The problem with invoicing?

Invoicing or billing has been lumped in with general accounts for many years. In bookkeeping you need to account for the debits and credits coming in and out. But hold on. Does invoicing have anything to with that, as it starts before any money has changed hands. Typically, you raise an invoice as a demand for payment. You can ask to pay immediately or its quite normal to give your customer a few days or a month to pay up.

The bookkeeping aspect only really occurs when you get paid. Invoicing has been lumped into accounting as tracking payments is an issue especially for larger organisations where hundreds of transactions are occurring daily. It makes sense you want to track or account for invoices that are due or overdue.

But in a small business, the accounts are usually pretty simple, and it's not a great effort to keep on top of it.' In many respects applying a full-on accounts package like Xero, Sage or QuickBooks to your simple accounts might be considered overkill.

It really doesn't help, when you need to hire an accountant to have your accounts signed off. Clearly, it's not in the best interests of your accountant, to receive a shoebox full of receipts at the end of the year, especially if they quoted a fixed price fee.' Your accountant really wants to make life easier for themselves so they might push an accounts package for you to use.

Many accountants get kickbacks from business accounts software companies, so you might be being offered a package completely unsuited to your needs.' Think about that. It's a closed loop. You have to buy software to please your accountant and accounts software company. Not great.

Also look at all the leading invoicing systems and they all push the same features. Many of these features only really save you time at scale. If you have a one-page bank statement each month, its no great shakes to input the numbers in manually. Why would I want the feature to allow my customer to pay me by PayPal. My customer does a payment run once a month. I send out invoices retrospectively. If I wanted to be paid straight away (like eCommerce transactions) I'd be paid straight away. It doesn't make sense for me.

Also, how much does your accountant do for you? Are you buying features that you'll never use as you accountant does them for you?

One of the most insidious methods software companies use is the cheap cost lure. This is known as the RyanAir method. They lure you in with '0 cost and hit you with high fees in 2 months. Or, they offer some features cheaply but then sell you critical addons for extra.

Or they say its free, but after you have signed up, you are constantly hassled to upgrade or add this or that. Its just becomes a fag.

As the saying goes'' when something is free, you' are usually the product'. A free product should be without strings attached. Without obligation to buy, and most importantly without annoying sales messages and trickery.'

Why can't it be easier, more straight forward and honest. Well, it can.

What does Envoyce do?

Envoyce is targeted specifically at people with simple accounts. These businesses may not (yet) have that much business to account for. They may be a side business, a charity, PTA or hobby business. Either way they have looked at the invoicing / billing market and said er' no thanks.

For good reason. They don't want to be indoctrinated into a larger financial corporate as a targeted customer for their other business products. Many small businesses are rightly focused on their business. The first order of the day is to get work. Then bill for it and get paid.

Envoyce is a simple web-based application that allows its customers to create professional invoices in seconds. No ads no upselling. It works really well on your desktop PC, Mac or Tablet and even better on your smartphone. Envoyce is a brand-new type of web app that you won't find in the app store. We all know how to use a web browser and Envoyce is delivered by the web. It can even be installed on your desktop and only takes a fraction of the disk space a regular app would take.

Try Envoyce and if you like it all we ask is that you to tell your friends about us.' We have all become so accustomed to predatory selling, we find it hard to see an honest deal when presented to us. Finding new customers via recommendation is way more reliable and benefits all.

Its fundamental. If you are issuing invoices to be paid in a contracted period, then there is a good chance your customer is an established organisation with its own financial systems and processes. It will be incumbent on you to issue a professional invoice with the correct information your customer might require (like a purchase order number).

How you account for it, be it stuff it in a shoebox and give to your accountant or other means, is beyond the scope of Envoyce. We just handle the creation and delivery of your invoice to your customer. Nothing you can do will speed the process of payment if you customer is unwilling.

Envoyce allows its customers to make their own arrangements to handle government business tax compliance. Many small businesses do away with accounts software and accountants completely. If you are inclined to handle your accounts manually for any reason, Envoyce could be a real boon to you.

Envoyce Benefits

This app isn't for everyone. For those that need Banking feeds, integration with accounting tools, someone who wants analysis of year-on-year payments. Then Envoyce isn't a great fit. Search for Accounts software on the Internet and many of the results will give you what you want.

Envoyce is for people who don't want to be accountants, they want to do the minimum of accounts to satisfy their accountant. Most importantly they don't want to use accountant software.

WHY DO I NEED ACCOUNTANT SOFTWARE WHEN I HAVE AN ACCOUNTANT?

It's simple. Envoyce customers don't want a completely new accounting process. They just want to create invoices easier. They do want is to be paid and on time, but know fancy software won't help that happen any quicker.

People who use Envoyce really want the minimum, and just send out Invoices to their clients. They don't want to change anything else. Its not broken.

Envoyce is for people who don't read manuals or search how to do stuff. Its just needs to work. The buttons need to be clear and the process simple.

Envoyce is for people who don't want to be punished for making a mistake. Envoyce is for people who hate be constrained by opinionated business workflow (This is how it should be done ).

One of the benefits of MS WORD invoices is that you can do anything you want. Subscribe to a fancy software package and you'll have to do it their way.

Which bring us to a message from our Sponsor.

Envoyce is actually free. Not nearly free or slightly free but 100% free. Zero risk. That’s a shock isn’t it.

Try Envoyce Free & Open Invoicing today.