How to Make an Invoice that Will Get You Paid Faster

Many people who are in business, be it freelancing or big business, experience challenges of understanding and keeping their activities up to date on the accounting side. The question is, how can you make the right decisions based on tangible information and not some gut feeling? Let us face it, not only do many business owners struggle to understand the numbers in their businesses, but they also have a hard time streamlining their invoice process. Here are some of the ways to make an invoice that will make your business bloom with green.

Utilizing the Correct Tools to Make an Invoice

Since time has changed and the era of using papers is slowly fading, one should try their best to be paperless so that they can save on time and money. How do we do this? By merely managing your invoices online, there are many platforms for a person to solve their issues with bills easily. Here are some examples:

• Billomat: This software gives chances for people to enjoy features such as: invoicing, expenses, payments reporting and time tracking.
• Due: This offers a person a chance to manage their projects, and better yet, it is a platform that is well designed to help companies of all sizes with a scalable solution.
• PayPal: Having an incredibly useful invoice tool, customization of online payments by clients and customers is made easy. Importantly, one must choose the best solution for their businesses since majority of the platforms offer free trials for people to shop around before making the final decision.

Finding the Right Contact

When one is ready to send invoices, they should make sure that they are sent to the appropriate contact. Ensure to establish a good relationship with the right connection in a way that you can get paid at the right time and cutting out intermediaries – a mere task of killing two birds with a stone.

Correct Timing of Everything

Just as the saying goes, time is money. If one intends to send out an invoice, they need to bear in mind the time intervals. In other words, if you are to send an invoice, you need to make sure that the payment intervals are included in that agreement. Set a deadline and ensure that the client respects the time set.

Importantly, you should not shy off from asking for an expedited payment. Better yet, you should ask for any refunds sooner, for the primary purpose of quicker payment. Bearing in mind that the relationship between your client and you is professional, they will not have a problem paying you.

Make an Invoice – and Follow Up

In a business, to ensure proper performance, you must follow up in all aspects. You should follow up multiple times with your client, and make sure you practice to get better at it. Though not everyone is perfect, some clients can miss their deadline, and this is what should be done in case such an issue arises.

• Resending an Invoice with a Reminder: Take the first step and resend an email with a friendly reminder.
• Call the Client: When an invoice has not been paid, the client needs to be called. When they do not pick up the call, ensure you have left a message. The main point is that you can get your client on the phone and they can pay the invoice required while still conversing with you.
• Taking Legal Action: There are cases which arise where the client is not willing to pay the invoice. This is evident when they ignore your emails and phone calls. In case of such issues, take legal action. Such cases are rare, but if you feel the need to, pursuing the issue this way is still an option.

Having a Useful Invoice

The idea here is as follows; the less work a person gives their client as they are invoicing them, the quicker they will pay. Every business owner should keep the following in mind to create such an invoice:

• First of all, you need to discuss payments: The main reason for this is to eliminate any room for confusion especially when you send the last invoice. The best way for this to come through is to agree on the terms and sign the agreements before any work or project has begun.
• Secondly, Keep Highly Detailed Records of Time: The idea here is that the more the invoice is specified, the less the chances of any delays due to some items that confuse your client or they cannot make sense of.
• Simplicity is Key: A person should make their invoices as simple as possible because as much as the extra wordings look cute and appealing, they won’t get the bills to be paid more quickly.

Ensuring that Invoices Have the Correct and Necessary Details

For quicker payment, make sure that the invoices are accurate. To see this through, ensure that you have included the following when you make an invoice:

• Business contact information, including name, address, email, phone.
• Legal information such as the tax numbers and company registration numbers.
• Your client’s name and contact information, and ensure that it is addressed to the correct person in their organization.
• The list of all the goods being sold and the prices for each should be mentioned with accurate descriptions to avoid any misunderstandings.
• In case of any involvement with a foreign agency, one should mention the currency to be paid in.
• The quantity of each item being purchased and there must be a column where all the subtotals can be included.
• Lastly, do not forget to mention the details for direct bank deposit.

Conclusion – how to Make an Invoice

An invoice is not only a request for payment, but it is also a contact point with your customers. If you invoice your clients in an appropriate manner, there are higher chances of you getting paid faster. In addition to this, you will end up having a better relationship with your clients as a result of faster payments.

Do you know of any other strategies that can be used to send invoices and get paid faster? Please share with us by commenting below.