10 Tips for the Best Billing Software
It doesn’t matter if you are a freelancer or business owner, the billing part of the day is no one’s favorite. While not looking forward to writing up bills is normal, this doesn’t mean that it’s not an important part of the job, one that has to be done efficiently and quickly to make the purchase process much easier for both you and your client.
A quality free billing software should help you create functional free invoices with a pleasant design that contain relevant information about the payment procedure, due dates, work progress and so on but also help you keep track of your edited bills, your payment history and so forth.
The following is a list of tips that should help you find and use the best billing software for your needs:
Make sure you choose the best billing software for your business. It should have all the features you need without overwhelming you with pointless functions that just make editing harder. Make sure it also helps you keep track of your bills to make sure your business runs smoothly, just because you are getting free invoices doesn’t mean that quality should have to suffer.
Charging your clients can become a problem if you don’t stick to your principles. This means you should try to avoid doing jobs for less than that job is usually worth. This attracts the wrong type of clients and projects with a lot of tedious writing for small sums of money. The professionalism of the clients you manage to get by underbidding is also questionable as there is a good chance scammers might be willing to pay a small milestone and then never pay you again.
Charging your clients sounds simple but there are many things that can go wrong. Establishing your rate, be it fixed price or hourly, or your payment type, via cash, a check or by different means should be simple but is seldom is. Some clients might delay payment; some might not pay you at all or break a contract into a large number of milestones. Your billing software should be up to the task and be able to adapt to milestone payments, due dates, possible penalties for delayed payment and any other policy you might want to put in place while making your work more organized and time effective.
This is a very important part as once lost you might forget to keep track of due payments and client history. Some free billing software solutions offer a cloud option, storing your precious data online where you will never lose it. Don’t worry about other people getting access to it; these sites are generally very well secured and have flawless privacy policies.
This is important as the chances of your client to delay or make a late payment are reduced. Beyond being a sign of professionalism, adding a due date to your invoice format is also important if you specified a penalty system for a late payment. If you’re using invoice templates make sure you check that the due date column exists and is clearly visible to avoid any problems with the payment process.
Once you have established a payment system and a set of rules regarding the way you will deal with your clients make sure you stick to them. Make sure your invoices are clear and specify everything the client must know. It is a reflection on your professionalism and can increase the chance of getting more work from clients. No one likes to find out they have more to pay or that they will receive a project later than expected.
Detail your project description. Make sure your billing software allows you to add a detailed description of your projects along with fees and delivery date. It is important for a lot of clients to be able to know what they are paying for and every detail counts. Don’t go overboard but some relevant data regarding each project might go well with a lot of clients.
Whether it be via bank transfer, PayPal or some similar service, bitcoin or some other form of payment make sure you specify it in your invoice format so that your client knows his options when it comes to paying. Specify your preferred method but be flexible with your clients as long as it doesn’t hurt your income or time schedule.
Any free billing software should allow you to insert as many contact details as you have, regardless of the type on invoice you are writing up, be it a proforma invoice, a commercial invoice or anything else. Make sure you include every possible way your clients can contact you. Knowing that you can be easily contacted can make a lot of clients feel more secure and can help you establish trust.
Make sure your free billing software offers invoice templates that cover everything from commercial invoices to proforma invoices and so on. This will be a great way to save time. Edit the templates to contain whatever fields you deem important and don’t forget to save them.
For a seamless billing & invoice experience on your PC, we would recommend Sleek Bill. Designed by a team with over 6 years of experience in invoice software development, our software aims to save you time and effort so you can focus on what matters most.
Please let us know how we can improve Sleek Bill so it suits you best.
