Things to consider when choosing an automatic invoicing software for your business
Invoicing software makes sending, tracking, and creating invoices a breeze. Besides, invoicing software helps you to receive and make payments faster. But you must note that there are various invoicing software options available in the market. Some may fail to provide you the benefits of automatic invoicing, while others may create more problems on your end, especially if the features are too complicated to configure.
When looking for a great invoicing software like Tipalti’s automation software, there are various things you should take into consideration. Here are some points to keep in mind.
- Keep your business’ needs in mind
Any automatic invoicing software you choose, whether it is for your invoicing needs only or some company processes, must help make your business workflow more effective and efficient. It must be something that fulfills the needs of your business without going overboard.
At present, there are lots of options you can choose from and you should select the software that’ll cater to your specific requirements. If you’re planning to expand your business in the future, specialized invoicing software may be more beneficial than generic ones.
- Know if it can work with other business processes
Whether you’re running a small business or a big one, there are many tasks involved. Often, what slows people down is the need to shift between different platforms or programs. If you can find an invoicing software that’s integrated with some of your systems, feature, and templates, it can make your business processes more transparent and efficient. This can also help your teams communicate in a better way.
- check if it features ready-made templates
Good invoicing software must have a feature that’ll let you generate ready-made invoices and send them to your clients. It will not only make your job much easier but also speed up your workflow and cash flow. If you want to consider customizable options, remember that some software comes with free templates that you can use for designing your unique invoices to maintain consistency with the branding of your company.
- Cost
Choose a budget for your automatic invoicing software based on your client base’s size. A lot of invoice software providers have free accounts or free trials. These can help you test the software before buying it. Make sure to include payment transaction fees in your budget. Several services may impose a percentage fee for credit card transactions.
- Ease of use
Search for an automatic invoicing software with a sleek interface and intuitive options for electronic invoice submissions. Some software may also send payment reminders to clients. You may also check in the interface whether clients have viewed your invoice. With this, you don’t have to worry whether your clients have received your invoice or not.
- Multi-currency and cross-region support
Running a business across borders poses some challenges in terms of filing tax returns because of the different taxation rates. Using automatic invoicing software that’s designed to support various tax rates and currencies can make things much easier for you.
Cross-region support also enables you to transact in several foreign currencies easily. Through this feature, your customers can place their orders easily without the need to convert the price to their currencies.
- Real-time sharing and recording data
There’s a lot of data involved when it comes to sharing and recording. Usually, it includes your customer details and information about the people involved in the transaction. For marketing reports, you can also note where clients heard about your business.
Choosing invoicing software that allows you to send and record information in real-time is necessary since it helps your employees evaluate the performance of your company against any crucial performance indicators.
The invoice software must be integrated with some business management platforms to ensure a seamless employee collaboration. For instance, integration with inventory management systems can help the team administrators and members authenticate their work by cross-checking the relevant data.
- Remote access and security
In today’s modern world, working remotely is becoming a popular trend. Moreover, there’s always a good chance that you’ll need to look at the books of various locations even if you’re based in the head office. However, working in a cloud environment or using remote access can be prone to threats. Such security threats may put critical business operations at risk. So, it’s important to choose an automatic invoicing software that offers remote access and a high level of security to ensure that your business data is secure.
Bottom line
Businesses that don’t have established their invoicing processes usually suffer financially because of poor cash flow. This especially happens when the finances aren’t tracked properly. A lot of business owners consider invoicing an arduous and time-consuming task. However, the best and the suitable invoicing software can guarantee that you can focus on your important tasks without sacrificing the quality of your invoicing and billing. Consider the above factors when choosing an automatic invoicing software for your business.