Traditionally, businesses focused more on product launching in the earlier days instead of paying attention to the billing and invoicing process. But as more and more enterprises are migrating to digital modes of transactions, e-billing and invoicing also gain the impetus. Even the small and midsize businesses, which faced invoicing issues, are keen to adopt electronic payment methods. One of the revolutionary changes in the billing and invoicing industry has been the advent and enhancement of Invoicing and billing software. It has streamlined the payment process with on-time receivables, quick invoices, and more. All these lead to building a professional image of the company.
The exponential growth of invoicing and billing tools has optimistically influenced the accounting software market, which is expected to reach $20,408 million by 2026. This is some good news for the financial sector, which has suffered several significant jolts due to the pandemic crisis.
Here, in this blog, we will compare invoicing software with invoicing templates to know which is a better option for a business.
Fundamental Differences: Invoicing Templates & Invoicing Software
The digital era and technological advancement have introduced state-of-art invoicing tools that generate automated bills for the given products and services. The software provides a list of corresponding prices and the total amount that the customer needs to pay. On the other hand, the invoicing template is a layout of an invoice and bill displaying the different segments. Both are meant for billing and invoicing purposes but are different from each other.
The Differences Are Summed Below-:
The above table clearly shows that billing and invoicing software are far superior and better than invoicing templates. Now let’s understand why invoicing tools have the edge over the templates.
7 Reasons Invoicing Software is Better Than Invoicing Templates
Invoices are Up-to-Date
Online invoicing software comes with automation features to ease your invoicing task and make it more efficient. It has been observed that payments get delayed due to late invoices sending or incorrect invoice details. Also, businesses have to chase their clients to get the payments done literally.
With invoicing software systems, invoices are up-to-date. This means it automatically works according to your updated legal requirements in the software. Therefore, it helps you send the invoices on time to your clients and receive timely payments.
The invoicing template provides the manual search and update option. Thus, it becomes time-consuming and delays the payment process.
Eliminates all Error Possibilities
When you make changes in the invoicing templates, you enter each information manually. Unfortunately, this can open room for human error, and thus you have to rework and then send it to your clients. It again delays the payment.
On the contrary, invoicing software automates the process, filling the invoice numbers in sequence and your company’s contact and service details correctly. This helps to create the invoices early and can be shared on time.
Create Invoice Quickly
The phrase “Time is Money” apparently applies to the fact that you should invest your time in profitable areas. However, manually checking the invoices to ensure their accuracy and other legal compliances is time-consuming and error-prone. But by investing in modern accounting practice management software, you can create invoices much faster to get them auto-updated in real-time. The tool also allows you to streamline the workflow management process.
Get them Designed Professionally
By having your billing invoices designed professionally, you allow the invoice to speak your brand. The software tracks outstanding invoices and exports the generated information in PDF files to share them via mail. Often filling out the repetitive details in the invoice can become frustrating. Therefore, you fail to think about the alignment, breaking lines, and other steps required for professional invoices.
On the other hand, online invoicing softwaremakes it serene. The tool provides professional invoice templates, which you can choose with ease based on your business requirements.
Automatic Payment Reminders
If you have fewer invoices every month, it’s easier to calculate which invoices are paid and which are still to be paid. But as the business grows and continues to expand further, the number of invoices also increases. It becomes a challenging task to manage the invoices.
This is when the billing and the invoicing system come into play. It efficiently manages all invoices and sends automatic alerts regarding payment due dates. You can send payment reminders to the clients.
Processing Faster Payments
Invoicing tools can integrate with other solutions such as recurring billing software, allowing businesses to use platforms like PayPal efficiently. It becomes much easier for the clients to make online payments upon receiving the invoice.
Powerful Tool Features
Invoicing software saves your company’s data, customer’s contact details, price, taxes, due date policy, and other such information, enabling you to create the invoice with one click. It gives a proper insight into cash flow, which clients are consistently paying you at the right time and vice versa. Furthermore, the customer details are saved on PCI. You don’t have to worry about information security as data is stored in the cloud and accessible from any device, anywhere.
