There are 2 things that you need to concentrate on and put lots of effort into in order to have a successful business sales and cashflow. It doesn’t matter how good your service or product is if you can’t sell it, and it doesn’t matter how much you sell if you can’t collect payment and keep the cash flowing.
Find the program that fits your needs
There are many different programs you can use for billing of invoicing your client. There really isn’t one that the best for every business as businesses don’t all operate the same. There are many generic systems that you can use for quoting and invoicing, then you have complete CRM systems that manage the client workflow from lead generation through the entire sales process. Then you also have industry specific systems. A customer of mine worked in emergency restoration services and the platform he used worked great for him because it already had many of the products and materials he used implemented into the system for quick and easy estimating process. This program even included pricing it generated based on industry trends, so he could plug in how many square feet of drywall needed to be replaced and it would automatically generate the cost of drywall, tape, mud, texture, and paint plus labor to show him his cost and a suggested price.
Establish a workflow
I used a program called invoice ninja, I liked that it allowed me to create quotes, and convert easily convert them into invoices when the client accepted. The most important thing for me when selecting a program was that it could facilitate my workflow, or processes needed to be done to get work started, invoiced and collect payment.
My workflow was simple, send a quote, Invoice Ninja would email it to a client and there was a nice big green button that a client could click to accept. The next step was scheduling the job and when the work was completed my employees could send the invoice there on the spot from their phones. This ensured we never forgot to send an invoice, and because the employee was standing there when the client received the invoice we almost always saw the client pay on the spot, meaning we got paid right away.
Make it easy to collect payment
As a customer, I find it easy to pay my pool guy who uses Quickbooks online and sends me invoices with a big green pay now button. I always pay it as soon as I receive it because I know I might forget later. On the other side of the spectrum, my gardener insists on getting paid with cash or check. I haven’t had a checkbook in years, and since I don’t normally carry cash I almost never have the money when he comes to collect, so I always end up paying him late.
While there are still businesses that insist on paying with checks, many of the clients we worked with had no problem paying with credit card. Invoice ninja tied into our payment gateway so we were able to accept credit card payments without any issue. While there is a fee you pay for these transactions, I found the convenience of not having to make trips to the bank to deposit checks and getting paid right away made up for it.