Customer billing software is becoming more sophisticated all the time. As new research into online billing procedures and project management continues to be explored, small business billing software is being developed to streamline the processes. Invoice software can easily be integrated into your current operations with the right kind of systems. You’ll find many of the billing system programs to be user-friendly and a welcomed addition to your operations.

With the expansion of global trading markets with which you do business, you’ll need to stay on top of all the innovation and emerging billing solutions. To remain competitive you’ll have to find ways to include business invoicing software in your operations. As time and billing software continues to improve, there are a number of ways you can keep up with billing software news and trends.

1. Log on to invoice software blogs and websites

2. Subscribe to invoice program publications

3. Sign on for email alerts from providers of online billing software

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Share information with other business invoicing software users

Blogs are increasingly becoming the media of choice for many small business owners looking for quick and efficient means to communicate with other like-minded professionals. Find an Internet blog or website that provides trust-worthy information on small business billing software and attracts reliable posting participants.

I recommend: Follow the latest billing software trends and how emerging technology is approaching the issues at CRM News. Follow all the talk and get in on the questions posed by other users at the blogs and articles section of Paymo, a time and billing software company.

Read up on changes in billing software

Billing software news and trends continue to dominate many of the billing system publications available online and in hard copy print versions. While you may get email alerts from your business software provider, it's a good idea to stay on top of the industry as whole so that you can know about changes that may be ahead of your current provider's abilities.

I recommend: Stay in touch with the news and trends through newsletters, forums and research papers at the CRM Software Developer, which offers a free newsletter and subscription account for regular in-depth information. The TM Forum provides bi-weekly and monthly updates about best business practices that include articles about billing software and its many uses.

Receive billing system software alerts

While most business owners are trying to clear out their in-boxes to save time, you should allow at least one information provider to get into your email with alerts about changes and upgrades that others in the industry are employing. You shouldn't miss out on vital billing software systems alerts just because you want to avoid spam.

I recommend: Get the Easy Billing newsletter sent right to your email box so that you can stay on top of upgrades and other news and trends affecting your current systems and industry at large. Take advantage of the research provided by Blackbaud, a non-profit agency support organization. Through its regular newsletter called Nonprofit fiscal fitness, you’ll receive all the latest on news and trends affecting the technology used in the nonprofit sector and what might work best for your company.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Develop a culture of sharing information at your business. Ask each of your employees to regularly read at least one billing solutions newsletter or magazine and share the news and trends they've uncovered at staff meetings.

As your business grows and gains new customers, the relatively simple act of billing and receiving can get out of hand. However, by automating your billing system, you can save time and improve the efficiency of the process. If you have a business where your customers are billed the same amount at regular intervals, a fully automated recurring bill-pay system is the way to go. For companies offering a wider variety of products or services at different price points, a more hands-on system that helps you track and send bills is the best bet. Popular billing options include:

1. Email billing
2. Automatic withdrawal from customer bank accounts
3. Automatic credit card charges
4. Bills mailed through a contract with a third-party service.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use Electronic Options for Greatest Efficiency

If you can switch all of your customers to electronic billing, you can eliminate the need for paper invoices and achieve a better return on investment.

I recommend: Check out services like Intuit QuickBooks Billing Solutions, Authorize.net Merchant Solutions, PaymentOnline, etransactus, 2ndSite.

Choose a Processor That Can Accommodate Multiple Options

If some of your customers prefer print invoices over electronic or vice-versa, look for a single solution provider who can handle both.

I recommend: Check out Billing Pros and Canada-based GoBilling.

Send Professional Invoices Via PayPal

PayPal lets you send electronic invoices but isn't fully automated for recurring billing. You can also integrate QuickBooks invoices to automatically create e-mail invoices with click-to-pay buttons.

I recommend: Use PayPal's Payment Request Wizard for QuickBooks or PayPal.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Sending e-mail bills that offer an option to pay instantly can be efficient and cost-effective, but it also has two problems: Your customers may not be ready to receive and process invoices via e-mail, and your invoices may get filtered by anti-spam solutions and not get properly noticed by your customers. Choose your automatic billing solution based on your customer needs.
• •  Some billing services let you use their online billing and e-mail billing services for free but charge a fee for paper bill processing. Since many businesses need a blend of electronic and paper billing, make sure you understand the costs of each fully before you spend too much time learning to use a particular system.
• •  If a third-party solution provider has access to your customer accounts, make sure adequate security features are in place to protect your customers before you begin using their automated billing services.
• •  While e-mail billing can be the most appealing option on the surface, some customers may have concerns about receiving e-mail bills due to fraudulent phishing scams.

