When you are running a business, time is money. Time spent on administrative, backroom tasks is time that you cannot use to serve your customers and earn more money. So, anything you do to speed up your administrative tasks will greatly improve your bottom line. One such task is invoicing. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to streamline things, so you do not have to spend a lot of time doing it.
Use templates
Using this simple invoice template will make things a lot easier for you. All you need to do is to add the details of each customer, fill in the amounts and send it off. It could not be easier. Plus, this template looks great. It is clean, fresh, and modern looking, which will leave a great impression with your customers. On the same page, you will also find simple work order and bill templates, which also look good and are easy to use.
Send invoices out as you go
Many people think that sitting down at the end of the month and doing all of their invoicing is the most efficient approach. This is understandable. After all, when you sit down to do a task after about half an hour you get into a rhythm and things move faster as a result.
But, with invoicing this is not necessarily what happens. Often, you will find yourself digging around to find the information you need to complete your invoice. This breaks your rhythm and burns up precious time.
When you create the invoice as soon as you have completed a job for a customer, all of the information you need is right there. You will know how many hours you need to charge for. So, instead of writing it down somewhere and transferring that information across to your invoice later, put it straight into your invoicing system. The best business invoice software packages are cloud-based and work on your phone. So, there is no reason why you and your workers should not create your invoices as you go.
Standardise your work orders
Try to get everyone using the same wording for the tasks that they carry out. This enables you to keep a database of each task, that includes how much is charged for it. You can then simply copy and paste that detail into the invoices. It also means that there is no time wasted dealing with customers who are not 100% sure what they are being charged for because someone has used a confusing description.
It will not take you long to set things up this way. Once you have done so, you will start saving time immediately, which will help you to feel less stressed.
