How do you generate invoices today? Do you create them yourself, typing out the price of every item? Perhaps you delegate invoice creation to one of your employees, with detailed instructions to “save as” and then “cut and paste" sections.

If you create and send out each invoice from scratch, you know how time consuming and frustrating it can be. Manually creating invoices wastes time that could be better spent doing more productive tasks. If you’re in need of a better way to create invoices, an automated billing solution could be the answer.

Here are 5 benefits you could see when you automate your billing and invoice processes: 

1. EFFICIENCY 

Automating your invoicing and billing processes can result in huge increases in efficiency, especially when you generate invoices in bulk for orders and subscriptions. A next generation solution, such as Salesforce's billing solution, lets you easily configure trial periods and setup charge and even set up subscriptions to auto-renew, saving you time. Invoices can be generated in bulk and sent out to your clients automatically, greatly reducing the time needed to create invoices and the amount of work required.

2. SECURITY

Invoices can contain a lot of sensitive information, including your business and clients’ bank details, therefore keeping this information as safe as possible is vital to the integrity of your business. By using a trusted automated invoicing system, you know that the safety of this information won’t be compromised. In addition, when automating invoices, the information contained in them is handled by fewer people, and kept in less places, so there are less opportunities for things to go wrong and get lost, and potentially end up in the wrong hands.

3. REDUCED COSTS

When invoices are no longer being sent by mail, less will be spent on printing, postage and a lot of other little things. Although these costs seem small individually, many companies send out thousands upon thousands of invoices, and over time it will add up. Since less time will be spent creating invoices, employees will have more time to do things that will make money for the business – so by using automated invoicing, the time saved will also be indirectly saving money.

4. RELIABILITY

With automated invoices you can be sure that they’ll be sent on time, and reach the people they’re supposed to. There won’t be any chance of them being sent out late, to help ensure you are paid on time. You can also track when invoices are sent and payment is received and incentivize clients for early payment. When your invoices are sent out quicker, your clients will have more opportunity to take advantage of these offers (or at least avoid penalties for late payment!), and you’ll be more likely to be paid on time – keeping everyone happy. Improving customer relationships can be another upshot of automated invoicing. When they get invoices on time with fewer errors, they’ll be happier with your service. Happier customers are more likely to recommend you to others and may give you a good review or testimonial, which can help to build a strong work of mouth and lead to more customer in the long run.

5. FEWER ERRORS

When automating invoices, there is a lot less room for human error. Invoices can be matched against the orders received, so you won’t have to worry about any errors when the information was entered to the invoice – it’s all already there. When you create the invoices by hand, several different people may be involved in making them, and as hard as your team may work, there is always a chance of error. Fewer errors means you’ll always be paid the right amount and won’t have any trouble with customers who receive an invoice for an amount they weren’t expecting.

To learn more, check out our subscription billing webpage.