Receipts 1 4 9 – Enhance Your Incoming Invoice Management

1. Receipts 1 4 9 – Enhance Your Incoming Invoice Management System
2. Receipts 1 4 9 – Enhance Your Incoming Invoice Management Login

The accounting department handles cash flow by orchestrating sales, bills, and invoice payments.
If these operations aren't balanced, managers can't accurately gauge the company's financial performance and overall health. Therefore, accounts payable and receivable need to establish an efficient billing system that manages financial documents in real-time.
Invoice processing is a structure that organizes incoming bills and the approval process so companies can avoid late fees, credit deductions, and other penalties. Without an adequate system, businesses run the risk of missing payments, ruining their credit, and even jeopardizing their supplier relationships.

The digitalization of incoming invoices increases the processing quality due to manual errors avoided. Our data surveys also show that costs can be reduced by up to 85% through the use of E-Invoicing from as little as 12,000 incoming invoices per year - compared with conventional manual invoice processing. For steps 1-5, most companies use the standard functions of materials management of ERP systems such as SAP. The main challenges arise only with steps 6-10, the incoming invoice processing. At this point, the accounting department receives invoices in a variety of formats. Choose the right type of invoice for the job. There's no one-size-fits-all invoice template — but using one can improve your invoice management. Different payment plans work for different projects, so before you begin work, talk to your client or customer about a payment schedule that works best for both of you, and agree upon one plan.

What is Invoice Processing?

Invoice processing is how companies handle supplier invoices, from arrival to final payment. This process begins when the business receives their invoice, whether paper, PDF, or digital, and managers cross-examine it with the initial purchase order and payment term agreement. If everything matches, payments are made on-time and in the right measures.
The invoice process is critical for maintaining cash flow and balanced accounts throughout the organization. When done accurately, invoicing limits the business's exposure to external risks, such as fraud and theft. It also ensures all payments are made on time to avoid late fees.

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Steps to Invoice Processing

Invoice processing is handled entirely by the accounts payable (AP) department and consists of four steps.

1. Receive the Invoice

The process starts when AP receives an invoice from one of their suppliers after they've already fulfilled their duty. The invoice should include the following.

• The date the supplier sent the bill

• Contact information for both the supplier and purchaser

• Purchase details, including the products, services, and prices

• Payment details
  

2. Record the Invoice Data

These details are verified and entered into the billing system, either manually by an AP clerk or electronically through software. However, manual data entries often lead to mistakes, such as mistypes. This method is also inefficient, requiring more labor and resources, which increases expenses.
In addition to storing the invoice, businesses should also make a copy or digital version of the bill to secure a backup. Invoice copies come in handy if vendors discover discrepancies or try to ask for more money.
However, companies must establish an organized filing system that doesn't take up too much room and makes it easy to locate invoices. It is important to maintain the invoice recording system as it can quickly become cluttered without continuous management.

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3. Send the Invoice for Approval

Once the invoice is checked and logged, AP needs to send the bill for final approval before they can submit the payment. Depending on the size of the business, there may be two or three executives that have the power to approve and deny invoices.
The biggest determinant of the approval process's speed is the medium in which it travels. Traditionally, invoices are printed and placed on the executive's desk, waiting for approval. This tends to elongate the process as employees can lose or forget about the invoice, often resulting in late payments and penalties.
Other companies send their invoices as a PDF over email. But again, these emails can be overlooked, deleted, and forgotten. Both of these methods require AP representatives to continuously check in with executives to see if the invoice is ready, wasting valuable time.
On the other hand, billing software alerts executives of new invoices through a universal interface to ensure they receive them immediately. If it is not handled promptly, the system sends regular alerts until the approval process is completed. Once the invoice is approved or denied, it is automatically sent back to AP, where they can begin processing the payment.
Regardless of the approval process method, businesses should strive to reduce the wait time so they can minimize payment turnaround times and get a more accurate picture of profits.

4. Pay the Invoice

The last step of the invoice process is to submit the payment. This can look different for separate invoices, as compensation may be sent to a specific person or another company's department. Depending on the recipient, the payment process can also extend over days or even weeks.
The billing system also plays a large part in the payment acceptance duration, for email confirmations can get lost or disregarded. Therefore, AP should speak directly with the recipient to ensure they understand how and when they can expect to receive their payment.

How to Calculate Invoice Prices

Studies show that the average paper invoice costs around $15. However, this can vary significantly depending on the company's size and resources. Therefore, businesses need to carefully calculate their invoice expense by dividing the AP annual cost by the total number of invoices processed.

