It’s not every day that we endorse a product or service, but I have nothing but good things to say about Freshbooks.
Freshbooks is a web based invoicing service that helps you stay organized, track invoices, record billable time, and collect payments from your customers. The more we use it, the more we like it. Being completely web based means that we don’t have worry about a computer virus killing our billing system and database – It’s all protected off site on the Freshbooks servers. This is a big plus to anyone that has had to deal with hardware crashes.
Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning all of our clients over to this system, and for most it will be completely seamless, but some may notice a few nice changes.
Paperless Billing
We are moving toward complete paperless billing. Your invoice will arrive via email to speed up delivery, reduce any post office mishaps, and to save a few trees. Most of our customers are already receiving their invoices in this manner and it is working very well. This means less clutter on your desk and we’ll be able to track who has read their invoice and who has not. It should really help speed up the whole process and help keep our cash flow more consistent.
Due Dates
Until now, we have never printed a due date on our invoices, or felt that we had to enforce any set terms, but as our client list (and overhead) grows, it becomes a strain on your business when a several clients get 30 to 60+ days behind on payment. Our new invoices will be due net 15 in order to alleviate these problems.
Online Bill Pay
We are currently setting up the online bill pay feature of Freshbooks. On your future invoices you’ll have the option to paying your invoice immediately with a credit or debit card. We feel that these changes will not only provide more convenience to our clients, but also help maintain our cash flow so that our business can grow and provide better services for you.
We are also considering implementing recurring monthly billing via credit/debit card for our clients that are a flat rate monthly retainer or website hosting fees. Stay tuned for more updates.
