Real-Time Billing vs Month End: How to Get Payments in Faster

When providing a service or selling a product, anybody would want to get the revenue in their pocket as soon as possible, and rightly so.

A business needs to be financially sustainable and strong enough to withstand long intervals between completing the deal and getting cash income. While large companies may find it convenient to have established monthly or bi-monthly billing cycles for consistency in their processes, this may not be ideal for small businesses. If you do landscaping for the local high school, or install an air conditioning unit for a client, you likely want to bill them right when you get home.

SMBs often struggle with sluggish cash flow and delayed payments. In an inflation economy, with increasing prices on just about everything, the slowdown of funds puts additional stress on you. It becomes a delicate balancing act to make sure you cover all your operational expenses while keeping the business running. Billing immediately is one of the simplest things you can do to boost your cash turnover.

Yes, we know, the specifics of running an SMB often make it difficult to bill as soon as the work is completed, because you may not have much time for printing and mailing invoices during the month while you’re busy getting the jobs done. But we also know what can help, and we’ll tell you why you don’t need to allocate extra time and resources to do that task anymore.

Payment Due Terms Don't Start Until Invoices Are Mailed

Why adopt real-time billing? Your invoice itself is going to have some kind of payment due terms: net 10 days, or 15, or 30. The countdown doesn’t start until you get that bill out, yet you are waiting around for the end of the month to send invoices all in a batch. That adds as much as 30 days to the payment period. If you complete work at the beginning of the month and bill at its end, the time when you’re not being paid can expand to two months. That’s way too much waiting, right?

Solution: The Online Cloud-Based Mailroom

A convenient way to end this billing cycle dilemma is to use an online cloud-based mailroom. If you haven’t heard yet what it is, it’s that cashflow-profitable service that helps you mail any invoice or document via USPS right from your desktop. You need only a few minutes to send any quantity of invoices, and all that saved time can be spent on growing your business.

How to Use DocuSend

It lets you upload your invoices as PDFs to a secure online platform, then they are retrieved from there and automatically printed, stuffed in envelopes, and passed to the USPS within two business days. All that is done with a high level of accuracy and data security, and without any manual labor. In fact, machines and software do everything for you.

Best of all for your cash flow, you can easily bill a client right after the job is completed. Because there is no preparation from your side, no buying postage, printing, stuffing and stamping envelopes, trips to the post office, and no extras like contracts, fees for use, or minimum of invoices that you can send (it can be even one), billing in real time becomes very easy. Just send that invoice, then relax and forget about it.

Isn’t That More Expensive than Manual Mailing?

Not at all. Automated distribution via DocuSend cuts your usual expenses on materials and postage by half compared to the traditional method. How? First, DocuSend purchases all the materials in bulk, and second, all our users’ mail is sent as presorted First Class automation, which means bulk prices for every user, even the small businesses that have only a handful of invoices to send. Otherwise, they would have to pay full price for regular, stamped correspondence.

But even big companies that have high enough postal volumes for presorted automation mail discounts can benefit from this solution that eliminates some old tedious and costly practices, for example, scheduling specific employees or departments to handle invoicing, or spending time on custom programming and data mapping. It doesn’t matter whether there is one document or thousands – the DocuSend mailroom is an efficient way to send out any number right away, as easily as sending an email.

It is compatible with any accounting software; you can upload the PDFs of your documents right after creating them. The technology eliminates the need for additional data mapping and the delays associated with the approval process.

Other things worth mentioning are no stocking of paper and envelopes, no maintaining printers, and no leasing equipment. In short, you’ll free up your office space from all that clutter and avoid unnecessary expenses. There is also no software to download and maintain. But that’s not all. There are additional factors that help those funds hit your account quicker.

Streamlined Preparation and Delivery for Faster Payments

Let’s start with enhanced address accuracy. NCOA (National Change of Address) service and address cleanup are added bonuses at no extra charge. These services ensure that your mailing addresses are current and their format is correct, so the invoices reach the intended destination.

Each invoice is enhanced with an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb). For a small business that sends only 10 invoices a day or even less than that, there is no way they can get a barcode on them to speed up delivery. We organize that for them.

What Is an IMb?

We complete each of your client’s addresses with a barcode for ease of processing. The documents are ready to go along the destined route right away and can skip the steps of being scanned and sorted at a postal facility. This means faster delivery, which in turn increases the probability of getting paid in a shorter term.

You’re in the Driver’s Seat

Your personal online portal allows you to control your billing process, review your mailing activity for the past six months, and track your bills’ journey through USPS facilities right up to the final delivery points. It means no more guessing about where your invoice is within the postal system. Need to resend an invoice? You can do that directly from the portal, either as paper mail or email.

The Mailing Metamorphosis

There is a tendency among users that adopt mailing automation. Many companies start using us once a month, adhering to their traditional routine. However, once they discover how effortless and quick it is to use DocuSend, they start uploading their invoices weekly, daily, or with any frequency they prefer. The end of the month is not such a big deal anymore, when you can spread your invoicing over a month and watch payments come in quicker.

Embracing this new way of billing, businesses may find themselves wondering how they ever managed without it. Have you already tried it, or maybe are planning to try it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.