1. Outline the Process

Mapping out the invoice process is challenging because it looks different for every business. Workers need to take their time and identify the following.

• Challenge

• Obstacle

• Inefficiency
  

2. Identify Involved Parties

The number of employees involved in invoice processing also impacts pricing as the business must supplement the labor. It is vital to remember workers outside of the AP department, including workers that handle the code, administrative work, and the approval process.
Larger companies may even evolve multiple departments, so they must be extra careful when mapping out their process to ensure everyone is accounted for.

3. Estimate Time Spent

Now that all of the involved employees are identified, managers need to determine how long each of them spends on invoice processing. Management should ask each party what task they handle and approximately how long it takes them to complete it.

4. Calculate Hourly Wages

When the total time spent is calculated, managers need to break down each participant's hourly wage to determine how much labor expense the process requires. If certain tasks are quick, managers may need to break down the cost per minute.

5. Complete Final Calculations

Finally, management needs to multiply the time spent by each worker's hourly wage to determine the final cost per invoice.

Reasons to Automate Invoice Processing

Businesses that still use manual invoice processing methods should consider how switching to automation tools could improve their overall performance.

Minimize Human Error

Emails, spreadsheets, and pen and paper no longer suffice when it comes to invoice processing as it increases the risk of human error. With each data entry, employees must double-check their handwriting and calculations to avoid discrepancies, wasting valuable time.
On the other hand, invoice software automates recording, filing, and reporting, minimizing the risk of human error. Therefore, when AP receives an invoice, they can make a digital copy, if not already done so, and upload it to the software database.
This allows employees to search the system using keywords such as the vendor, price, and product order for easy retrieval.

Save Money

With the various software options on today's market, even small businesses can afford management systems.
While the initial purchase may be pricey, the eventual return on investment (ROI) outweighs the solution's cost. Especially since automation tools ensure invoices are paid on time so companies can avoid late fees. This ensures the business stays in good standing with suppliers and maintains excellent credit.
Some vendors even offer additional discounts to organizations that always pay on time to incentivize reliability.

Reduce Unnecessary Costs

Aurora hdr 2017 1 0 1 download free. By automating repetitive tasks, such as filing, record retrieval, and other clerical work, companies can save money on labor. The software also eliminates paperwork, reducing waste and money spent on office supplies.
Studies show that paper invoices cost between $12-$30, whereas automated invoices can cost as low as $3.50. While most of this expense stems from labor and paper, businesses also must supplement the storage. Not to mention if the physical invoice is lost, AP must repeat the entire process, doubling the expense.
Invoice software also double-checks data entries and automates calculations, preventing costly discrepancies.

Integrate Systems

Advanced invoice software can integrate with existing systems to create a universal interface where employees can access all data. For example, AP can combine their billing, inventory ordering, and accounting software with their invoice solution, so data is automatically exchanged between the systems. This saves an employee from having to manually consolidate and share information.

Protect the Company from Fraud

Unfortunately, many businesses fall victim to invoice fraud, where someone poses as a supplier to receive funds. Even large corporations, such as Google and Facebook, have experienced invoice fraud, costing them over $100 million. Although these organizations were stable enough to survive these hits, not every business can afford such casualties.
Invoice fraud can happen in numerous ways.

• Fake invoices

• Duplicate invoices sent from suppliers

• Forged signatures
  

Make Report Generation Simple

Reporting and analysis is a critical step in every business operation, from inventory management to accounting. Without software, this can take up extensive labor, brainpower, and resources.
With advanced solutions, businesses can easily generate invoice reports that analyze

• Invoice data

• Invoice calculations

• Order receipts

• Purchase orders

• Price trends
  

Tips for Invoice Management

Cash flow is especially important for small businesses, as they need to preserve as much capital as necessary to maintain stability.
Slow invoice payments can significantly impact budgeting and other financial planning. Therefore, companies need to establish an effective invoice process that ensures timely, accurate payment.

Automate the Billing Process

Many small businesses believe that automated billing solutions are for larger companies, when in fact, they are affordable and easy to navigate. With paper invoices, organizations always risk losing it, making a mistake, and even fraud. Not to mention, traditional invoices are time-consuming, require several employees, and hard to track.
On the other hand, billing software digitally stores and transfers invoices to ensure they are received in a timely manner. Advanced solutions even double-check data to detect mistakes in real-time, preventing duplicate bills, miscalculations, and missed payments.

