Most small business owners and freelancers are used to manually making invoices. But most of us are all too aware of the downside of manual invoicing:

• Time consuming: Manual invoicing can be time consuming work and often leads to hours of repetitive changes to not so professional looking templates in Excel or Word.
• Human error: Changing information manually leaves your invoicing open to human error. Eg. Errors in your invoice or quote number sequencing can result in duplicate or skipped invoice numbers – an accounting nightmare!
•  Duplication: Having to re-enter or copy/paste line item text and product descriptions each time you fill out a quote or invoice is also an un-necessary duplication resulting in wasted time and leaving your invoices open to spelling errors and incorrect or mismatched product descriptions.
• Manual sending: Invoices generated in Excel or Word need to be manually sent to your client either via email or snail mail. Sending via email usually means saving the quote or invoice a PDF and manually attaching each quote or invoice individually to an email and manually sending it off to your client. This can result in mismatched email recipients and attachments or clients not receiving invoices as the attachment size causes emails to be sent to the clients spam box.
• Storage: Making invoices and quotations this way usually means that you store your invoice and quotation archive on one pc at your office. You therefore cannot access client billing records when you are not at that computer. If your work requires you to be mobile then this will always limit your productivity and ability to provide swift customer service with regards to billing enquiries.
•  Data security and backups: Storing all your invoices and quotations on one pc also means that that data is only as secure as the software you install to protect it. This often times leaves sensitive billing data open to the prying eyes of unauthorized users. Most small business owners do sporadically backup this data on an external storage devices, but this kind of backup needs to be done extremely frequently, else you risk losing all your data if your pc crashes or gets stolen.

What I have described above can only be categorized as problems only the small business owner of the 90’s faced, but in all honesty and quite surprisingly what I mentioned here is actually pretty familiar to a very large portion of the SME and freelancer billing market today! Shocking? Yes. True? Absolutely! Is there a better way? Most certainly!

The answer: Invoicing online

Finding a tool that’s going to help you make quotations and invoices online is easy. There are many out there and it is easy to find a quality solution that isn’t going to cost you an arm or a leg.

Benefits of online invoicing:

• Online billing saves you time. As most processes performed in online billing systems can be highly automated you don’t have to spend hours performing repetitive tasks or emply hundreds of staff members to do this for you.
• Human error is almost eliminated. As online billing systems have built in fail-safe’s that prevent duplication of data or accidental deletion of sensitive information.
• Automation is online invoicing’s answer to duplication. Almost all tasks can be automated in an online billing system. This means you create standardised templates and line items once and never have to re-enter them again. The system will do it all for you.
•  Online invoicing systems can send invoices for you via email. You can schedule a time and a date when invoices need to be sent and then sit back and watch as the system automatically sends html and PDF format invoices to clients at your command.
• A good billing system will ensure that data is stored securely online on the cloud. This means it is accessible from any web-enabled device at any time from any location. Great for a small business owner with an active lifestyle.
• Most online invoicing systems store you data securely on your behalf so you get the benefit of big business security without having to support the cost of the infrastructure yourself. Most good online invoicing systems also back up your data on your behalf. Some as often as every 15 minutes. So even if your laptop gets left on the plane or your office pc has a meltdown you will NEVER lose any billing data.

So why not step out of the time-consuming, tedious past and welcome the cloud hosted instantly automated future. Get online and search for an online billing system today!

Check out the tips below to see how you can start selling online:

You don’t need a website!

To start selling your products and services online many small business owners think you need an expensive website and online store software. Although this is ideal for larger businesses, many SMME’s simply can’t afford to spend thousands on something like this.

That is were using a ready-hosted e-commerce solution comes in. Shop around for online services that offer you the ability to sell you products and services online without the huge cost of website development.

Automate and save money

A ready hosted online shopping solution will help you save money on website development. It will increase your income by allowing your clients to login online and order your products and services easily and quickly. A lot of these processes can be automated – for example the sending of invoices when signup is complete. This will save you time on admin and make the process just that much smoother for your clients.

Make it easy for your clients to pay

If you want to sell your services online you also need to allow your clients to pay you online. Having several payment gateways where clients can instantly and securely pay for your services online is necessity. If you do your research you will find hundreds of quality gateways that you can integrate with payment facilitators in order to offer your clients this ability. Just remember that an instant credit card payment gateway is probably the best and most secure option.

