Being a small business owner means you may have to wear many different hats. Purpose of wearing these different hats – undertaking variety of business functions – is to minimize operating costs.

Being hands-on within your venture is a great thing, though may become more difficult as you grow. With success comes additional responsibilities that could become hard to handle yourself. Invoicing and bookkeeping in particular can get out of hand quickly as your enterprise gathers momentum.

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Effective invoicing keeps all your financial ducks in the row. Once the tax season comes, you’ll be well prepared to appease the scrupulous tax man. Moreover, sending invoices to clients helps you better assess cash inflows and monitor the financial health of your business.

So the question is: when should you start looking at invoicing software which would ease entrepreneurial burden?

You want to avoid succumbing to your own success – especially to such an integral part of business operations – invoicing.

You’re spending more time invoicing than on your business

With a few clients under your belt, Word or an Excel could serve as simple invoice creation tools. Not as many financial aspects for you to manage, so invoicing feels like a tender summer breeze.

After a few months or years in operation, your business begins gathering steam – you have a formidable client list. I am glad you’re doing well for yourself; not many entrepreneurs get this far.

Now that your business has picked up, spending all this time creating and managing invoices with the aforementioned Word and Excel may not be so simple. A lot of your time may now be spent on creating and sending invoices to your growing client base using archaic methods, instead of focusing on growing and improving your venture.

Growing accounts receivable

Managing cash inflow is critical in preserving the health of your operations. Any outstanding debts from your clients need to be  identifiable and later collected.

As your accounts receivable grows, so does the pressure for you to collect those payments. Without the help of invoicing software, you may be struggling trying keep track of all the debtors.

This brings me to my next point…

You’re not being paid on time!

Staying on the top of invoicing without the help of proper software is – as mentioned before – a time consuming endeavor. This means that you’re probably in over your head in additional paperwork and constantly worrying about delivering payment reminders. Your cash flow is being stifled by inefficiency.

Struggling to provide convenient payment methods

Providing a convenient way for your client to compensate you for your work is crucial. It’s one of the easiest way to hasten the payment process and bolster the cash-flow of your business.

DIY invoicing confines you to a minute amount of flexibility when the time comes to receive payments. You may even have to take down credit card information over the phone – pretty inconvenient if you ask me.

Remember, the more flexible you are in accepting payments, the happier your customers will be.

Need an easier way to create and deliver payment reminders

I am sure that as an entrepreneur, you probably have encountered a few late payers. Late payment may not always happen as a result of malicious intent. People can be forgetful; people also misplace things; they can also unintentionally delete emailed invoices.

Either way, as your client list grows, so do the chances of potential late payments. You may be subject to manually tracking down outstanding invoices and send payment reminders to those clients. You need to get paid; a payment reminder may help expedite the process.

Think about how much time is wasted here. Not only are you creating invoices but you’re also spending additional time on delivering overdue notices to your clients.

With the use of invoicing software, payment reminders can be completely automated. You don’t have to lift a finger – just schedule the time for a reminder to be delivered and you’re done. It’s a great way to minimize late payers and get your hands on the money you work so hard to make.

Looking for an easy way to track finances and create business reports

I hope you’re good at keeping all your paperwork neatly organized. Not to mention you probably have to enter and reenter duplicate data across multiple software platforms to generate financial reports for your business.

Even if you’re the most meticulous individual on the planet and have each paper color coded and filed away properly, things can and do get misplaced. It’s not hard to miss out on key financial documents that may throw off your future tax reporting, financial projections, etc.

As your business grows bigger, paper work grows along with it. You may be in over your head in terms of invoicing and business report generation without invoking the help of invoicing software.

Looking to become more environmentally friendly

Being environmentally conscious is something that a lot of us should strive for. This may be accomplished even through simple changes in our every-day lives: using a reusable water bottle, recycling, cycling to work, etc.

One way your business can become more environmentally friendly is by minimizing paper waste. Speaking from my personal experience, a lot of the invoices I’ve received recently were physical paper copies handed to me after the business transaction was concluded. The use of paper was unnecessary; they could’ve simply emailed the copy to me.

Perhaps you want to make a positive change in how you conduct business – paperless invoicing is an easy first step.

Integration with other business tools

If you have mastered the art of multitasking, you’re saving yourself a great deal of time. Having the ability to handle variety of different duties at the same time is something to be admired, and a valuable asset for any entrepreneur.

One thing that doesn’t cross peoples minds when they think about invoicing software is the ability to integrate invoicing with other business tools. What I’m talking about here is additional multitasking to enhance the performance of your business.

InvoiceBerry offers Zappier integration, which in turn paves the way to thousands of other business tool integrations. Here is a quick guide to help you set up your Zappier integration through InvoiceBerry.

You want invoicing to be simple

Although invoicing is important, it needs to be simple. Invoicing shouldn’t overshadow other pertinent business functions. Those beloved Excel sheets may have provided you with a simple invoicing solution at first, but down the road those can turn into an unwarranted hurdle.

Start enjoying invoicing software benefits today!

What are your thoughts about using software to invoice your clients? Perhaps I have helped you discover the new world of hassle-free invoicing.

As your business grows, conventional invoicing may succumb to the strain of a large client list. Outstanding invoicing, overdue payments, and outdated financial reports are symptoms of a growing business with an inadequate invoicing system. Don’t be a victim of your own success – start using online invoicing software today.