Create Invoice Checklists

Businesses that have invoice software are prompted to enter critical information to classify the bill.

• Customer

• Invoice number

• Date

• Payment agreement (payment date, incremental payments)

• Sales representative

• Product order
  

Establish Invoice Timing

Receipts 1 4 9 – Enhance Your Incoming Invoice Management System

Many large projects are paid on an incremental basis rather than in full to maintain their cash flow. This can be done weekly, monthly, and even quarterly.
However, these payment plans can become hard to manage with multiple projects on different schedules. Therefore, businesses need to establish a billing schedule to promptly respond to invoices and manage suppliers' expectations.

Double Check Payment Terms

Many late payments are due to confusion regarding the billing schedule. To prevent penalties, companies should check payment terms and ensure all parties have reasonable expectations.

Monitor Accounts Payable Efficiency

After the invoicing process is implemented, AP needs to monitor the system to ensure it records and files bills efficiently. An efficient system sends invoices immediately after a sale, triggers the approval process, and reviews agreement terms regularly.

Use these 10 advanced invoicing tips to improve workflow, save time and get paid faster.

You've been creating and sending invoices to your clients for a while now. And, although it's fantastic whipping up an invoice in the cloud and getting paid online, you're looking for advanced invoicing tips to tighten the screws.

After all, you feel that invoicing can be even easier, faster and better integrated with other core business areas like project management.

The good news is that with FreshBooks it can. Here are 10 advanced invoicing tips for using FreshBooks that will improve your workflow and help you get paid even faster.

Advanced Invoicing Tips for Improving Workflow

Get the most out of FreshBooks cloud accounting with these five advanced invoicing tips.

1. Copy an Existing Invoice

If you have to create an invoice that is the same or similar to previous ones, you know just what a pain it can be to recreate it from scratch. Luckily you don't have to do all of this hard work if you use the FreshBooks Duplicate Invoice Feature. Native instruments razor v1 0 for reaktor intelk download free.

Simply open any existing invoice, click on More Actions and then Duplicate in the dropdown menu.

The invoice number updates automatically and you now have a brand-new invoice with all of the previous content displayed. Edit to your heart's content without having to start from a blank invoice every time.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

2. Set up Recurring Invoices

Imagine creating an invoice once that goes out to your clients on autopilot, without requiring you to lift a finger at all. This is the power of recurring invoices: Invoices you send to your clients on a recurring schedule.

These invoices speed up payment, improve your workflow and free up time for other, more important business activities. They're suitable if you're a service business that bills for a fixed number of hours each month or offers service packages to clients.

To get started with recurring invoices, simply enable the function when creating a new invoice in FreshBooks:

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

3. Roll Tracked Time into an Invoice

Do you bill hourly or have employees who bill hourly?

FreshBooks not only lets you track time against projects and clients, but allows you to convert this tracked time into an invoice. This integration improves your workflow because you don't flip between applications and it helps you accurately capture all billable hours.

To generate an invoice from your tracked time, click on Time Tracking in the left menu and Generate Invoice in the top menu.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

4. Rebill Your Expenses

It's not uncommon to incur expenses on behalf of your client. In these instances, you want an easy way to rebill these expenses back to your client to recover this cost. With FreshBooks, this is a breeze.

• Click on Expenses in the left menu and select an existing expense or create a new one. Then, mark the expense as billable.
• Next, assign a client to that expense.
• Now, create an invoice that you assign to the same client you assigned the billable expense to. When editing the invoice, click on Add a Line.
• The unbilled expenses will now show up against that client. Select it, edit your invoice and hit send.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

5. Quickly Turn an Estimate or Proposal into an Invoice

It's not uncommon to incur expenses on behalf of your client. In these instances, you want an easy way to rebill these expenses back to your client to recover this cost. With FreshBooks, this is a breeze.

• Click on Expenses in the left menu and select an existing expense or create a new one. Then, mark the expense as billable.
• Next, assign a client to that expense.
• Now, create an invoice that you assign to the same client you assigned the billable expense to. When editing the invoice, click on Add a Line.
• The unbilled expenses will now show up against that client. Select it, edit your invoice and hit send.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

5. Quickly Turn an Estimate or Proposal into an Invoice

Estimates are a superb way to start new projects with existing clients while proposals help you win new business.

Both these documents are crucial to delivering projects on time and on budget, and ensuring project success.

