FreshBooks: Get Your Invoices Paid Faster
If you’re a freelancer or run a small business, then getting paid for your work is a top priority. Unfortunately, it isn’t always that simple.
When it’s time to bill a client, you might find yourself spending hours creating an invoice before you send it out. Throughout the process, you wonder: How can I get paid faster? Will the client pay promptly? Did they even see your invoice?
It can be a struggle to go through all of these steps while appearing professional at the same time.
If you’ve been having a hard time using make-shift solutions such as Word, Excel, or other programs to create invoices, FreshBooks Cloud Accounting is an ideal solution.
Use FreshBooks to:
· Quickly set up invoices
· Send invoices by email
· Accept credit card payments
· See when clients have viewed their invoices
· Set up recurring payments
· Send reminders for unpaid invoices
Besides the invoicing features, you can track business expenses, log your time on projects, and generate reports for your accountant. No matter what type of business you run, FreshBooks lets you spend less time on bookkeeping and more time doing what you love.
Their software is incredibly easy to use, effective, and secure. As long as you have a desktop, phone, or tablet and internet access, you can see your FreshBooks account wherever you go.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can use FreshBooks for your business.
1. Create and send recurring invoices.
If you need to create a professional-looking invoice for your client, FreshBooks has you covered. After creating a new invoice, you can choose from one of their templates and customize as needed.
Once your invoice is set up, you can either save it as a draft or send it right away by email.
Clients can pay with credit card, letting you receive payments online. If you work for a client on a regular basis, you can set the invoice to deliver on a weekly, monthly, or custom schedule.
2. Send reminders on unpaid invoices.
Waiting for your client to pay is stressful. It’s even harder to when you need to follow up and figure out what to say.
FreshBooks takes off the pressure with their Late Payment Reminders. You can configure reminders to automatically send out to clients at customizable intervals after the invoice date. Personalize the message to gently remind clients of unpaid invoices.
To encourage prompt payment, you can automatically add late fees to unpaid invoices. The fee can be set to a percentage of the invoice amount or a flat fee.
3. See when clients have viewed your invoice.
Tired of wondering whether the client got your invoice? FreshBooks has a feature where you can view the full history of the invoice. Whenever a client opens the invoice, it goes from Sent to Viewed, and the date that the client viewed the invoice is recorded.
Using this information, you can decide the next steps and how to phrase your follow-up message to the client. Get rid of the guessing games once and for all.
4. Organize your expenses.
Keeping track of all your receipts is a pain. Since FreshBooks keeps your information in the cloud, you can connect your bank and credit card accounts to FreshBooks. This way, your spending gets updated automatically. You can also snap a picture of a receipt and record it in your account.
And of course, there’s the matter of taxes. Running your own business means you can deduct a number of expenses from your income. FreshBooks keeps track of all your expenses and helps you categorize them to help you maximize your tax deductions.
5. Track hours worked.
As a business owner, your time is valuable. To make sure your hours are spent productively, you can use FreshBooks to log in your time. If you charge by the hour, FreshBooks can generate invoices from your time logs.
Using the Weekly View of your time entries, you can see how your time was spent, which projects and clients are draining too much time, and how to optimize your schedule.
6. Use reports to see how your business is doing.
FreshBooks instantly creates financial reports that let you know how your business is performing. It’s incredibly useful for insight into your sales numbers, your business expenses, and whether your business is running a profit.
When it’s tax time, you can also send reports and information to your accountant. Since everything is kept in one place, it’s easy to file your taxes and provide your accountant or bookkeeper with all the necessary information needed.
Use FreshBooks to Make Billing Quick and Easy
Invoicing clients can be tricky. Getting paid on time? Even more so. That’s why FreshBooks has features in mind for the small business owner, such as online invoicing, automatic reminders for unpaid invoices, and a history of when clients have viewed your invoices.
You can easily organize your expenses and quickly generate reports for tax time. Spend less time on invoicing and bookkeeping, and more time on your actual business. If you’re interested, you can try FreshBooks free for 60 days.
