Most beginner business-owners are underestimating the importance of proper invoicing, which in our eyes is a number one mistake that someone can do. Even if your company ends up doing amazing work and has a really dedicated group of employees, if invoicing doesn’t function properly, you are risking the collapse of your foundation. This translated means going out of business, and that’s not what we want.
Proper invoicing speaks professionalism and experience, which are the two most important things that attract investors and partners. It’s crucial to learn how to do this properly as soon as possible.
This is why in today’s article we’ll talk about the most common invoicing problems that are known nowadays, and how you can prevent them from happening. Looking to learn more? Now’s the right time to do so. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.
1. Your invoices are not reaching the recipients
This is obviously the first and most serious problem that you can have. If your invoices are not reaching the recipients then you have an issue that needs urgent attention. Since nowadays most of us are sending invoices virtually, whether through an e-mail or any other form of electronic communication, you should pay a lot of attention to your systems and how you design them. Having an automated invoice creator and sender is great, but does it work as flawlessly in practice as it does on paper? Investing in good financial software that takes care of this without any mistakes is quite a good idea.
2. Your invoice is not clear enough in terms of design
Nobody wants to receive a wall of text that’s not formatted properly and looks like something that you found on a really cheaply-designed website. Invoices need to be clear, and they shouldn’t take more than a few seconds for the recipient to understand what they need to pay for, how much they need to pay, and who they’re sending their money to. We’ll say that the easiest way of dealing with this is by getting a well-made template. Doing so will save you a lot of time, as you can just change the key things and you’re done. However, you really need to make sure that the template you found is solid and to discover how to do that, and some other things as well read more here.
3. There are missing data in your invoice
If there are missing data in your voice then the invoice is basically unusable. Everything that you’ll find on a good invoice template is required for one invoice to be functional. The address or the contact information for example, are both things that shouldn’t be missing, and there are many others as well. But, did we mention that missing data in your invoice is going to make most recipients send the invoice back or count is as invalid? Don’t forget to add other things such as when the payment is due and what are some of the next steps if the recipient doesn’t end up paying the required sum on time. Some invoices include information about early-pay discounts and late-pay penalties. The most terrifying thing that can happen is to send an invoice that was meant for a previous purchase, including a wrong price and a wrong item listing, which unfortunately is the case with most unsophisticated automated invoice software.
4. Typos and other errors show unprofessionalism
It’s especially irresponsible to have typos in your invoice nowadays when we live in an age where computer programs can correct all of these things for us. Grammarly or other popular spell checkers cost just a few hundred dollars on a yearly basis, which for a business is not even close to much. And, if you don’t have the budget for that, simply spending more time to check for any typos or errors before you issue out your invoice template is more than enough.
Obviously, this gets a bit difficult if you are a company that needs to come up with hundreds of different invoices on a weekly or monthly basis, but that’s why we have pre-built templates that are here to save the day, such as the one we recommended earlier in the article. Typos show the exact opposite of professionalism. You shouldn’t allow yourself to send an invoice with typos or other errors ever.
5. Repeating mistakes that don’t seem to stop
If there’s something wrong with your automated invoice system, and you constantly get reports for reoccurring mistakes, then you need to switch things up as soon as you can. Invoices are more than enough to show whether a company is professional or not, so if you are really looking to prove yourself in the industry, you can’t send imperfect invoices, especially not with reoccurring mistakes. But, this is not only crucial for image and how you look in the eyes of your customers or partners. Invoice mistakes can end up causing huge economic losses, which is pretty scary. Perhaps you recently bumped up the prices of your products but the database isn’t properly refreshed, so your automated invoice software is issuing out payment requests for a lot cheaper? That’s a possible scenario.
6. Inaccurate contact information or missing logo
Last but not least, if somebody wants to contact you regarding anything with the invoice, they need to know how, and they also need to see who they’re contacting, which is obviously done through a logo. Your logo is what represents the company and everything the company does. We still haven’t found an invoice without a logo that comes from a proper, reputable company. Although it doesn’t seem like much, believe us, it is much. Never send an invoice without contact information and a logo, it leaves the impression of you being a not so serious company.
Conclusion
Since most of us nowadays use automated invoice computer programs, it’s sometimes really easy to mess things up. But, if you are a smaller business and you’re designing your own invoices, these are the top six mistakes you need to look out for.
