If you issue invoices in the course of running your business, it’s becoming more imperative that you switch over to eInvoicing.
If you still email PDF’s, or (heaven forbid) mail paper invoices, you’re late to the party and are missing out on some easy gains.
Even more significant is a recent announcement by the Australian government that they will be mandating the internal use of eInvoicing from 1 July 2022. Discussions are also being had around the mandatory nature of eInvoicing for all businesses, although no announcements or decisions have been made.
So, if you want to get paid faster and gain some meaningful time savings while achieving enhanced visibility and accuracy – eInvoicing is for you.
What’s eInvoicing?
eInvoicing is the process of sending an invoice directly from your accounting software to your client’s software.
You simply enter the information in your cloud accounting (or invoicing) software and hit send. This invoice will then appear in your client’s own solution. Your client can then click ‘pay now’ and settle the invoice immediately.
This business-to-business eInvoicing method stands in opposition to outdated manual or paper-based invoicing.
With eInvoicing, you don’t need to:
- use manual invoice templates
- create pdf’s
- email your invoice
- print and mail invoices
- scan in or manually input invoice data
- manually report or send reminders
Why would I switch to eInvoicing?
Let’s run through the chief benefits of ditching your outmoded invoicing practices and embracing eIinvoicing.
1) Get paid faster
The primary concern of small businesses who get paid through invoicing is the long payment turnaround times.
Getting paid faster is probably the most important concern for such businesses, as late payments are the direct cause of serious cash flow problems and financial strain.
- With eInvoicing your client receives the invoice the moment you hit ‘send’. They’ll get an alert in their accounting software and you’ll receive a ‘read receipt’. This means there’s no lag in the sending/receiving process.
- When you couple this with a ‘pay now’ button for your client, the payment process is sped up considerably, as well as being much more straightforward and immediate.
- Better still, you’ll be able to set up automatic payment reminders, meaning that your client will be nudged without you having to lift a finger, speeding payment up even more.
2) Complete visibility
With eInvoicing you gain complete oversight over the invoicing process and will know precisely where an invoice sits in the workflow.
You’ll know exactly when your client both receives and reads your invoice and can report on your accounts receivable with ease.
Since your invoicing functionality is also sitting within your accounting software, you can see your entire financial position at a glance.
3) Unmatched accuracy
Since eInvoicing removes much of the manual data entry processes inherent in regular invoicing, the occurrence of errors is considerably reduced.
Better still, eInvoicing can create invoices automatically from purchase orders, producing an extremely accurate and hands-off invoicing process.
4) Serious time savings
When you no longer have to create, document, email and chase your invoices, your time savings will be considerable.
After you’ve set up a client in your software, all their details are saved, and you only need to input the value of the invoice.
Automatic reminders also remove the tedious task of manually emailing or calling your client to prompt them to pay.
5) Mobile functionality
With e-Invoicing you’re able to quickly fire off an invoice from anywhere, on any mobile device. This means you can be on the job and have the ability to invoice your client right there and then.
6) More secure
Transmitting an invoice through eInvoicing is far more secure than older practices. Reckon has partnered with OZEDI who utilise the Peppol network – which handles the transmission of an invoice. This is a highly secure network that eclipses the security of both email and traditional file storage, to help reduce both fraud and data theft.
Is eInvoicing being mandated by the government?
The process has certainly begun. The Australian federal government has announced that they will mandate the use of e-invoicing within their own government departments by 1 July 2022.
With consultation underway as to the mandating of eInvoicing for all Australian businesses, the writing is certainly on the wall.
As with the recent mandating of Single Touch Payroll, we may well see similar rules in place for invoicing in the not-too-distant future. Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and not only be ready for such changes, but to also reap the inarguable business benefits of eInvoicing.
How is Reckon embracing eInvoicing?
We’re excited to announce that we’re currently in the process of enabling eInvoicing across our Reckon One and Reckon Accounts Hosted solutions.
Check out our upcoming eInvoicing functionality and register your interest here.
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