Business entities are in need of online invoicing software and its various automation. With some help from their software, professionals can make sure that their projects include well-calculated invoices before sending them to their clients.
In a previous post, we discussed all the winning project practices that lead to optimal project management. Equally perplexing is projecting billing, especially if you manage multiple projects. Thus, finding the best software for your business needs with integrated time tracking and automated invoicing processing will strengthen the way you bill your projects. In turn, this will stabilize your revenue and help with invoice and project financial management.
In this post, you can find out how invoicing and billing features can enhance project management. Read on and discover how the right software can streamline working processes for your business.
The benefits of different billing methods
There are different ways to bill a project. Choosing a billing method depends on the project agreement made between the contractor and the client. The most usual ways to bill clients are based on a fixed cost, hourly rate, or assignee hourly rate. Thus, you can either charge $700 in total for a project regardless of the number of hours, $60 per hour for every team member or set different hourly rates for all users involved. Therefore, setting automatic billing options will inform the software that it’s time to do the appropriate invoicing calculations, according to the chosen billing method. Eventually, your invoicing management skills will improve, and your revenue will too.
Quicker & effective project invoicing
In essence, invoicing can be a pretty time-consuming process. Especially professionals like designers, consultants, and developers, should be able to track time easily and accurately. Poor time tracking will reflect on invoicing, and this will cost you a part of your revenue. Software that unites invoicing, time tracking, and project management features offer a complete management solution.
Being able to track billable time and convert it into an invoice is essential. At the same time, tracking project expenses and billing them in that same invoice comes in handy. Let’s not forget that you should pair project-related billable hours, bills, and expenses with employee labor costs and revenue. Then, all this data will paint an even fuller picture of your projects. So, never underestimate the power of tracking your projects and their different facets.
By reviewing all the different project information centralized on the project view page, you can invoice your work within a few clicks. In turn, the software will auto-fill the invoice with the hours and expenses you have tracked. The sum of hours and the rates of the chosen project billing method will be combined accordingly. Additionally, you will be able to issue multiple invoices if you want to separate the project into different invoices per time period.
Financial health improvement
Apart from delivering faultless professional invoices and setting suitable budgets, online invoicing facilitates project financial management. Knowing your allocated time, project expenses, and costs give you insights into your finances. This way, you can identify excessive spending and manage your budgets better. You can also find out if you are using the right billing method for your projects. Depending on the workload, team members, or clients, another billing method could be easier to follow and more profitable for your business.
No more invoicing miscalculations/ mistakes
Throughout the duration of a project, from start to finish, they are points where you can make mistakes, as humans do. Teams cannot trust their memory at all times. Instead, tracking their time will result in a better understanding of their work. In parallel, managers should not be going through the invoice management process unassisted. Invoices may be overdue, hours miscounted, or not properly updated. All the above are just a few reasons why invoicing automation like custom reminders are extremely useful.
A project manager’s ultimate goals are gathering the correct information, issuing precise invoices, and making sure that they get paid on time. By choosing the right software for your business, you get the opportunity to avoid invoicing errors to save time and money while protecting your business's reputation.
As we conclude this post, the importance of automated project invoicing should be stressed. Businesses, working on a project basis, need to have strong invoicing features backing up their work. First, by creating auto-filled professional invoices without errors, and secondly by giving managers the chance to set reminders about payments, invoices, and clients. So, is solid invoicing, billing, and project financial management exactly what you have been looking for? If the answer is yes, then starting with a free Elorus account will put you on the right path.
