When sales revenue is low, businesses struggle with cash flow issues. This can force them to seek out other expensive sources of finance such as bank loans to help bridge the gap. Or they can miss out on opportunities to reinvest in their business.
Invoices are Essential for Collecting Cash
In some industries money is exchanged immediately upon receipt of goods or services. But, settling business-to-business transactions often requires invoicing. These invoices detail exactly how much is owed, as well as state the payment terms, including due date and type of payment accepted.
Most organizations will not begin to action payments until after they have received an invoice, so they need to be created and sent quickly. This represents a hurdle for many small businesses.
Limited Resources Means Invoicing is Often Deprioritized
Large companies or organizations that have dedicated accounting teams have the resources to invoice daily. However, many small businesses may only have a few employees accountable for a broad range of responsibilities and, consequently, invoicing can get deprioritized.
Making the situation worse is that invoicing is incredibly time-consuming when completed manually. If documents have to be created individually from scratch before being printed, enveloped, metered and sent, businesses are extending the payment period before invoices have even been sent.
Speed up Payment by Simplifying Document Delivery Down to a Few Clicks
Reducing or even eliminating time-consuming manual tasks can empower one person to handle the responsibilities of an entire team. As such, small businesses should prioritize investment in web-based document management tools that simplify processes. Take invoice delivery, for example.
Businesses can upload critical documents to a web-based portal, for a provider to handle the printing, enveloping, metering and distribution securely and accurately. Documents can be sent digitally or physically, ensuring recipients receive them in the format that best suits their own processing requirements.
Advanced Barcode Tracking Means Fewer Late Payments
Another issue many face is not being able to easily track invoices. Tools that have integrated barcode technology enable users to see exactly where documents have been sent and when via a web portal.
This makes it easier to identify which invoices are due and when to follow-up for payment. Ultimately, if the process for creating and distributing invoices is streamlined and invoices are sent through their recipient’s desired channel, businesses will receive payment faster and drive up their sales revenue.
