It’s not news that efficient client collaboration is crucial for conducting any business successfully. Building loyalty and trust between you and the client is a crucial step in creating an invaluable long-lasting client relationship. One of the things that have a huge impact on future client communication is the billing processes. While it might seem that invoicing your clients is an easy and quick process, this usually is not the case.
Different factors can slow down the cash flow which is why many business owners find billing processes very frustrating. Consequently, they usually struggle to find the most efficient way how to accurately keep a track of various costs without making it tedious or painful. From utilizing apps that track your invoice emails and client responses to investing in software to do the job for you, here are a few strategies that may help you bridge any gaps and do billing with ease.
Send Electronic Invoices
Long are the days when people set some time aside to pay manually for services by going to the bank directly. A modern fast-paced technology has given us the opportunity to perform any transactions by online banking which is not only a simple process but it also saves our precious time. Some of the most common channels where you can quickly secure and make any payments in just a few clicks are PayPal, Stripe and Authorize. net. You can pay from a mobile application without sharing financial information with the seller. Plus, they allow you to automate late payment reminders and not worry about customers that seem to fall behind.
Request Payment before Service Rendered
When dealing with new customers or customers who tend to delay their payments, it’s advisable to require upfront payments and avoid any issues that may arise. If you are about to start an ambitious project with a new client, you cannot know whether the communication will run smoothly. Therefore, it is best to ask for full or partial payments before doing any services. You should adopt the same policy with clients who fail to pay the services on time. Otherwise, you will end up chasing down invoices and wasting your much needed time. Once you build trust while working with clients, you can opt for different, more flexible payment method.
Set Early Payment Incentives
Most companies offer their clients an opportunity to pay their services within the period of 30 to 60. While it seems that this payment technique is the most common in the business world, many businesses cannot afford to wait up to two months for payment because there are a lot of expenses they need to handle as soon as possible. However, there is a solution to this problem. You should encourage your customers to pay their invoices in much shorter period of time by offering them payment discount which can vary from 2 to 10 %. Be mindful of the type of clients you are offering the discount to as certain customers can misuse it at some point. If it turns out that your payment incentives don’t work out as you have planned you can introduce late payment penalty. This will undoubtedly shake them up and make timely payments.
Invoicing Software
Probably the easiest and the most efficient way to keep your data in one place and make administration processes as easy as possible is to choose an appropriate software system. There is a wide selection of agile accounting and project management tools which are an excellent substitute for spreadsheets and online payment processing. But, before making your final choice you should do a project management tools comparison. Invoicing software will help you manage your business expenses with ease and involve all your team in the billing process. It allows you to specify payment schedule and keep track of all your invoices and make them visually recognizable and organized. In this way, you will be able to catch an irresponsible client who often misses his payments and avoid getting overwhelmed with work which probably won’t even pay off.
Automate Invoicing
Instead of doing the unpleasant job of reminding your clients that they need to pay their invoices on time, you can set up an automated billing system. It will automatically charge your client’s credit card and inform the client about it. It will save you ample time and ensure consistent work pattern without having to worry about your finances.