Invoice software can help you manage your accounting records with little effort. You can use electronic customer billing software to train your staff and keep your clients up to date. Maximize your time with a billing software system that has become easier to use and allows you to manage all aspects of your business more smoothly. You should take every advantage of the expertise developed by small business billing software companies.

Business invoicing software can operate online so that you keep on top of your company activities while you’re away. Web based billing software vendors can provide products that give you a concise and relevant form so that you can make quick decisions when necessary. Managers, support staff and office workers can stay on top of their projects easier utilizing the latest billing solutions. Find a number of ways to increase profits by using billing software.

1. Use time and billing system programs

2. Use Web-based billing software

3. Use business invoicing software

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Integrate time and billing software into your systems

The user-friendly options available in billing software make using the programs easy and accessible for any business now. Small, medium and large companies can eliminate the need for extensive paper trails and long management meetings in favor of desktop software that can operate within your entire workflow processes.

I recommend: Account for employee time down to the minute and integrate it with your billing system with the software programs designed by Sage Timeslips. Use BillQuick for time and billing systems that can save you time and resources. Try the billing software program free for 30 days.

Try online billing software

For many of the newer online programs you don't even have to download any special software to your systems if you choose to engage web-based billing software companies. These operations typically allow you a trial period, which you should take advantage of as well. With many of the billing software programs, you can even let the providers host your site so little is required of your IT team to implement the system.

I recommend: Use Aria Systems for online billing solutions. You don’t have to purchase any hardware or special software for the on-demand features offered by the company. Use Bug Invoicing to manage the entire sales process, from rep’s time spent on a project to management time and final invoicing to the client.

Get your team using invoice billing software

Once you've opened up the possibilities of running your business with the assistance of management software solutions, you need to get your team onboard with the programs. Instead of calling on consultants to handle projects, your managers should be able to use their own desktops to display reports and manage projects.

I recommend: Use Inovaware to receive a fully integrated billing and management software system in a number of different ways. They can offer support and continued consulting services as well. Imaginetime uses a lot of billing system platforms to give you one system that covers all the bases for your complete project management requirements.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you choose billing software companies, make sure they send you regular updates because the software always changes and the upgrades will usually help your office be more efficient and profitable.

Billing software is utilized by businesses to send out invoices to customers, as well as keep track of sales. A part of understanding billing software is viewing the different functions that each type of application can complete.

To understand billing software, you'll also want to look at the different terminology that companies use to package their products. Defining the key terms of billing software will broaden your knowledge of different types of accounting functions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Invoice template

An invoice template is the bare-bones layout of your bill you can pull up every time you need to issue an invoice; all you have to do is fill in the specific details of your charges. You can select the look you want for your invoices from a variety of templates.

I recommend: Read more about invoice templates on the Office-Kit.com website.

Emailing invoices

Newer billing software programs boast the ability to email invoices to customers. Instead of spending the money on postage, you can send a copy of the invoice created in the billing software program to a customer's email address.

I recommend: kBilling has an entire webpage dedicated to emailing invoices and touches upon the advantages of using this billing software feature.

Current assets

One purpose of using billing software is to keep track of your current assets. Inventory is also included in current assets. You can read summaries of your current assets within billing software applications.

I recommend: Get a definition of current assets at Investopedia.

Time tracking

Time tracking software is often included as part of billing software programs, to keep track of hours worked. Certain professions, such as lawyers, bill by the hour and require a time tracking application in order to invoice clients.

I recommend: Complete Time Tracking provides both a definition of time tracking as well as the benefits of using a software program to log hours.

Convergent billing software

Convergent billing software allows all of a customer's charges to be merged onto one bill or invoice, rather than having to issue separate invoices for separate services or product purchases.

I recommend: Find out more about convergent billing software when you go to the Agileco website.

Multi-currency

If you deal in international business transactions, then billing software that can handle multiple currencies is ideal. Be sure it can provide current exchange rates for conversions.

I recommend: DTH Solutions offers billing software with the multi-currency feature integrated.