Invoicing is foundational for any company because the strategy also requires accuracy and timeliness. Get into wrong and you won’t get paid or you’ll get paid later for the products or services, which really impacts your income. And after you don’t get paid, you can’t compensate your employees or cover your overhead.
Errors within the invoicing software process may additionally fan the flames of customer suspicions about your business practices. Repeated errors will raise these potential red flags even higher and force your customers to rethink whether or not they have to undertake to try and do business with you (or not).
The good news is that there are steps you’ll bear in mind to cut back invoice errors and instill a high rate of confidence within your customer base.
6 Invoicing Problems and Solutions:
- Confusing Invoices:
If an incorrect or confusing invoice has been sent, so the business must be having an issue with a cancellation invoice with its own, new invoice number. This may include a negative invoice amount, furthermore because of the original invoice number and therefore the date it absolutely was issued. Then, an accurate invoice is raised with a distinct invoice number.
Circumvent this problem by being as clear as much possible together with the invoicing language and format and by using the initial order (PO), job quote, or other documentation to return up along with your descriptions. Making an invoice very easy to know as possible, but the approval of the process will go more smoothly because both the accounting department then the approver understand exactly what they’re paying for.
- Errors within the Invoice:
The most common way to fix the mistake is to cancel an invoice with a credit note. Credit notes are legal documents that are used to pay an invoice that needs to be canceled and balance your books.
You can minimize or eliminate invoice errors by using an automatic financial platform that does the mathematics for you, alerts you when form fields are left vacant, and incorporates customer-specific requirements, like that required PO number. If you’re able to manage invoices manually then make certain to double-check your math and make sure that each one of your fields is filled out before sending.
- Missing Data:
If you want your invoices to be paid on time and without the requirement for extra human intervention, they need to be accurate. When the data of the customers require being able to proceed with the invoices and if that is missing, there’s an honest chance your payment will fall to the rear of the road until someone figures out the matter.
For example, Missing invoices are those invoices that come to light when a vendor calls AP posing for payment status and when AP investigates, they find that the invoice in question was never posted to the AP system. This can be not only may be a waste of the AP department’s time but it may also cause duplicate invoices to urge paid.
Having consistent, updated data across your systems is crucial, which is why it helps to possess an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) to tie it all directly. Your automated system should flag these varieties of issues for you, otherwise, you’ll review them by hand to form sure all fields are filled in with logical, relevant information. Either way, have a process in situ to thoroughly review invoice data before hitting send.
- Wrong or Missing Contact Information:
Most companies have a selected email box or employee to receive all incoming invoices. Larger companies are having multiple people handling this task across various corporate divisions.
Solve the problem proactively by confirming—and reconfirming—the correct recipient for your invoices, knowing that there could even be multiple different employees assigned to your account, counting on the diversification of your products and services. Also realize that individuals move in new positions or leave companies altogether, so review and update contacts on a daily schedule, say every six to 12 months.
If you’re making any invoicing mistakes outlined during the text time then give some thought that how to solves these seemingly minor errors and how it is impacting your income and the bottom line. Perhaps more importantly, consider how they’re negatively impacting your customer relationships. To correct a slip on a handwritten invoice you have got already given to a customer, write a corrected version, mail it with a note explaining the correction, and keep copies of both the inaccurate and corrected invoices.
- Recurring Invoice Mistakes:
When recurring mistakes happen over and over, then they end in mistrust within your customer base. When a finance person must take the time to circle back and determine the matter through personal finance software, determine what number cycles were affected, calculate the mandatory adjustments and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
If businesses haven’t any proper foundation in situ for sending out invoices, they’ll find themselves sending the invoices to the incorrect person or department. Thanks to the accounts payable processes, they’re going to only find themselves getting their payment delayed. Make sure that the main points on the invoices are accurate.
- Missing Invoices:
If invoices aren’t aiming at their intended recipients, they’re not visiting to induce paid. And if you’re using net 30 payment terms along with your customers—and you don’t receive automatic confirmations of receipt—then it should be a month or more before you even realize that the invoice is missing. This might significantly impact income, to not mention force you to start out the invoicing process everywhere again.
Avoid this problem by using financial software that’s not only automatically mails or sends invoices to the correct person in your customer’s accounts payable department, but that will also provide you with a warning when the invoice has been opened and viewed by others. Confirm the right email address is expounded to each customer’s account which has often been checked for unviewed invoices. That’s an indication that they’re not being received or reviewed. Looked for an automatic system that will be set to flag and supply you with a warning when invoices have gone unviewed for a selected period of some time.
Author Bio:
Advika Apte is a serial entrepreneur at Techimply, with writing experience for the Accounting Software and Retail Software technology-driven field. She’s keen to share her knowledge on a few technology-related topics with readers that can assist any kind of business. Her passion for helping others keeps her motivated.
