Online invoicing provides plenty of benefits for every small business. With features including automated reminder emails, the ability for customers to pay their bills online, and easily-tracked cash flow, invoicing software has many advantages over a traditional paper one.
Here are our favorite invoicing programs for small businesses.
1) QuickBooks Pro
If you can afford it, QuickBooks Pro offers a robust invoicing system. With a QuickBooks Pro account, you can create customized invoices and send them to your customers via email.
Then, your customer has the option to pay the invoice with a credit card, right in their web browser. This handy feature allows you to eliminate the need for checks and wires.
And, after paying the licensing fee, QuickBooks doesn’t take an additional percentage of your invoices (although your credit merchant still might).
For medium-sized businesses, QuickBooks also allows you to keep track of vendors, issue purchase orders, and maintain your accounting records. It’s a powerful program, especially for the $120 – $200 software fee.
2) FreshBooks
For the enterprising entrepreneur, FreshBooks offers a lot of features. Among the most popular invoicing software, FreshBooks allows you to create customized invoices to send to your customers.
You can also create automatic payment reminders, automate your late fees, create recurring invoices, and accept online payment. FreshBooks also offers a wide variety of accounting features as well, including in-depth expense tracking, attaching receipts, and automated tax calculations.
Depending on the size of your business, you can choose from Lite, Plus, Premium, and Select plans. The features included in each scale with the cost. However, even the smallest businesses will likely quickly outgrow FreshBooks’ Lite offering — it only lets you bill 5 clients at a time for $15 a month.
3) Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice offers a similar bevy of features to FreshBooks. Another cloud-based invoicing program, Zoho allows you to create branded invoices, set up automated reminders, and track expenses. While it doesn’t offer all of the in-depth accounting features of QuickBooks, Zoho is more aimed at competing with FreshBooks.
For freelancers and small online entrepreneurs, Zoho is the better deal. Instead of paying $15 for 5 customers, $19 a month with Zoho allows you to bill up to 500 clients. And while that $19 doesn’t offer the in-depth expense tracking and inventory management that FreshBooks does, the price can save freelancers a few extra dollars until they scale their business.
4) PayPal Business
PayPal Business is a favorite of freelancers. This service offers a lightly customizable invoice, light client tracking capabilities, online payment, and useful accounting reports for no monthly fee. The downside is that PayPal takes 3.9% of every paid invoice, and depending on your business, that amount may quickly exceed how much other invoicing services charge.
Still, for online entrepreneurs, PayPal’s flexibility and ease of use make it a favorite — even if the program is quickly outgrown.
The Bottom Line
There are many different invoicing programs, some of which also come with advanced accounting features like time trackers and expense reporting. If you need help deciding which invoicing software is the best for your business — or you want to use the one you have more effectively — Vodigy Software can help. We specialize in helping small businesses use software the right way, saving you time and money.
Vodigy Software is a trusted custom software provider to the St. Paul and Minneapolis area. We specialize in providing expert guidance and assistance to businesses. If you need help integrating software with your business, contact us today!
