How to Get Invoices Paid On Time

So what are some of the way you can get your invoices paid faster and on time. One of the first ways is to create a contract, nothing fancy, just a document that outlines what you're going to do for your customer and how you expect to get paid for it. It should outline what signifies completion of the word and how soon after that you expect to get paid. This usually is called the 'terms' of the invoice.

Always be nice

Getting paid may be your right, but it certainly never hurts to be thankful and a very oft quoted study says so. If you put please and thank you in your invoice copy and in all of your communications with customers they will pay faster. I suppose this is just common sense, but I think when we're thinking of things owed to us it doesn't always occur to us to say thank you. Be sure that you do, you're bank account will thank you.

Call your customer after you send out the invoice

This serves two purposes, one it allows you to verify they got the invoice and for them to acknowledge that they did. It will make it hard for them to say they never got it later if they become past due. Also it allows you to ask them if they have any questions or concerns about the invoice. Simple questions routinely hold up invoice payments and getting these resolved up front can go a long way.

The carrot not the stick

A lot of articles will tell you to charge late fees or put interest charges on the invoice, but we believe this is the wrong way to go. It takes a negative or defensive stance with every customer and no one likes to be threatened. So if you want incent customers to pay their invoices on time give them a benefit for doing so or better yet a slight discount if they pay early. Remember the tip above, keep it on the sunny side.

Make payment easy

On all of your communication make sure and provide one click electronic payment options. If every reminder e-mail has a an easy "click here to pay" link you will collect a lot more than if the customer has to go track down how to pay their bill with you. You may even find many invoices get paid early because your invoice is ready announcements and your invoice is almost due reminder also carries your handy pay now link.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, it is. That's why we created InvoiceSherpa to help take these best practices and make them an automated solution your business can employ to get paid faster and drive better cash flow. Give us a try today, we know you're bank account will thank you!