It’s true that this is the time to stick together like never before. The COVID-19 epidemic brought about waves of unprecedented changes that the majority of today’s workforce has never experienced before. That is the reason that every freelancer, small company, or creative agency, working from home, should take full advantage of the benefits that different remote working software has to offer. Of course, useful tips to known business bumps in the road, are also needed.
The teams that are trying to adapt to working from home need an even stronger sense of organization. Managers have to monitor teamwork, the productivity rate, and time spent on different projects. At the same time, teams have to track their work accurately and invoice it fairly. Hence, the help of an invoicing and time tracking software can keep you on track, timewise, and financially.
In our guide, we have gathered all the big and small ways that Elorus can lift some business load of your shoulders while working from home. So, let’s go through our remote working suggestions to show you how Elorus can streamline your invoicing and billing processes, improve your productivity and cash flow.
1. Track, price & bill your time, the right way
Elorus supports you by offering different ways to organize your time remotely. You can manually log your hours after finishing your work if you are freelancing. You can also live time-track your working time to be sure that you and your team are on schedule. On top of the above, Elorus offers a time tracking browser extension (for Firefox and Chrome) to record your time without changing tabs on your browser.
The timesheet feature gives a complete view of the time a user has spent on various projects per day. Combined with extensive reporting, you can monitor your time per project and per assignee, amongst other options. This way, both the team members and team leaders are always up to date regarding the course of their projects.
2. Set up automated reminders
This period can be particularly stressful for businesses. In Elorus, you can create an added layer of control over your payments, invoices (recurring or not), clients, estimates, and bills with the automated reminders. Since a significant number of companies are struggling at the moment, you can introduce new rules until the quarantine measure is lifted.
A suitable set of reminders regarding more flexible payment terms for issued invoices would be a great idea. This way, Elorus will remind you of the deadlines you have established, and our clients will learn that they have more time to settle their debts. A practice like this shows compassion and forms better business relations with your client base. After all, in times of universal crisis, people should matter more than revenue and not vice versa.
Your automated reminders and other notifications will also pop up in your Slack. This is especially useful if you are not within the Elorus application at all times. Hence, you never forget any changes that you have made in the software about invoices, estimates, payments, and bills.
3. Count on secure, online payments
By all means, we should never forget the value of online payments, an overlooked but integral remote working feature in the business world. Elorus integrates with a variety of payment processors and gateways to help clients pay you within a few clicks.
PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, amongst others, stand next to you, making it easier to get remuneration for your invoices within Elorus. Your clients can always access their invoices and instantly pay through the client portal, which also provides them with valuable information on their invoices, estimates, and project progress details.
4. Make good use of the Elorus integrations
There is no such thing as successful time tracking without the use of integrations. Each team uses its own task management tools in order to keep an eye on every phase of a project. With Elorus, teams will not be forced to change processes to work from home. They will only incorporate Elorus in the same applications they have been using.
Thus, Elorus integrates with the most reliable players in the game, namely Jira, Trello, and Asana. Our integrations ensure that your tasks and projects will never be left unlogged or disorganized.
5. Keep a tight grasp on your projects
A project is comprised of many different aspects that should be monitored, besides time. Therefore, the project view page is important to the smooth functioning of your business ventures. It’s a portal to your invoices, expenses, and cash flow. So, tracking your projects sounds like a one-way street to success.
Be sure to properly track your time under your projects and record expenses related to them. Only then, you will be able to view your invoiced/uninvoiced amounts, billed/unbilled time, total billable expenses as well as a graph of your tracked hours. Last but not least, be mindful of the summary report, which has two grouping tiers and better accommodates a deeper understanding of each project.
Words of hope and perseverance
All the above pieces of advice indicate smart ways that you can proactively deal with issues that may appear when working outside your familiar office space. To mention but a few, productivity monitoring, payment control, time management, and proper invoicing are some of the business processes that require your attention.
During the COVID-19, we should all do the best we can, professionally and morally. Only then, will we be able to reach the end of the tunnel with as few financial issues as possible. Be sure to use Elorus or any other remote working software to the fullest, keep your spirit intact, and your business in check.
