Being a business owner has a wide range of benefits and advantages, one of them being that you are your own boss, however, if you started your own business, you might be surprised by the number of responsibilities you now have. One of the best examples of such responsibilities is that you need to track all of the payments and invoices you have.
But, you might now be wondering – what are some of the best ways that I can track both received and owed payments? Well, the very first thing is to learn how to properly manage all of the invoices. And, if this is something you need help with, this article has got your back. Let’s take a look at the 6 tips that you might want to utilize:
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Set Up Reminders For Due Payments
Basically, these are reminders for you that your customer needs to pay you. With them, you can incorporate how much they need to pay, as well as when you are expecting the payment to arrive. If the customer does not meet the deadline, you’ll get a notification alerting you to contact the client. When the payment arrives, you’ll get another notification confirming that.
Depending on what your company deals with, there is a wide range of ways to use such a system. If you get paid for every project that you finish, you can even set-up an alarm when a project is approved, then you can request a payment to be made. Besides telling you when someone needs to pay you, it will also keep your invoices in one place, as well as organized.
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Implement a Numbering System
If your goal is to better manage all of your invoices, then you might want to consider implementing a numbering system which will definitely be quite helpful. It can be used for organizing them by the pay period or the value of the project you are working on. If you are bad at tracking them, this system will help.
The best way to begin? Well, you can begin by storing all of them on your PC. Next, give each of them the same file number – for instance ‘businessinvoice1’ – and assign each of them a number. On the other hand, you can also use dates – for instance ‘businessinvoice1-9-2020’.
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The Payment System Should Be Simple And Easy to Use
Your goal might be to completely use the invoice management efficiently, and if so, you should make the payment process simpler and easier to use. For this, you can use various apps that can be updated in real-time. The apps can allow you to create documents where both you and the customer will have access, hence, you’ll be able to view and edit them at all times.
Now, there are various applications that you can choose from and if you want to learn and read more about the invoicing applications and systems you can opt for, you should choose to visit billdu.com, which will provide you additional information on invoicing apps, how you can use them, as well as how you can gain customized ones.
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The Invoices Must Be Sent on Time
This does sound completely logical, however, it is worth mentioning – learn and make it a habit to send all of your invoices and due payments on time. It is easy to get confused about this, especially if you forgot to send it or if you think you did, but in fact, never did – do not worry, it happens to all of us.
You’ll need time to learn how to stay organized, which you can do by practicing managing your due or expected payments. Not everyone is born a bookkeeper, but, you do not want to leave your customer hanging, especially if they needed the document. Again, you can set up reminders that will tell you when you need to send the documents over to your clients.
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Keep Each And Every Receipt
This does not mean that you should only keep the original, especially since they can fade if left in bright rooms. This means that you should also make a copy of each receipt and store it. You should know that there are actually two ways that you can do this, either online or physically.
Physically storing them is a bit more time-consuming and it will require you to scan the receipt, print it, and store both the original and copy in a file. On the other hand, with digitally storing it, all you’ll need to do is scan the document, upload it on a cloud storing platform or save it on your PC, and you are good to go.
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Not Using Papers is Less Confusing
I once entered a lawyer’s office and was shocked by the amount of paper they use for their cases, but, for their invoices as well. The lawyer did not seem to mind, but, if you are Eco-conscious, you can consider not using paper at all. This will not only be good for our environment but, it will also be less confusing for you.
Online invoicing is one of the best ways to keep all of your documents safe and secure. For this, you can opt from various applications and programs that will store and keep all of the invoices safe. What is even better, you can even access most of them remotely, hence, if you, let’s say forgot to send an invoice, you can always do it from the comfort of your home.
Bonus Tip – Opted For Online Invoicing? Keep Them Safe With a Strong Password
If you do choose to manage and track all of the due payments online, then you must keep all of the data safe. How can you do this? Well, the easiest way is to come up with a password that is strong and that incorporates a wide range of letters, numbers, and symbols, which will all make it harder for someone to access the files.
Now, besides the aforementioned things, you should also strongly consider implementing upper case and lower case letters, as well as symbols such as question marks, dashes, the dollar sign, and so on. Never, I repeat, never use common things such as your birth date for your password, especially since they are easy to hack.
Conclusion
By utilizing some or all of the tips and tricks mentioned above, you’ll be able to successfully keep track of and manage all of your received and owed invoices. So, now that you know what you can and should choose to do, do not waste any more of your time. Instead, start implementing some tips from above and start organizing everything right away!