There’s an old expression in business: the cheque is in the mail. It’s often used by someone who owes you money and is behind on their payment. You’ve been paid, the expression implies, you just have to wait for the mail to be delivered.
Technology has come a long way in the past few decades and is dominant force in many businesses today. Virtually everyone carries a connected mobile device with them at all times and we’re all looking for ways to make our lives, including our business lives, more convenient.
Yet, even though we pay close attention to technological innovation in the products and services we deliver in order to stay competitive, we often overlook this same innovation in the internal processes that we use to run our businesses. One area we tend to overlook is how we manage invoicing and collecting the payments that are owed to us.
In this article, we will outline all the reasons why you need re-examine your process for invoicing and collecting payments in your business. And we’ll show you how, with some simple changes, you can eliminate that old-fashioned excuse for not being paid.
The cheque is in the mail
Managing invoicing and tracking down your accounts receivable hasn’t changed much in decades. It used to work like this – and still does, to varying degrees, in many businesses.
First, you have to create invoices and send them to your customers. True, you’re probably not typing them on a typewriter or writing them by hand, you’re probably using a computerized system and accounting software to produce invoices. You may even be emailing invoices to customers.
Next, you have to wait for your invoice to be delivered (which takes longer if you send it by post) and then received and entered into your customer’s accounting system. Then, you’d have to wait the amount of time you give your customers to make payment (say, 15, 30 or 60 days).
When it comes to receiving the actual payment, most businesses are still relying on cheques that are sent by mail – so you have to wait for delivery. Once your payment cheque arrives, it needs to be reconciled to the right invoice and then delivered to your bank for deposit to your account.
Unfortunately, not all businesses pay their bills on time, so you’re probably also employing some of your accounting staff to contact customers and track down late payments.
If your business is managing its invoicing and accounts receivable in these old-fashioned ways, it’s likely costing you.
For starters, this old process is slowing down the speed at which you’re bringing revenue into your company and this could be negatively impacting your cash flow. Delays in getting paid could also be costing you money if you need to borrow to ensure smooth cash flow. And you’re probably paying taxes on some revenue you haven’t even received from your customers yet!
The old process is also costing you more in expenses just to get paid. There is more manual work involved in all aspects of printing and mailing invoices, as well as collecting and depositing payments by cheque. Larger businesses may even be employing small teams of people just to deal with manual invoicing, follow-ups, collections, bank deposits and reconciliation.
You might be thinking this is just the cost of doing business. Well, it certainly was decades ago – but it doesn’t have to be this way today.
Automating your accounts receivable process eliminates many of the delays that are preventing you from getting paid faster. SimplePin offers a convenient platform for automating your invoicing, tracking and payments processing. For example:
SimplePin has a powerful API that allows your business to integrate the power of automating accounts receivable right in your existing accounting or ERP software system. That means you don’t need to change your current accounting system.
SCHEDULE A DEMO and see how SimplePin can automate your invoicing and accounts receivable system, while helping you get paid faster and reducing the administrative costs of managing receivables.