Using a payment facilitator to help you sell your services online will not only increase sales, but will help you earn more, get paid easier and improve your online presence. Automation of billing or recurring billing can be achieved through many online invoicing services, so your client can sign up online and be instantly debited on a monthly basis for the services or products they ordered. Now that’s what I call hassle-free business.

Recurring billing is when you give a merchant or service provider permission to charge your bank account or credit card at regular intervals for the purchase of goods or services. The recurrence can be on any term eg. Monthly, fortnightly or annually. The recurring amount debited is usually the same on each recurrence, but can differ. For example a monthly fee of $10.00 for your subscription to an online service.

We know what it is now, but what can recurring billing do for you and your business?

Keeping your cash-flow healthy

Small businesses and freelancers stand to benefit greatly from adopting recurring billing procedures. Recurring billing is not just for large or enterprise type businesses. Small businesses can easily and very cost effectively implement this strategy.

Collecting payment via recurring billing means increased cash-flow for small businesses.  When billing only via wire transfer or direct deposit only you are intermittently receiving small, unscheduled payments that each incur bank changes to you and your customer. These once off payments can be sporadic so you are never sure when or even if your clients will pay you.

This means you are uncertain of your cash-flow. This in turn leads to you not being able to plan ahead. Not being able to project what your income will look like over the next few months will prevent you from being able to schedule your own debits and plan the expansion of your business.

Get paid on time

Recurring billing allows you to control when you get paid. It’s easy, when client’s sign up specify debit amount and recurrence. Then sit back and relax and you watch funds being automatically collected on the dates specified. This means no more late payment or waiting for urgently needed funds to clear. You now know exactly when you are going to get paid.

Reduce administration

Ensuring the bulk of your clients pay via recurring billing translates to less administration work for you and your clients. Administration is reduced on the client’s side because payment is automatic. The client no longer needs to go into a bank to make a direct deposit or login to internet banking to manually make a wire transfer. Administration is also reduced on your side because you do not have to recon hundreds of small individual payments. Gateways that facilitate recurring payments usually offer automatic account recon or provide a bulk recon files that allows easy and accurate resolution.

Sounds awesome! Sign me up! Find the best resources for recurring billing systems online or ask fellow business owners for referrals. We suggest signing up with a gateway that automates recurring billing and a payment facilitator that enables automatic account recon.

Many small business owner or freelancers don’t realize that a huge part of attaining success lies in the way you manage your businesses billing and payment collection. It seems almost a no brainer to have efficient systems in place to deal with invoicing, payment collection and management of bad debit. But all too often I come across businesses that overlook this aspect of their success entirely.

Discover the secrets to making your business more profitable, robust, efficient and cost effective.

Keep costs low: Shop around

Chief among the challenges the small business owner or freelancers faces is keeping the cost of operation low. This is doubly true when it comes to keeping the costs of billing and payment collection to a minimum.

Use creative online tools and systems automation to keep the amount of staff you need to employ in your accounts department to a minimum.  There are many systems on the market today that allow you to automate recurring invoicing giving you maximum control over your daily operations with an almost skeleton staff.

Always shop around for payment gateways with the lowest fees. Many payment gateways do not give you the ability to easily export your client’s payment details. This prevents you from switching gateways readily. Shop around for a payment facilitator that stores client payment details on your and the gateways behalf. This makes it easy to move between payment gateways or have more than one, so you always have the cheapest rates and you clients the most choice.

Nurture trust: Look professional

It is easy to projecting a trustworthy, professional image to clients, but just as easy to project a sloppy, unorganised one. Sending out poorly formatted quotations and invoices in Microsoft Word or Excel format is not professional. You may be surprised, but a poor quality invoice reflects negatively on your client’s option of the services you offer.

Get software or start using an online service designed to issue professional looking invoices. Always check spelling and formatting on invoices. Ensure the client’s details are correct and that if it is a tax invoice needs to be issued it contains all the legally required fields.

Get paid: Help them help you

Now that you have issued your professional looking invoice you need to collect payment for it. Allowing your clients several ways to pay your invoices is always recommended. The easier it is to pay you the more payments you will receive. We recommend having the following payment methods available to maximize your ability to collect payment:

-  A credit card payment gateway where clients can immediately and securely pay for your services online

- A payment gateway that automates recurring billing via debit order from bank account or credit card

- A facility to capture and process electronic funds or wire transfers as well as direct or bank deposits

Healthy cash flow: Control bad debit

With any business comes the need to monitor and control bad debit. To keep your cash flow looking healthy the best offence is always a good defense. By this I mean, keep your clients informed every step of the way. Put them in the best possible position to pay you and allow them the greatest degree of access to their billing and account information.

