How much does your invoice process cost?

As a small business owner, you’re used to tracking expenses and monitoring revenue, but sometimes the invoice process itself is expensive. It’s normal for larger businesses to review their processes by tracking various metrics. This helps them uncover opportunities for efficiency that small businesses like yours don’t see.

For example, have you ever calculated what it costs you to process an invoice? Probably not. As a core function of your business, you may think there’s not much you can do about it. At the end of the day, you have to send invoices, so it’s an expense you have to tolerate. That’s true, but if you never review your invoicing process, you may be unaware of the continuing creep of rising costs and the growing strain it can cause. 

At a high level, it’s easy to calculate the direct costs ‒ things like your QuickBooks subscription, credit card fees, envelopes, postage, etc. But it’s more difficult to calculate the indirect costs, which can be even more profound.

What is my process, anyway?

The simplest way to calculate indirect costs is to look at the time it takes you to write an invoice. You may think you have a rough idea of how long you need to write an invoice, but unless you’ve got a stopwatch, you’re probably underestimating. After all, it probably doesn’t feel like you spend a lot of time, but you might be surprised. On average, it takes 12 minutes to create an invoice. 

Okay, but is invoice processing that expensive?

12 minutes may not sound like much, but it adds up. Let’s say, for example, your business sends out 100 invoices a month. That’s 1,200 minutes. Put another way, 1,200 minutes = 20 hours. What that 20 hours are worth to your business may vary significantly. Perhaps it’s a major expense because the person writing your invoices has a high salary or maybe it’s just a waste of time because it prevents other work from getting done. 

Time savings = cost savings = business growth

If your time is money, how are you spending it? Are you spending it on processes? Using it to develop and innovate your business? Investing in a well-deserved break?

Taking control of your business processes is the first step to growing your company. Minor, routine tasks take time away from work that requires skills only people possess. Automation gives you that time back, removing the burden of those 20+ hours of invoicing. Let your invoices send themselves. Let your people do the work only people can do.

Nobody who processes invoices loves CSVs

Everyone dislikes manual data entry, but most small businesses believe it’s the only method available to them. If you’re like most companies, you’re probably spending multiple hours a week downloading CSV files from your bank and credit card processor, then formatting them and uploading them to QuickBooks. Again, it’s a common misperception that these invoice processes are quick and easy, or that there aren’t any alternatives. The next time you’re processing CSV files, make a note of the time being spent. Even if it doesn’t seem significant, couldn’t you be putting it to better use? 

Ready, set, grow!

By automating repetitive tasks like data entry and reconciliation, you’re doing your entire business a favor.

• You’re getting time back
• You’re saving money
• You can innovate
• You can stay competitive
• Most importantly, you can improve your cash flow

Automated invoice processing. More money with less effort

Yes. Research has shown again and again that customers pay faster when payments are easy. Automation helps you send invoices on time, as expected, with a single “pay now” link ‒ so your customers can pay right away, as soon as they see the message.

Chargezoom makes it even easier by storing the customer’s information in our vault, so they can choose between multiple payment options without re-entering their data. That’s right; your customers don’t like manual data entry either! If their account details and payment information are already on your system, they can pay in full with a single click. 

Bye-bye CSVs, hello GAAP compliance

Even better, Chargezoom can immediately reconcile payments for you, right into QuickBooks. You’ll never have to download and format a CSV file from your payment gateway ever again! We grab all the data from the gateway at the moment of purchase and securely upload it to QuickBooks, ensuring your books are GAAP compliant.

This effectively removes or reduces two processes for you: 1) you no longer have to manually reconcile payments, plus 2) you no longer have to pay your bookkeeper or CPA to sort through those details to get your books in order. It’s faster and easier for everyone to do their jobs.

With those extra hours, you can scale, pivot, and grow your bottom line. Effort wasted on repetitive tasks can be channeled into your business. The result: you get faster payments, more discounts, happier customers, and stronger revenue. You pay less but accomplish more!

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