10 Invoice Management Tips For Growing Startups

Introduction

One of the primary responsibilities of a small business owner is to send out invoices and pay vendors on time. Inadequate billing and invoicing procedures can lead to cash flow issues, strained relationships with suppliers and customers, and even put a business at risk of legal action. 

Missing invoices/partially complete or correct invoices are common in organisations without a well-defined system in place. The quantity of invoices you have to handle increases as your firm expands. The invoice volume is actually a problem for 82% of finance departments. In order to maintain efficiency and bolster corporate partnerships, invoice management is an essential internal role. 

Automating the invoicing process and reducing errors make it imperative for all businesses to invest in an efficient invoice management system.

To reduce invoicing errors and expedite your accounts payable and receivable procedures, continue reading to learn more about invoice management.

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What is Invoice Management?

The process of managing invoices entails sending out bills to customers for goods and services they have purchased, as well as paying suppliers and vendors on time. It is the procedure for tracking and paying invoices, which includes receiving the invoice, recording, confirming its accuracy, paying invoices, and updating a payment record. 

Generally, there are two methods for managing invoices: manually and automatically. Since everything can be done online, why shouldn't your invoicing management system adapt to the online world as it moves forward? 

Thus, having an invoice management system in place may assist in automating most of your invoicing procedures, saving you a great deal of stress, time, and money. 

Pre-made invoice templates, warnings and alarms for upcoming invoices, user-friendly dashboards, direct bank integration, automated tax computation, and many more features are embedded in these systems.

The accounts payable team is often in charge of handling the invoices. The team responsible for accounts payable ensures that bills are created on schedule and that the supplier is paid correctly. The accounts payable team frequently works in conjunction with other teams to ensure that the businesses are supplied with the necessary resources. You can save significant time and money by processing invoices ten times more easily with the help of invoice management software. Solutions for managing invoices can provide a company with several advantages.

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10 Tips for Better Invoice Management

Timely tracking of Accounts Payable and Receivable Processes

Every quarter, give your accounts payable and accounts receivable procedure a thorough evaluation. It's crucial to continue monitoring your invoice management system once you've put one in place. Make sure your organisation has the finest structure in place to maintain a healthy cash flow. Consider offering electronic payment preferences and periodically check the terms. For a small firm hoping to expand and prosper, every week—or even day—matters.

Decide on payment terms in advance with vendors

Consider how your payment cycle will accommodate new vendors' invoices as you add them to your list. Keep this in mind when you sign any contracts.

Talk to the new merchants. Describe your payment schedule and any special details regarding how your business typically pays its bills. Before you hire their services, make sure your new suppliers and vendors accept your conditions for payment. If you can't come to an agreement, consider working with different suppliers.

Real-time receipt payments over end-of-the-month payments

You should enter all received or generated payments in your accounting journal or software. Real-time bookkeeping and automated accounting tools make this simple to set up.

You can address any concerns or questions about payment with the help of current financial reporting. When customers understand what is expected of them ahead of time and have accepted the terms, they are more likely to pay on time. Many small businesses include their terms with the first invoice. However, it is far more productive to discuss terms up front when starting a project or working with someone. 

Invest in Accounting Software

The ultimate goal of your invoice management system should be to integrate your accounting software with your AP and AR systems. Better still, it ought to operate on just one platform. 

This is known as financial operations or FinOps. Additionally, it's crucial to maintain appropriate cash flow and a broad perspective of your finances, not only those linked to vendors' earnings and costs.

Investing in high-quality accounting software is essential to streamlining your accounting procedure. Automating the most routine steps of the process is made simple by the best invoice management software solutions.

Make a thorough information checklist for every invoice

You should be prompted to provide all necessary information by your billing software. This guarantees that the following are available to your customer and their accounts payable staff in order to facilitate their payable process and finalise your payment:

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• Customer
• Invoice Number
• Invoice Date
• Payment Terms: payment options and how soon you expect payment; or Due Date: specific day you expect payment
• Invoice Template
• Sales Representative (if applicable)
• Details about the product or service you're invoicing

Determine the schedule to send invoices to maximise your cash flow

Ask your consumer or client to pay you in installments for significant projects rather than waiting for payment until the project is finished. For example, you can ask for payments every month or at the end of each project phase.

Decide on reasonable billing intervals, such as weekly or monthly, if you have clients with several ongoing projects or orders. Your accounts receivable time period may be shortened if customers know you expect invoices at a specific time and will respond promptly.

Integrate several payment options with the invoice management system

Adding an Internet payment gateway to your invoice management software helps speed up the invoicing process even further. You can save time and maintain an accurate record of all payments by integrating your invoicing management software with a payment platform. You won't have to rush to the bank each time a payment needs to be made, and you'll be able to pay quickly.

Automate the process of approval

You can request that the programme automate approvals in accordance with your business requirements when using an excellent invoice management tool.  Approvals can be given from any location because everything is done online. Many hours and administrative delays in approvals will be avoided as a result.

Integrate accounting software or an ERP with invoice management software

The procedure of manually moving data will be eliminated entirely if your invoice management software is synchronised with accounting and ERP systems automatically. Modern invoice management software should be able to extract error-free data from your books and transfer it to easily accessible, user-friendly sheets that can be utilised for analytical purposes. Without a doubt, increasing automation in this area will improve the billing procedure at your company.

Conduct periodic book audits

As soon as everything is set up, it is crucial to continue keeping an eye on the invoice management system. If you see any unhealthy cash flow trends, audit the system. 

1. Do electronic payments function? If not, should you search elsewhere? 
2. Does your processing system have errors or needless delays? 
3. Has a vendor sent in more than one invoice? 
4. Can we enhance the automation of the account-clearing procedure? You should always be asking yourself these kinds of questions.

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Conclusion

The traditional approach to managing invoices has become completely ineffective. Pen and pad accounting is inefficient and unnecessarily increases staff hours and stress. Managing payments and avoiding invoicing errors can be achieved with a robust invoice management system.

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You may get greater control over your cash flow and minimise costs associated with working capital building with an all-inclusive invoice management plan. 

Even if you don't have the money for fancy invoice management software, you can still encourage faster payments from your clients by following best practices like utilising templates often, scheduling invoices strategically, and keeping an eye on your accounts receivable so you can send timely reminders.

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