If you issue invoices to other businesses, it’s becoming more imperative that you switch over to eInvoicing.
If you still email PDFs, or (heaven forbid) mail paper invoices, you’re late to the party and are missing out on some easy gains.
Even more significant is that the Australian government has mandated the internal use of eInvoicing from 1 July 2022. Discussions are also being had around the mandatory nature of eInvoicing for all businesses, although no announcements or decisions have been made.
So, if you want to get paid faster and gain some meaningful time savings while achieving enhanced visibility and accuracy – eInvoicing is for you.
EInvoicing is the process of sending an invoice directly from your accounting software to your business client’s software, such as a supplier.
You simply enter the information in your cloud accounting (or invoicing) software and hit send. This invoice will then appear in your client’s own solution. Your client can settle the invoice immediately with a few clicks.
This software-to-software eInvoicing method stands in opposition to outdated manual or paper-based invoicing.
Watch our webinar: eInvoicing is here: Is your business ready?
Let’s run through the chief benefits of ditching your outmoded invoicing practices and embracing eInvoicing.
The primary concern of small businesses that get paid through invoicing is the long payment turnaround times.
Getting paid faster is probably the most important concern for such businesses, as late payments are the direct cause of serious cash flow problems and financial strain.
With eInvoicing you gain complete oversight over the invoicing process and will know precisely where an invoice sits in the workflow.
You’ll know exactly when your client both receives and reads your invoice and can report on your accounts receivable with ease.
Since your invoicing functionality is also sitting within your accounting software, you can see your entire financial position at a glance.
Since eInvoicing removes much of the manual data entry processes inherent in regular invoicing, the occurrence of errors is considerably reduced.
When you no longer have to create, document, email and chase your invoices, your time savings will be considerable.
After you’ve set up a client in your software, all their details are saved, and you only need to input the values of the invoice.
Automatic reminders also remove the tedious task of manually emailing or calling your client to prompt them to pay.
With eInvoicing you’re able to quickly fire off an invoice from anywhere, on any mobile device. This means you can be on the job and have the ability to invoice your client right there and then.
Transmitting an invoice through eInvoicing is far more secure than older practices. The Peppol network (which handles the transmission of an invoice) is a highly secure network that eclipses the security of both email and traditional file storage. This will help reduce both fraud and data theft.
The process has certainly begun—and consultation is underway. With the Australian federal government announcing they will mandate the use of eInvoicing within their own government departments from 1 July 2022, the writing is certainly on the wall.
As with the recent mandating of Single Touch Payroll, we may well see similar rules in place for invoicing in the not-too-distant future. Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and not only be ready for such changes but to also reap the inarguable business benefits of eInvoicing.
We’re excited to announce that we’re now eInvoicing ready across our Reckon One and Reckon Accounts Hosted solutions.
At Reckon we are more than just accounting software, we aim to help small businesses build the foundation to grow and succeed – easy and affordable compliance is an essential part of this.