This calls for communication on an organised, automated scale. Sending text message (SMS) and email reminders to clients throughout your repayment, due and past due periods will increase your chances of getting paid. We suggest sticking to a basic warning schedule for at least 30 days after issuing of an invoice. If funds on not recovered on COD invoices within 90 days of issue we suggest making use of a professional collection service to handle recovery of funds.

Stand out from the crowd: Provide a quality service

Small businesses and freelancers need to work hard to set themselves apart from the competition. Standing out from the crowd means more business. The only way to genuinely stand out from the crowd and keep clients coming back is to provide a quality service or product reliably.

Granted, limited success can be achieved through other means. But the only way to build long lasting client relationships and create vocal positive advocates for you brand is to give your clients consistent, exceptional service and quality products and services that meet their needs and expectations.

So there it is. Now you know the secret to making your small business a success. What are you waiting for? Go out and achieve it!

For the small business owner getting your company off the ground can be challenging. Whether you are entering an industry you don’t have a lot of knowledge about, or trying to make it work with a limited budget, few staff and minimal capital outlay you will soon find yourself being faced by literally hundreds of new challenges. Among these challenges are your need to manage your startup’s billing.  This is the point that I’m chiefly concerned with today.

The day to day billing operations of your small business startup will require you to:

• Manage you clients information
• Record their goods and service usage
• Invoice accordingly
• Collect payments from clients
• Reconcile those payments
• Deal with overdue accounts

Most small business owners end up taking on the responsibility of manually completing these tasks without the use of specialized billing software. Often times cobbling together a system made out of sticks, glue, Word and Excel. This often happens because most specialized billing software is either too expensive, ineffective or complex to even bother with. As a side note, there are systems out there that offer affordable, effective billing, but these are often not even considered due to the prevailing impression that professional billing systems are designed for big business needs and not for those of the startup.

So this is how may startups end up finding themselves in the position where they are spending hours every day manually invoicing clients, generating quotes, recording service usage and reconciling payments. And this is why I want to introduce billing systems that allow startup’s and small businesses to automate their billing from day one without having to pay big business premiums or get an account degree to use and understand the system. This is why I offer my recommendation of SnapBill Startup as complete billing solution for small businesses and startups. I have broken down some of the benefits that such a system provides for you below:

So, without further ado, lets give a warm welcome to the new additions to the list of Billing systems!

• A Plus Bill
• BillingTracker Pro
• BillQuick
• Chargify
• Cheddargetter
• Digitub
• Excel Invoice Manager
• Express Invoice
• Invoice Quick
• Invoice4U
• Invoiceit!
• Invoices Online
• Invoicing System
• IQ Business
• iScripts EasyBiller
• jBilling
• kBilling
• M & R Technologies
• Online Invoice System
• PHP invoice
• Quick-billing
• Simply Invoice
• SliQ Invoicing

Have I missed any?

If you have developed, know of or use a new billing system, invoicing software or online invoicing system drop me a line and I’ll include it in my list.

What is a recurring billing system?

Recurring billing is billing that occurs at specified intervals. Recurring billing systems deal with the automation of recurring or subscription billing. These can be set charges or fees that are due more than once. Recurring billing also includes transactions for which a cardholder grants permission to the merchant to periodically charge his account number for recurring goods or services. For example the monthly or annual subscription fee you pay to receive your favorite newspaper or magazine.

I started with investigating billing systems that offer true recurring billing like Chargify, Recurly, SnapBill, Spreedly, CheddarGetter and skipped over  systems offering  invoicing with only basic recurring functionality like Freshbooks, Invoicera, BlinkSale, BallPark, Invoice Machine, etc. The following systems made the recurring billing shortlist:

Recurly

Recury is an online subscription billing management system. Set up unique subscription plans, automated customer communications, apply trail periods and setup fees and accept payments through several well know payment gateways. All this with per transaction pricing that scales accounting to the size of your business.

SnapBill

SnapBill is an automated billing system that allows you to easily sell your services online. SnapBill has been designed for businesses requiring a powerful and fully customisable subscription or recurring billing system with payment collection facilities. SnapBill is PCI DSS compliant, encrypts and securely stores your data and allows you to seamlessly transfer between multiple payment gateways.

Chargify

Offers simplified recurring billing for web 2.0 and SaaS companies. Chargify allows you to set customized subscription plans and pricing models and bill your clients securely though their hosted payment page of API integration with your site. Chargify also offers an iphone app for accessible recurring billing on the move.

