Running a business involves many activities and processes. For new business owners, things like the value proposition, product positioning, research and development are supremely important.
What doesn’t really come to mind when starting a new business however, is accounting. Founders aren’t really bothered by the accounting side of things as long as they have a good product idea or credible services. The reality however, is that most business owners will have to familiarise themselves with accounting at some level.
One of the most important things to consider when it comes to running a business is figuring out the best way of getting paid. Many businesses think that simply maintaining a rudimentary Excel sheet will get them by.
In doing so, they get used to sending improperly made paper-based invoices or worse yet, simple emails listing the services/products provided and the amount of money the client owes them. This is a bad practice.
A much better way of invoicing customers is through the use of online invoice generators. We suggest online invoice generators because small business owners might be hesitant to invest in a full-blown accounting suite because they’re on a tight budget.
Online invoice generators or free invoice templates are thus, an easy way of creating digital invoices that are easy to store, send and keep track of.
Still not convinced? Well let’s take a deeper look into how invoice templates can help you maximize your small business’s cash flow.
Save time and increase efficiency
Let’s be honest, creating invoices from scratch is a laborious process that can take unreasonable amounts of time. And in case of longer invoices, it can be a nightmare to keep track of the costs and the final invoice amount.
As for paper invoices, well they’re pretty wasteful. In the digital era, paper invoices make little sense as they’re completely inconvenient in terms of logistics and if your business sends lots of invoice this practice can get costly as well.
Then there comes the question of storing and filing all the invoices. Managing paper invoices with absolutely no digital records is a nightmare, and it’s not like you have an option not to do this. Most invoices, receipts and business tax financials have to be maintained for up to 7 years. Just imagine the number of invoices you’ll have piled up in that amount of time.
Since we’re going after paper invoices, here’s yet another reason to abandon them: ink. No matter how good of a printer you’re using, ink is an organic compound that will show signs of wear after some time. If you’re reconciling invoices from several years back this can significantly hamper the whole accounting process.
These reasons are why we recommend every business owner to use a clean and simple invoice generator like FreshBooks’ invoice generator. It is incredibly easy to use and you can create invoices using it quickly and efficiently. Plus, you’re not using any paper!
Create invoices on the go
Are you a business owner who’s always on the move? What if an opportunity comes to make a great sale but you’re hesitant to do because you can’t really invoice the customer? That’s where digital invoices come in.
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With digital invoices, you can be truly free when it comes to creation of invoices. There are many quality invoice generator apps for smartphones available that allow you to create professional-looking invoices in a pinch.
Now all you have to do is make sure you make the sale, after which you can conveniently send your customer a digital invoice. Less dependency and more sales!
Final thoughts
Each year we move closer to a completely paperless economy. While a true paperless economy might be far away, we can still make use of some very practical and helpful technological advances.
It is safe to say that digital invoices have made the job of managing invoices a lot more easier. No more do you need to maintain a filing cabinet and manually keep track of invoices dating back 7 years. With digital invoices, you don’t have to worry about the fragility of physical invoices. You can create several fail-safe backup measures that will ensure that your digital invoices will still be there when you need them.
What’s more, digital invoices are very accessible these days, thanks to online invoice templates and invoice generators. Even the most passionate accountant will appreciate the ease provided by these invoice generators as it can greatly improve their efficiency and take out a lot of the frustration typically involved in creating physical invoices.
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