Automatic invoicing is a powerful tool to fight late payments. Late payments kill – one out of four SMEs in Europe go bankrupt because of late payments. Automatic invoicing makes your billing process smoother, delights customers, and saves you time and money. Though not a new concept, many businesses are yet to fully tap into it. Unlike regular paper invoices, e-invoices are easier and faster to process. They reach customers more quickly and can be stored in a central cloud-based platform at a very low cost. In this blog, we tell you a bit more about what it is and how it helps your business, especially if you are a SME.
What is Automated Invoicing?
An automated invoice or e-invoice is like a regular invoice that you issue your buyer or supplier. But it comes in a structured digital format, as defined in Directive 2014/55/EU. Basically, it is a digital file that contains structured data that can be automatically exchanged and processed by accounting and ERP systems. E-invoicing fully automates and streamlines the invoicing process from start to end. It frees up your accounts payable resources, saving your time, effort, and money. A point to note is that a PDF invoice (scanned from a paper invoice) and sent by email does not count as an e-invoice. That’s because it can’t be issued or processed digitally.
Why Automated Invoicing is Better for SMEs?
E-invoicing is secure, cost-effective, and efficient in many ways. From better cash flow to secure document and data exchange, here’s why they make sense for your business:
1. Get paid faster
2. Save time, save money
3. Enhance CX
4. Improve compliance
1. Get paid upto 3x faster
Automatic invoicing provides a single platform for managing all accounts payable data and processes. They digitize billing data into a structured format, which can be easily and quickly exchanged between your and your customer’s accounting systems. This means processing, approving, and tracking invoices becomes much faster. At the same time, e-invoicing makes sending auto-reminders in case of a late payment easier.
2. Save time and money
E-invoicing reduces costs and errors related to the manual processing of invoices. This removes complexity and frees up time and resources for other tasks. Automating the invoicing process makes it easier to track all payment related info in real-time. Hence, you can easily monitor your accounts in an efficient way. It also improves your audit process because end-to-end financial data is available. All of this makes your business more efficient, thus saving you time and money.
3. Enhance CX and brand value
Automatic invoicing allows you to add a personal brand touch to your billing process and improve CX. It allows you to personalize or localize your invoices to help your customers connect with your brand. For example, you can add your logo, colours and layout to all customer-facing documents and your user interface so that they reflect your brand’s values when you use Novalnet’s solution.
4. Improve security and compliance
Trust is key to establish a relationship with your customers. Automatic invoicing keeps customer billing and payment data safe in secure archives. This enhances trust and transparency. You also ensure compliance and win the confidence of partners and regulators. Novalnet’s solution helps you archive and retrieve your invoices in various formats using our secure, audit-ready storage system. You can set up user access levels to protect your documents from unauthorised access. Our version control system allows you to access previous versions securely. Our solution covers all secure archiving requirements and complaint with all legal regulations in the EU.
How can Novalnet Help?
We’ve made payment solutions simple so that you can avail the best of technology for your business, no matter where you are. As trusted advisors to Europe’s leading brands on all things payments, our state-of-the-art technologies and methods help businesses like yours accept payments globally. From our instant payment plug-ins to our AI-based risk management tools, we have the resources to get you up and running with your payments in a short time, and with zero hassle.
Reach out to us today to know more about how we can help your business.
Jose Augustine is the Chief Business Development Officer at Novalnet with extensive experience in European payment industry and a knowledge powerhouse.