With my short list in hand I set about testing the recurring billing systems to try to find the best of the bunch.

I have a small to medium sized business (500 clients +) and require automated recurring billing, payment processing and automated reconciliation as well as effective client management. I have several staff members who assist with my billing and need secure access to client data. I need to keep my gateway costs as low as possible and have in the past switched between payment gateways to ensure I have the lowest rates. I would like my recurring billing system to allow me to switch painlessly.

I found all this and more in SnapBill! Recurly, although fully featured focused more on the needs of large enterprise clients – leaving small to medium sized business owners like myself rather mystified as to how their recurring billing solution will work for us. Recurly, very much like Chargify also lacks adequate client management features. Both provide you with several recurring billing options, but none provide the full package like SnapBill does.

SnapBill allows you to easily set up your recurring billing, offering bulk import of my client records and secure storage of my clients billing and personal details. With a range of customisable services and packages as well as once off and recurring charges SnapBill can be used to bill for any goods or services. SnapBill also provides a fully branded hosted billing management centre where you clients can log in and manage their banking details, view and pay  invoices and order more of your services online.

SnapBill is definitely the first word in automated recurring billing.

SnapBill was developed in South Africa by local entrepreneurs, Josh Yudaken and Jaco van Wyk. It was launched for South African trials in March 2010. Since its local launch SnapBill has acquired over 1000 active South African SME and enterprise users, some billing over 20 000 clients and R100 million per month.

With the success of South African trials the time has come to introduce SnapBill to the world. “We have been working on SnapBill with a private South African beta version for the last 10 months and have decided it is time to open our doors to the rest of the world.” says Josh Yudaken, SnapBill co-founder. “In the months since its South African launch, SnapBill has evolved into a fully featured, robust system, capable of handling anything our users can throw at it. Thorough user testing, detailed debugging, focused feature refinement and additional Southern African trials have shaped SnapBill into a system that is truly ready to take on the global market.”

SnapBill is suitable for use by small to medium sized businesses as well as enterprise level clients. With a free package to help users get started and customised enterprise integration offered for business with more than 500 clients, SnapBill’s scalability meets the needs of any business. Find out more about SnapBill packages and pricing at http://www.snapbill.com/pricing.

SnapBill offers a comprehensive range of standard invoicing and client management features, but our main selling point is our flexible handling of services. We allow our users to add their own services to the system. We then generate branded signup forms for their clients, automatically bill their clients monthly via their own payment gateway and handle client suspensions for non-payment. As examples of possible services, some of our beta users have chosen to offer their clients website hosting, life insurance and magazine subscriptions through SnapBill. Find out what our South African users are saying about SnapBill at http://www.snapbill.com/about/testimonials.

SnapBill co-founder, Jaco van Wyk, lists the systems primary competition as international billing systems Zuora & Aria, but adds that these are primarily focused on enterprise clients whereas SnapBill also offers packages perfect for small to medium sized businesses. Other offerings with invoicing and basic recurrence includes Freshbooks, Invoicera, BlinkSale, BallPark and Invoice Machine and some recurring subscription offerings without serious client management like Chargify, Recurly, Spreedly and CheddarGetter compete with our system on varying levels. It is important to note though that SnapBill offers both advanced recurring/subscription invoicing as well as client management and also allows you to sell your services online which makes it stand out above the competition.

SnapBill launched internationally on the 25th of January 2011 along with a new website and a host of great new system features. The international launch enables users from across the globe to sign up and utilise the SnapBill system. SnapBill supports all global currencies and although only currently available in English, translated versions will be launched according to demand. South African users will still receive all the benefits of the beta system with the added bonus of the new international systems features.

To find out more visit the SnapBill website at http://www.snapbill.com.

SnapBill, Lusion Technologies’ free online invoicing and billing system will be the first South African online billing system to seamlessly integrate PayPal, offering all SnapBill users another safe, easy way to pay and get paid online.

The Lusion Technologies team announced the exciting news hours after FNB confirmed their partnership with PayPal. South African blogs and forums  have been buzzing since First National Bank confirmed the rumors of an exclusive (for now anyway) partnership earlier this week, as this would now allow South African PayPal users to not only pay online, but withdraw payments they have received through PayPal via their qualifying FNB personal or business current accounts.

To read more about SnapBill’s seamless PayPal integration visit the Lusion Technologies website to view the original article…