The majority of small businesses start out with a manual invoicing system, but as your subscription business begins to grow, manual invoicing is likely to come under heavy pressure and slowly increase in inefficiency. Manual invoice processes can lead to a number of avoidable issues, such as missing invoices, delayed payments, and even instances of fraud.
Amalto, a France-based software company, has found that manual invoicing in the US has a number of worrying statistics. According to their recent study, 39% of all manual invoices sent in the US are paid late, and 61% of these late payments occur as a result of incorrect invoices.
Why your Invoicing Process Should be Automated:
Staying flexible with your subscription offerings, including offering upgrades and downgrades, is vital for your subscription business to appeal to a large customer base. Many customers often become loyal to your subscription business due to its flexibility, as it reduces the need for customers to cancel subscriptions when their needs aren’t fully met; with upgrades and downgrades available to consider, customers can find an offering that suits them and their changing needs.
The flexibility of subscription offerings that your business wants to offer is likely to become over-complex for a simple manual invoice set-up, meaning that you are likely to face an increase in invoice errors, or have to consider scaling back the flexibility of your subscription offerings in order to maintain the efficiency of your invoice system. No business wants to compromise on its offerings, which is why automated invoicing is the key to maintaining your subscription flexibility- whilst also remaining efficient in your invoice system. With an automated system in place, your invoicing is able to be as flexible as you need to offer the range of subscriptions that you want to offer to your customers.
An automated invoice system is not only beneficial for your business as a result of increased customer satisfaction- the direct benefits of an automated invoice system include notifications of invoice activity, including failed or late payments. With an automated invoice system in operation, you can keep track of the stage of your invoices without the headaches.
How Can Billforward Improve Your Invoicing?
Billforward prides itself on enabling your subscription company to run as efficiently as possible- including when it comes to invoicing. With Billforward, invoices are automatically generated on billing events, and include all of the details that your customers expect to see, including tax calculations, discounts applied, and a breakdown of items for each charge, so that customers know exactly what it is that they’re paying for.
Billforward understands that flexibility is key for subscription businesses, which is why we are as flexible as possible for your business, including with invoice options. Invoices can be of 3 types within Billforward: adhoc, subscription, and amendment. This means that your business isn’t limited to subscription based invoicing- with Billforward, you can send invoices to your customers for a number of reasons, including one-off purchases, and subscription upgrades or downgrades. Your organization never needs to create an invoice directly- Billforward’s platform is designed to automatically generate the necessary invoices for your customers. You can find out more about invoicing with Billforward by checking out our knowledge base here.
Billforward is also a huge fan of customization, which is why we offer a number of customizable options when it comes to invoices. Your company can add its own style with the option to set and position your own invoice logo, set billing addresses for both the customer and your organization, and much more. To see how you can customize invoice templates with Billforward, check out our knowledge base article here.
Why not book a discovery call with one of our billing experts and see how we can help you meet your subscription goals!