What Invoicing Mistakes Always Make by New Business
Every new small medium size business owner should know the importance of timely and paid bills to their bottom line.
Billing is one of the most important processes for any business or enterprise. Mistakes made during the invoicing process can result in the loss of money or give the business an unwanted image since it shows a lack of seriousness as well as professionalism; on the other hand, it could also cause a disaster in your business by not having a good order of invoices.
In this article, we explain to you which are the invoicing mistakes that new businesses always make, either because they do not have knowledge of the correct way to process the invoice or simply because they are not paying the necessary attention at the time of invoicing.
-Mistake when filling in the data in the billing:
Although it sounds hard to believe, making a mistake when filling in the customer's details is a very common mistake.
-Do not check the invoice before sending it:
This is another error that, like filling in the data, happens all the time. It is something that does not show professionalism, so it is advisable to avoid it at all costs.
You should make sure to review the invoice as many times as necessary before it is sent, from your customer's name to the total payment, reviewing each product you have invoiced.
Please note that if you are using a billing program, you should not and cannot delete an invoice that has already been issued, even if it contains errors. You must issue a credit note and then create a new, error-free invoice.
-Do not take care of the presentation of invoices:
Invoices should not have misspellings, smudges or studs, because the invoices are like a business card. This is why you must avoid sending a bad image of your business through invoices.
-Do not bill at the moment:
Businesses or companies are dependent on invoices being collected, which makes sending them in the shortest possible time very important.
This way you can also get paid at the right time and avoid the accumulation of unpaid invoices, which could affect your business in a very negative way.
-Send the invoice to another customer by mistake:
This is another mistake that new businesses usually make, but this is a very unfortunate one because you would be revealing your customer's confidential information to someone else, as well as revealing business deals, whether they are discounts or special prices.
This means that it would be a violation of the law to send the invoice to another customer in error if you had signed a privacy clause with your customer.
It is recommended that if your client is a larger company with many employees, you send the invoice to the responsible person, which is not always the salesperson with whom you closed the deal.
On the other hand, it is also highly recommended that your invoices are numbered, to manage them more quickly and efficiently.
-Do not detail well what has been billed:
The more explained and detailed the invoice is, the easier it will be to understand. This is fundamental when what you offer are services, in that you must detail each of the services you have provided, their duration and also the amount.
As far as product sales are concerned, the unit price must be included. Finally, you must include any relevant discounts or other clauses.
-Not having placed the due date on the invoice:
Not indicating a due date may cause certain problems when claiming payment of the invoice, this will also make it more difficult to track the status of the invoice.
-Not having explained the payment method to the customer:
It is important to include the form of payment that the customer will have to use to pay the import of the invoice. This will help facilitate the payment process and also simplify it.
-Not having customized the invoices:
Personalizing the invoices will serve as a promotional method for your business, as well as help you improve your business or company's brand.
The name of the business or company must be added along with its logo to give it a character of its own.
You must not forget that this is a formal document, which means that these elements must be the right size for the invoice.
-Include in the invoice charges that were not agreed with the client:
Although we are talking about a practice that, unfortunately, some companies use, which is to add charges on the invoices to the customers without having negotiated it before making the sale; this is considered a scam and as a consequence, it could bring you many problems.
To avoid all these problems and complaints, the conditions of each of the sales you make must be completely clear to both you and your client before issuing the invoice.
-Not having made copies of the invoices:
In addition to keeping all the bills that have been issued, you must also make sure that you make a copy of each one and keep it. This way you can claim any unpaid bills in case you have lost them.
Keeping the copies will also help you to have them ready for any claims by the Inland Revenue.
-Do not keep track of unpaid invoices:
Just because you process a bill and then send it off does not guarantee you'll get paid. For this reason, you should keep a periodic follow-up of each of the invoices to take into account which ones have exceeded their due date.
Also, this will help you to contact the client, to ask him/her the reason for the non-payment and then to take the measures you consider necessary, which could be to offer him/her a few extra days to make the payment or to allow him/her to make the payment by other means; in serious cases, to make the necessary claims.
There are many billing errors that new businesses always make, but this does not mean that they cannot be avoided. Having a billing program will help you easily minimize these errors in the billing procedure of your business.