It’s always important that you make sure any invoice or quote you send to a customer is easily accessible for them. Sometimes, this means not invoicing your customer in the conventional way. A paper document or an email may simply be overlooked by your customer.
Fortunately, Debitoor offers a number of different ways to invoice your customers if you’re on the go. This article looks at how you can send your invoices and quotes via WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage, and AirDrop, when using the Debitoor mobile app.
Why might you send your invoices and quotes via WhatsApp, Messenger or iMessage?
Sending an invoice via an app like WhatsApp or Messenger may seem overly informal. Afterall, an invoice is a legal document. However, it may actually be beneficial to your business, depending on your relationship with your customer.
Invoicing
An invoice may be sent in this way when you’re working out of the office and you need to provide your customer with an invoice very quickly. Suppose you’re delivering your product to your customer and they want to instantly see the invoice. They may not have easy access to their work computer, but they may have their personal phone to hand.
Simply texting their invoice to them using an app like WhatsApp or Messenger provides them with their invoice immediately. It means that you both have the invoice on your devices so you can refer to it as you conduct your business.
Providing quotes
Just like how you can send an invoice via a third-party messenger app, quotes can also be directly texted to your customers. When you’re pricing up a job, a customer may want to receive an immediate quote.
Depending on the nature of your business, sending your quote via a messaging app may be the most efficient way to communicate with your customer as they simply need to reply with a simple yes or no. In a less formal setting, this can be enough confirmation to move to the next stage of the sale, issuing a legal invoice.
By using a messaging app, you may speed the sales process up and simplify your communication with your customer.
Advantages of sending your invoices and quotes via WhatsApp, Messenger or iMessage
The main advantage of issuing an invoice or a quote via a third-party app is the ease of access. You can always send any documents you create for your customer to their email; however there may be times when the customer cannot access their email account. By sending the document via a different messaging app will allow you to conduct business quickly and efficiently.
If you know your customer well and know that they are more likely to check their messages, it may also be another way you can help to ensure your invoice is delivered and acknowledged. For some people, and some businesses, instant messaging apps are more commonly used than a standard e-mail and they may therefore be a better way to request payment.
Email communication is still the predominant form of communication used by businesses. Issuing documents via messaging apps may appear less formal, and is perhaps best reserved for when invoicing someone you already have a good relationship with. However, as technology moves forward and work cultures are reimagined, these methods of invoicing and providing quotes may help you to stand out from competition and offer a more personal service.
Sharing your invoices and quotes with AirDrop
At times, it may be useful to directly share a document with your customer via AirDrop. If both you and your customer are together and both use Apple devices, it’s possible to share their quotes and invoices with them via AirDrop. Using Airdrop will mean that the document is downloaded directly to their mobile device or Mac in PDF format.
Advantages of sharing invoices and quotes with AirDrop
The benefit of using AirDrop is it means your customer doesn’t need to search for your email first and then manually download the document to their device. If you provide a quote, sharing it in this way means that you and your customer can immediately view it and discuss if anything needs to be changed. Essentially, it can make the sales process faster, easier, and allow for a superior customer experience.
How to share your invoices and quotes with the mobile app
Sharing your invoice via WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage or AirDrop is very straightforward and perfect when you’re working away from the office.
Simply open your mobile app and fill in your invoice template as normal. Once you’re done, finalise the invoice and tap ‘Next’. In the ‘Send’ window, tap the box with the arrow top right and on the following screen choose “Share PDF”. You can then select how you want to share the document (PDF, Link or to a printer) and swipe “Share invoice” and select the medium (Messenger, iMessages, WhatsApp, AirDrop etc.).
If you want to send a quote using this method, firstly click ‘More’ in the bottom left corner then select ‘Quotes’. Then just follow the steps set out above.
Sharing your documents without using email - a summary
There are lots of different ways you can send your invoices and quotes to your customers from your mobile device. Whilst email is the standard approach, it may not fit every situation.
By allowing you to share quotes and invoices via third party messaging apps, the Debitoor mobile app lets you choose how best to communicate with your customers. Sharing your documents has never been easier.