How Invoicing software is a Wholesome Product?
There are some outstanding features in invoicing software, making it a wholesome product for businesses of all sizes and types. Let’s discuss this in some detail.
Get Detailed Reports
You can generate various reports which assist in providing financial insights. The insights are based on unpaid invoices, average time for payment cycle, the number of clients who pay on time, clients delaying the payment, etc. You can track outstanding invoices and export the generated information in PDF files to share them via mail. Also, the software gives important notifications that help in managing the database.
Payment Reminder
The complete details of invoices and clients are saved on the cloud. Thus, when you share the invoice with your client, it calculates the number of days left for the due date. Accordingly, it notifies you regarding the due date. This way, you can timely send a payment reminder to your client.
Staff Management
Large enterprises and multi-chain industries can find it challenging to manage the employees efficiently. But a premier invoicing system such as Invoicera provides top-class features to help control the clients and payment process. You can assign a task, track task time and employee productivity. This creates transparency between the staff and the manager.
Time-Tracking
With invoice software, you can manage employee time-sheets online. It records employee time logs automatically, not leaving a single minute. Thus, easily validate each working hour of an employee. After that, it generates financial reports and accordingly helps in payroll management.
Minimize the Repetitive Tasks
The online invoicing generator helps to create the invoices automatically as all the data are pre-saved. This helps in minimizing the invoice work to almost 80%. The manager has to add the quantity and services, and the invoice is ready to send.
Saved Invoice Templates
The invoicing software saves different types of invoices. Thus, you don’t have to worry about downloading from any site. Choose the template that reflects your brand color and use that particular invoice template every time to create an invoice. Sharing invoices in a specific design gives a professional look over the clients, and they easily recall your products and services.
Facilitate Bills & Payment
As we all know, online payments do not require any additional setup, and you can conveniently transfer the money. You can get an online payment platform integrated like Paypal, Stripe Billing, etc., and receive payments globally with invoicing software. The software is compatible with international currencies. Hence, there are no hurdles in obtaining settlements from clients of different countries.
Minimize late Payments
There are fewer or no chances of receiving late payments by using invoicing software. Firstly, the software automatically updates the details on the invoice without any error, and you can send the invoice on time. Hence, clients respond instantly. Secondly, the software accepts online payments globally, which allows clients to make payments on the spot.
The features and functions might have given you a broad idea that invoicing software is worth investing in. Now, let’s talk about the current adaptation of invoicing software and the top tools available in the market.
The Latest Invoicing Software Trends
Here are some critical invoicing software trends you must look at:
Government-led adaptation:With the awareness of the efficient process and cost-saving benefits, both developed and developing countries are prompt in e-invoicing adaptation. The governments in these countries are accelerating the compliance of e-invoicing requirements. The United States of America is also into this. . The European Union had mandated the Public administration to access e-invoices.
The driver of the real-time economy:As the software uses faster and more accurate data between the purchaser and supplier, businesses and governments are being directed to ‘real-time economy.’ It allows the purchaser to validate the data quickly and suppliers to immediately respond using the invoices. This system has drastically lowered the late payments and penalties.
AI and expanded automation: The more advancement, the more invoicing tasks get automated. These automated functionalities eradicate the use of manually monitoring the invoice details. Hence, chances of errors and delayed payments decrease. Integration of AI helps to elevate the financial process to become dynamic.
The Final Verdict
Billing and invoicing software can carry out all accounting, billing, invoicing, and finance-related tasks with a single click to save valuable time and effort. It provides businesses with critical insights into the payment process and financial reports in real-time. This swiftness and accuracy are not possible with invoice templates. So, beyond any doubt, invoicing software tools are excellent in terms of offering features, benefits and aligning with other applications.
Startups and small business enterprises can also check the best free and open source billing and invoicing software solutions. They can use the free version of the tool and even customize its features to gain dominant advantages. The top options include Free Agent, Invoicera, Zoho Books, FreshBooks, and Xero. Also, GoodFirms has created a buyer’s guide on the billing and invoicing tools, where you get complete details about the software.