But the success of any project depends on so much more than project delivery—it also relies heavily on invoicing and getting paid. Because let's face it, if you deliver the work and don't get paid, your business will eventually become unsustainable.

That's why you need to connect project delivery and getting paid. FreshBooks creates this connection by letting you turn an estimate or proposal into an invoice with a few simple clicks. As soon as your client has viewed one of these documents, click More Actions while it is open and select Convert to Invoice.

You'll now be presented with a New invoice page. Edit the invoice as you see fit and hit send.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here and here.

Advanced Invoicing Tips for Getting Paid Faster

Get paid even faster with these advanced invoicing tips:

6. Late Payment Reminders

If a client is late in paying an invoice, sometimes all they need is a nudge in the right direction. Enter late payment reminders.

Although you can send these reminders via email, this only opens you up to possible awkward money conversations—and who wants that. The better approach is to use the FreshBooks late payment reminder feature that allows you to set these reminders when creating a new client, or an invoice.

These reminders will then send automatically without you lifting a finger or worrying about tackling the uncomfortable task of typing an email. You can also send up to three late payment reminders and specify the exact number of days after you've sent the invoice to send these reminders.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

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7. Late Payment Fees

When automatic late payment reminders are ineffective in getting clients to pay, it may be time to up the ante and charge a late payment fee. We use the word 'may' because charging a late payment fee isn't always a good idea, and sometimes a softer touch is advisable.

For example, a client may be experiencing personal problems or be unable to pay the invoice due to unforeseen circumstances. It is up to you to evaluate each situation to determine if a late payment fee is suitable.

If you decide it is, then it's just a matter of deciding what to charge. Familiarize yourself with the laws in your state to determine what an acceptable level of interest is.

Once you've decided what to charge, it's time to add these fees to your invoice—something that's super easy in FreshBooks. With FreshBooks, you can add the late payment fee as a percentage of the invoice value or as a flat fee.

Learn more in our Support FAQs here.

8. ACH Payments

ACH or Automated Clearing House is a network that connects banks. This network helps people easily and quickly transfer money between these different banks without the need for checks. An ACH payment then is simply a fancy word for a bank transfer.

You can choose to send invoices with ACH as the only payment option. It's a great way to ensure your clients settle invoices the way you want. It also means getting paid as fast as credit cards, with a fee of only 1% per transaction.

To get started with ACH Payments in FreshBooks, first enable FreshBooks Payments or Stripe. Then, when creating an invoice, give clients the option of paying online via credit card or bank transfer. If they choose a bank transfer, they will need to authenticate their account. Finally, FreshBooks will approve or decline the transaction based on whether they have enough funds.

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9. Advanced Payments

Advanced payments give you a virtual terminal to securely store your client's credit card information, without having to keep this information in Word documents, notepad, or even sticky notes. You'll be able to quickly and instantly charge clients while on the move or on the telephone, directly from within FreshBooks.

As was the case with ACH payments, using Advanced Payments requires that you activate FreshBooks Payments. From there, you can add Advanced Payments and charge a client's credit card by clicking Charge Card at the top of an invoice and Input the client's details.

10. Apple Pay

Apple Pay lets anyone with an Apple device pay without having to produce a credit card. Getting started is as simple as registering a credit or debit card digitally through Apple Pay. From there, people can pay for goods in-store by holding their device near a contactless card reader or make purchases in-app with a single touch.

Within FreshBooks, the latter is possible—as long as you've enabled Stripe and FreshBooks. The Apple Pay icon will appear on all invoices—at the top when using a desktop and at the bottom when using an iPhone. If clients are using an iPhone, they can pay by simply tapping the icon and using Touch ID.

The Bottom Line

You may have mastered the basics of invoicing with FreshBooks, but if you want to get paid even faster and improve your workflow, it's time to look at more advanced invoicing tips.

This post explored 10, from setting up recurring invoices and rebilling your expenses to creating late payment reminders and using the likes of Apple Pay and ACH payments.

What are you waiting for? Try out these advanced invoicing tips and tools in FreshBooks today.

This post was updated in September 2019.

Receipts 1 4 9 – Enhance Your Incoming Invoice Management Login

Nick Darlington is a FreshBooks customer and small business owner who's been running a writing business for close to four years now from his home in sunny South Africa. When he's not sharing his knowledge and experience about how to successfully run, manage and grow a small service business, he's helping aspiring and established writers succeed at WriteWorldwide.