When it comes to planning and strategizing about growing your business, everyone’s thoughts quickly go to and revolve around increasing the numbers. More clients, more customers, more sales… The connection between the increase in revenue and business growth is very intuitive and obvious to everyone. Each and every business development strategy already has this idea rooted in its very core.

 On the other side of the coin, we have the optimization of work. The idea is clear – the main goal is to spend fewer resources while achieving the same or higher results. Automation of tasks is something even smaller businesses can benefit from, and this aspect of business management has been hugely impacted by the rapid technological progress of the 21st century.

Advancements in technology have not only shifted the playing field to the virtual and online, but the solutions in terms of applications and software have allowed each and every profession to raise their productivity to a whole different level. Everyone stands to gain from adapting their work and rethinking it through newly available platforms. It has become one of the conditions for remaining relevant in the modern competitive market.

Professional services firms are no strangers to these digitalization trends. Whether they’re dealing in advertising or financial consulting or law, these companies dealings have been reinvented through the use of online intelligent solutions. Still, there are some processes universal to all professional services firms regardless of the field of work they’re in. They are often regarded as second-grade or not as important, but they are an essential part of running a business and much stands to be gained from their optimization. One of these often overlooked processes is, of course, invoicing.

Why Should Professional Services Firms Optimize Invoicing?

Invoices are a crucial step in getting paid for your work, and being smart about how you use them can improve your cash flow significantly. There are plenty of reasons why invoices are very useful for running a business. For starters, they help you organize and keep track of your business transactions. If they are signed off by your client, they might even provide you with some legal protection. You can also use them for marketing purposes and get information about your target audience. Finally, they can make the entire process of filing for taxes a whole lot easier and a lot less stressful. All of this, of course, if the process of invoicing itself is structured and well-organized.

But even if you can achieve those levels of transparency, you still might be wasting too much time on their preparation, sending them out, and then recording them properly. Not only that but there are a lot of factors you need to keep track of manually. Who paid for what and when, who needs a reminder and who should get a thank you note… Lastly, the process has a lot of moving parts you need to monitor which is usually a scenario that leads to many unforeseen and unnecessary errors.

What Can Invoicebus Do to Help?

Invoicebus is an easy-to-use software solution that allows you to create, send, and track your invoices. It comes with many different features that either optimize the process further or add a warm and personal touch. The best thing is you perform all of the activities from one place in just a few clicks of a button. Let’s look at some of the most important ways your professional services business can benefit from using the Invoicebus platform.

  • Creating invoices can be a real hassle if you have to write each and every single one from scratch. With Invoicebus the whole process is super-fast and empowered by auto-calculations for totals and taxes with the addition of autosaving products, prices, and your usual terms. This means that with each new invoice you write you’ll be saving time on filling out redundant information, all the while reducing the chance for mistakes and errors.
  • You need to be able to schedule your invoices unless you plan to cut across your work day with sending out your invoices, which would create an opportunity of forgetting to send them out in time. The Invoicebus platform provides you with the additional option of being able to set up subscription plans for recurring invoices. Not only that but all of the billing details are being saved so that in the future you can easily trigger automatic charges.
  • In order to assure for efficiency, your invoices need to be standardized but that doesn’t mean they can’t look great. Invoicebus allows you to chose from over a dozen designer templates which are customizable so that you can personalize all of them with your company brand and colors. You will also have the option of adjusting each field across the invoice in order to change either the language or currency or to even adapt the text to the phrasing common for a particular field of work. That means it’s both accounting and architect-friendly, the type of your professional services company will never pose an issue.
  • One of the true advantages of utilizing an invoicing solution is that you’re able to charge and receive payment through the application directly. Invoicebus is cooperating with 2Checkout, PayPal, and Stripe, so if your clients are using any of these platforms they can make their payments with a single click of a button. Since it’s that easy, you can expect vast improvements in the response time of your clients.
  • It’s difficult to keep track of who owes what, but with Invoicebus you will have direct insight into all pending payments. The application sends automatic follow up reminders to those who are at the risk of missing their deadline. Each invoice is being tracked so you’ll have real-time information which one of your clients has opened it or not.
  • Finally, invoices are not only business documents but also an opportunity to build a relationship with your clients. As part of the Invoicebus service, you will gain access to ready-to-use message templates which will facilitate your communication, while giving off a friendly tone. Once your client has made the payment, they will automatically receive a personalized thank-you email as a small but personal and significant sign of appreciation.
  • Finally, invoices are not only business documents but also an opportunity to build a relationship with your clients. As part of the Invoicebus service, you will gain access to ready-to-use message templates which will facilitate your communication, while giving off a friendly tone. Once your client has made the payment, they will automatically receive a personalized thank-you email as a small but personal and significant sign of appreciation.

AuthorBio:

Mark is a biz-dev hero at Invoicebus – a simple invoicing service that gets your invoices paid faster. He passionately blogs on topics that help small biz owners succeed in their business. He is also a lifelong learner who practices mindfulness and enjoys long walks in nature more than anything else.