invoicing Archives - BUSY01 and First Class Accounts Ovens and Murray

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E-invoicing

E-invoicing

E-invoicing

Is your business using e-invoicing?

It’s a fantastic way to protect yourself and your customers from invoice scams, and it can help you get paid faster. E-invoices replace emailed PDF invoices or links to online invoices. Instead, e-invoices are delivered securely to your clients, even across different accounting systems.

Preventing invoice fraud

Invoice scams are surprisingly common, and can be quite sophisticated.

For example, with intercepted invoices everything looks exactly right, but the bank account number has been altered. When it happens to you, your client thinks they’ve paid you, but the money has actually gone to a scammer. 

Another example is when you receive notifications from suppliers that their bank account number has changed. But it’s not actually your supplier, it’s fake, and your money is going to a scammer.

In the event of an invoice scam, it can be very difficult to get your money back.

E-invoicing prevents these types of scams because the invoices travel directly from one accounting or payment system to another. By directly connecting suppliers with their clients, there’s no opportunity for scammers to intercept the invoices.

Start sending and receiving e-invoices

When you have your accounting software set up for e-invoicing you can send and receive e-invoices immediately.

You can also use e-invoicing if you don’t use an online accounting platform. There are a number of e-invoicing enabled software providers. Talk to us about which one would suit your business.

It only takes a little bit of time to learn how to use e-invoicing.  And once you have implemented e-invoicing you’re more protected from invoice fraud. So, it’s well worth getting it set up!

We can help you set up your accounting software to send and receive e-invoices immediately. Talk to us about how. 

Credit Control

Keeping debt low through proactive credit control

Keeping debt low

Credit control: Having a large amount of debt in your business is bad for cashflow, weakens your overall financial health and brings down your credit score as a business.

So when customers don’t pay on time, that ‘aged debt’ is bad news for your finances. Aged debt can begin to stack up, adding to your liabilities and reducing the health of your overall balance sheet. So, it’s important to tackle late payment head on.

Get effective with your credit control

Being proactive with your debt management helps you speed up payment, reduce your debtor days and rein in your overall debt as a business

To improve the efficiency of your credit control:

  • Make your payment terms clear – state your payment terms on all invoices and create a policy that’s part of the terms & conditions that customers sign up to.
  • Run regular debtor reports – check your list of late invoices to see which customers are the late payers, and where the big debts are that need to be collected.
  • Be proactive in chasing late payment – don’t be shy about asking a customer to pay their bill. Set up notifications and schedules to remind yourself to chase late-payers.
  • Automate your credit control tasks – cloud accounting platforms have built-in tools or automated credit control integrations that can automatically chase your late-paying customers as soon as an invoice is overdue.

Talk to us about enhancing your credit control

If late payment and aged debt is weighing heavily on your balance sheet, we’ll help you set up the debtor reports and credit control processes needed to reduce this debt.

Get in touch to improve your credit control.

Getting on top of your invoicing

Getting on top of your invoicing

One way to help your small business succeed is to get on top of your invoicing.

This means sending them in a timely manner, making sure they have all the essential information included and chasing them up when you need to!

When you’re running a small business or working for yourself as a contractor, getting paid relies on sending your invoice. And because getting paid, and on time, is essential to staying afloat, it’s important to make sure that you’ve got all the important information included.

Setting up your invoices correctly will ensure you get paid quicker.

One of the important aspects of invoicing is making sure your invoices are sent in a timely manner. Ideally you will be invoicing immediately a services is completed or a product ordered. At a minimum you should provide an invoice within 28 days.

Also, for high ticket items, consider asking for a deposit.  If your service is ongoing or extended over a period of time then look at implementing progress invoices. This will help your cash flow. 

What to include in your invoice

Your invoice needs to contain the following:

  • 1
    The words ‘tax invoice’, ideally as a heading.
  • 2
    Your business or trading name.
  • 3
    Your contact details- these aren’t technically required for invoices for under $1000, but it’s a good idea to include them in case the recipient needs to get in touch.
  • 4
    Your ABN or ACN.
  • 5
    The date you’re issuing the invoice.
  • 6
    An itemised list of what you’re invoicing for, including the price for each item or service. Make sure that you clearly indicate whether GST is included in the total price.

If you are using accounting software simply fill in the templates or you can see some examples of invoices on the ATO website.

A well set out invoice will make it easier for your clients and customers to pay you. Accounting software will make the job easier by providing the format for your business and increasing your efficiency.

Talk to us about your invoicing to ensure you make it easy for people to pay you.

The benefits of offering online payments

The benefits of offering online payments

Did you know the easier it is for people to pay you, the faster you will get paid?

So, how easy do you make it for your customers to pay you?

One of the best things about the digital world is the ability to pay online. And businesses that offer online payments get paid faster.

If your customers can make an instant online payment, they’re likely to pay you more quickly – and they’ll appreciate the simplicity too.

What are online payments

In simple terms, online payments are the methods you offer so your customers can pay you on-line.

Different online payment methods include services like Stripe or Paypal (known as an Automated Clearing House or ACH), credit and debit cards, online wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and recurring payments through direct debit (either from a credit/debit card or bank account).

The right set of payment methods not only offers your customers payment flexibility and convenience, they also reduce the chance of fraud.

It’s important, however, that you choose a provider that can integrate with your accounting software.

Talk to us about integrating the appropriate online payment method, for example, Stripe or Go Cardless, into your business.

What are the costs of online payments

Most online payment service providers won’t charge any set-up fees. However, they will charge transaction fees.

Transaction fees usually range from 2-4% of the payment amount for credit cards. Direct debit transactions are usually a fixed amount - often under $2 per transaction.

On large-ticket items or services, some businesses don’t like to offer online payments. This is because the fees can add up. However, if you include these fees in your profit calculations and offer online payments for these large-ticket items, that point of difference may be the difference between making the sale or not.

What are the benefits of online payments

At the end of the day, businesses that set up online payments get paid faster.

Offering online payments can be a point of difference for your business (especially if you have big-ticket items or services).

Online payments allows you to reach more customers globally.

Offering the right mix of payment options can increase the chances of a purchase.

If you want to add online payments to your business offering, talk to us about integrating the appropriate online payment method into your business.