invoicing monthly payments

[creospace]

If you have sold something to someone on a monthly basis do you issue an invoice to them every month or an you issue one invoice noting the total of 12 months payments.

If you do the latter I guess there might be a problem if they default on one payment.

The reason for my asking thinking is if you have a lot of people paying monthly and it's a small amount via standing order or dd the admin burden to issue an invoice every month is huge.

What’s the best way to handle it?

 

[Rob Holmes]

We issue monthly invoices for people that want to pay monthly and annual payments for people who want to pay annually.

Granted that someone sending you £3 a month every month is a hassle, and for this sort of amount we would ask for an electronic settlement rather than a cheque coming through each month.

At the end of the day (apart from it getting dark) I let people pay in a way that we both understood was best for them - sometimes I had to explain things so they paid annually (a £3 cheque per month is heavy admin for them too), sometimes we just had an understanding that invoices will get settled when the account balance reaches a certain level etc..

I guess I let them do this because they were clients rather than customers.

Hope this helps,

Rob

 

[creospace]

Ok looks like I need to have the burden then, automated pdf --> email invoicing would be the best solution then.

Of course the bank statement reconciliation would also be a nightmare.

Thanks

Gary

 

[Rob Holmes]

Ok looks like I need to have the burden then, automated pdf --> email invoicing would be the best solution then.

Of course the bank statement reconciliation would also be a nightmare.

Thanks

Gary

We used Kashflow for a while - it was excellent for this.

Rob

 

[The Bookkeeper]

Had you considered using a bookkeeper to take away this burden?

 

[garyk]

I was working for a telecoms company we used to bill monthly using some billing software which would raise invoices and automatically email them in PDF format and then create two export files; one to send to a DD bureau (using a bureau for DDs is a breeze) and one to import those invoices into Sage Line 50. I then wrote an add-on for Line 50 which would then take the DD payments file, post the payments into Sage and automatically allocate the payments to the invoices. Job done all electronic and very very smooth!

Gary

 

[creospace]

Had you considered using a bookkeeper to take away this burden?

No but I might, but if I can build a system that services clients and auto generates invoices and emails them to clients then I will.

I'm trying to get confirmation that there is no easier way then billing them monthly basically.

 

[creospace]

Ah well garyk , great minds think alike

 

[Pebble Communications]

If they are really small monthly payments could you consider making them quarterly payments instead?

 

Or set up a monthly direct debit, limited to when the last payment is made?

 

[bwglaw]

We ask clients to pay the annual fees in advance. Perhaps you can set down an invoicing structure that all bills under £10/month (or equivalent to) are invoiced in advance.

The fewer transactions going through your accounts the better. You need to bear in mind the costs of clients paying monthly because the bank's charges will eat into it.

Jonathan