Many small businesses and freelancers start issuing invoices with Word or Excel. Initially, this makes quite a lot of sense – you already know how to use them and they’re already installed on your computer. But as your business grows, you’ll soon realise that Word and Excel aren’t the best options for invoicing, simply because that isn’t what they’re designed for.
On the other hand, while it might seem like an unnecessary expense to pay for an additional program just for invoicing, investing in invoicing software is the smarter option in the long run, not least because specialist software has many options and functions that simply aren’t available in Word or Excel – including these 7 important features.
1. Invoicing for customers in other countries
Even if you’re used to creating and sending invoices, it can be difficult to know what to do if you have to invoice a customer abroad. This might involve issuing invoices in another language, or it might mean using a multi-currency invoice template.
If you’re still creating invoices with Word or Excel, your only options for translating an invoice are to learn the language or use Google Translate, which isn’t always the most accurate or reliable. And if you need to change the currency, you’ll need to manually make adjustments to your invoice template and find out the latest exchange rate.
Using invoicing software like Debitoor saves you from the headaches of translating languages or calculating conversion rates. Simply select your preferred currency and you’ll be given the day’s exchange rate. And to change the language, all you need to do is find a language in the drop-down list and your invoice will be translated instantly
2. Automatic recurring invoices
It’s pretty common to make regular sales of the same goods or services. In these situations, you don’t want to spend time issuing the same invoice over and over again. And while you can copy a file with Word and Excel, you still need to make manual adjustments to the date and invoice number.
With invoicing software, you can automate your recurring invoices with just a few clicks. Choose how frequently to send the invoice and how many invoices to issue. Your software will either create the invoices for you to send manually or deliver recurring invoices according to your schedule.
3. Easy invoice designer
It’s always a good idea make sure that your invoices fit your brand. But if you don’t have a background in design, it can be difficult to achieve this. While you can easily download invoice templates for Word and Excel, it’s much more difficult to adjust the layout or design.
On the other hand, Debitoor makes it easy to upload your logo, include a header, and adjust the colours and fonts of your invoice template. Plus, if you want to show or hide specific information, you can change this with just one click, so there’s no need to spend ages adjusting your invoice templates.
4. Secure data back-up with the cloud
When you run a business, you’re responsible for keeping complete, accurate records of your company’s finances. This means that you need an invoicing system that can ensure that your invoices don’t get lost or destroyed. It’s an unfortunate reality that computers and laptops can get stolen, be damaged by a spilt cup of coffee, or even corrupted by a virus. And we’ve all experienced Word or Excel crashing and losing our data...
But with invoicing software that runs in the cloud, you can be confident that your financial data will be secure. As your data is backed up remotely, you’ll still have complete access to your data if something happens to one of your devices.
5. Documents to supplement your invoices
The sales process has a few different stages – from providing an initial estimate of the price to chasing up overdue payments. You therefore need to issue several different documents to supplement your invoices, such as quotes, credit notes, payment receipts, and delivery notes.
If you’re invoicing with Word or Excel, you’ll need to find templates for each of these types of documents and create a manual system for managing the sales process from start to finish. On the other hand, invoicing software like Debitoor streamlines this entire process. For example, if you create a quote that is accepted by your customer, it takes just a few clicks to convert the quote to an invoice. And once the customer has paid, you can issue a payment receipt in seconds.
6. Instant, accurate taxes
Everyone makes mistakes, which is why Word and Excel have an ‘Undo’ button. But when it comes to invoicing, a small error can end up being quite costly. Not only can the wrong information have implications for your tax returns, it can also mean doing a lot of extra work to undo your mistakes.
One of the easiest mistakes to make is calculating sales taxes such as VAT and GST. Fortunately, invoicing software like Debitoor applies your tax rates automatically, calculating the exact amount due for each line, as well as the total amount of tax due.
7. Invoicing and accounting: fully integrated
Invoicing is fundamentally linked to accounting as invoices represent the sales side of your cash flow. So if you create invoices with Word or Excel, you’ll need to find a way of integrating these documents into your accounting system.
On the other hand, any invoices you create with Debitoor will automatically be reflected in your financial reports, so you don’t need to spend a long time manually calculating and recording the money your business has generated. Simply go to the ‘Reports’ section, choose from a VAT report, profit & loss statement, or a balance sheet and get an instant overview of your company’s finances.
