there are any more ways that you feel could be helpful, then share them with us by leaving your comments below.

This was our special offer introduced on the occasion of ‘festival of Holi’ and today is the last day to get yourself a chance to grab the discounted subscription i.e 10:30 AM (IST). After which normal rates would continue.

*This offer is for those registered users who received coupon codes and signed up before 1^st March 2010. If any new member is interested, then you can contact us at support@invoicera.com before 10:30 AM (IST) and your coupon code would be provided to you.

From the day of its invention, paper has become an important part of our daily activities. Paper is being used and recycled to such an amount that it has lead to deforestation, one of the major causes of ‘global warming’. Every phase of paper’s life cycle contributes to global warming, from cutting of trees to production of pulp and paper and finally disposal.

While we are consciously finding the ways to reduce the impact on the environment, we cannot ignore the number of paper invoices generated each year. According to a study, “Businesses within only the U.S, trade in excess of 13 billion invoices annually, which accounts for more than 25 billion pieces of paper that are floating around offices each year.” It costs about $2.65 to issue one paper invoice (including the cost of printing, envelope and postage).

The serious environmental issues require companies to shift from paper invoices to e-invoices or online invoices. This would benefit environment, in terms of reduced amount of wood used to produce paper and the amount of fuel used to deliver it. By submitting invoices electronically, businesses can now save as much as 90 per cent of the cost for each invoice. All they need is a computer with Internet connectivity to complete their transaction with their customers and other businesses. The online invoicing approach of managing bills and invoices fits in perfectly with the need to cut cost, reduce staff and manage invoicing and accounts payable.

The impact on environment can easily be eliminated by replacing a slow, inaccurate manual process of paper invoicing with a faster and more efficient online invoicing. Not just paper invoices can be replaced, all financial supply chain documents including delivery notes, purchase orders, statements, remittances etc can be sent/received online. Just imagine how much your business can contribute to environment by saving a large amount of energy and resources, and that’s only with online invoicing.

To know more about how paper invoicing is affecting our environment and the extent of damage it has already caused we would recommend reading another intriguing post at bestdesigntuts.com

Being a freelance web designer might seem an easy job on the face of it. Though there is no denying the fact that they have the liberty to be more relaxed and greater ease, but nothing comes without responsibility. And with responsibility comes accountability. If these freelancers spend most of the day sending out invoices and tracking down payments, they have to compromise of their income generating work. Invoicing is most definitely a necessity for freelancers, but it is also a process that can be vastly improved upon. Here’s why freelancer web designers should consider the use of online invoicing for their invoicing practices:

• Standardized invoicing and custom communication – One of the biggest advantages of    sending online invoices are that they provide standard invoice templates. This might sound least important but helps you score points through a set pattern of invoices. So whenever you invoice your client the standardized invoice design lets him know from whom the invoice has come, thereby, establishing a distinguished image of yours. Another aspect that hugely benefits freelancers is custom communication. Though you can have a basic terms and conditions for the payments, there are some regular clients with whom you share better relationships. For them you can modify your set of T&C and adopt a more liberal approach. There is not a lot one has to do as even the most basic invoicing applications facilitates simple and quick invoicing.

• Reduce payment cycle and resolve disputes quickly – Very seldom freelancers would come across clients who are ready to reward them with timely payments. But most of them will wait for the invoice, which means no invoice no money. The longer you take to send invoice it is less likely that you will receive the payment. This is where online invoice applications come in handy. As soon as the invoice becomes due the late fee is added to the total amount and repeated reminders are sent for making payments. Also the option to make payments online adds to reduced payment cycle. The disputes can be settled far more quickly than otherwise.

• Present professional invoices – The manner in which a bill is received by a client speaks volume about the sender. Your invoice is the only thing that describes you at that point in time. A well designed and detailed invoice contributes to how professional you are, apart from resulting in timely payments. This is where online invoicing outscores traditional invoices.For most freelancers, a professional invoice includes at least most of the following:

1. Date of invoicing
2. A unique invoice/estimate number
3. Your name and contact information
4. Client’s name and contact information
5. Description of services or products broken down into specific charges
6. Date the project was delivered
7. Total amount charged
8. Acceptable methods of payment
9. Due date and information about late fees

I hope this post does help freelancers to identify and plug the loopholes in their invoicing process. Implementing these practices will surely make the difference.

Vindicating a statement is always desirable and I will begin by stating that this week around we will be concentrating on bug fixing, which is of course a daily mandate. Apart from this, we are working on incorporating some of the important features like time tracking, expense tracking, multiple currency support and enhanced application interface & design. Working on these aspects would mean that we are on track, providing you with the quickest, cleanest and most intuitive online invoicing and billing application.

Of lately, some of the activities performed by our team of developers include website optimization to increase the speed of the application, inclusion of importing products and services list from the system (earlier you could to do it manually only), enhancement in the invoice template and reports format- presentation of both invoices and reports now looks clean. Some of the new currencies have also been added like South African Rand and Czech Koruna. This week’s module would also include removing redundancies that exist in the application.

We aim to rise above our own benchmark standards and march confidently with Invoicera flag high, as we know the finish line is far from near.

Data backup option has been included in the application not as a feature but as a necessity. This would ensure that all your essential and important data is safe and can be accessed at anytime. So you don’t have to depend on anyone (not even Invoicera customer support) to export your data in case the worst happens. Our data backup feature gives you the option to have your own set of records. Even the minutest of details can be viewed, be it the number of invoices you have sent, to whom they have been sent, invoices which your users have sent, time and date of sending invoices and what not. The history log is available with you all the time and can be accessed at any point of time.

There was a strong need to incorporate this feature as it would enhance the peace of mind while using the application and there would be no fear of loss of data. This had also been a concern amongst many of our users and therefore we needed to address this issue. But all does not end here. There is a whole list of luscious features coming your way. So stay tuned as we will periodically bring you features that would delight you.

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!