The future is all about paperless operations. Documenting reports to payment processing and everything in between is going to be paperless. Therefore, many industries, including the roofing business, are looking to dump legacy practices and implement modern solutions to stay relevant amongst their target audience.
So, are you ready to transfer your roofing business's accounts payables to a paper-free invoicing solution? If yes, then you are in the right place. This post will explain what paper-free invoicing is, how it works, and 3 tips to help you get started.
What is Paper-free Invoicing?
As the name suggests, paper-free invoicing eliminates any manual handling of due payments that your business has to pay or collect from vendors, customers, and other third parties.
How it Works
With paper-free invoicing, you will be able to use specialized or customized software or generic bookkeeping software to generate invoices. You will also be able to create and send your roofing company invoices irrespective of what time of the day or where you are.
Paper-free invoicing software will allow your roofing company to customize the template of your invoice. You will be able to conveniently add your company's logo, images, and other details.
You get to save a lot of time with paper-free invoicing because you wish to generate an invoice every time. Some fields will automatically repopulate with the data in the relevant boxes. For instance, your company's name, address, telephone number, email id, etc.
In case you wish to improve the design, amend the invoice or make other changes, you will be able to do so easily using a mobile phone app. Now you do not have to go through the hassle of hiring a graphic designer to create a template for you and print it on letterhead. You can literally generate an invoice on the go for your roofing business.
Typically, the client will receive your invoice via email in PDF format. You can even add other documents and photos to support any charges mentioned in the voice.
In order to make the payments simpler, you can add call-to-action such as "Pay Now" or "Make Payment Online," etc. this will also encourage the client to pay instantly instead of having to wait for the day they decided to visit a bank.
While going paper-free will help you automate the processing of your payment, it still requires you to think carefully and methodically.
3 Tips to Implement Paper-Free Invoicing for Roofing Business
There are several ways you can approach the paper-free invoicing system rollout. However, here are 3 tips to help you ensure a smooth transition from a legacy payment and invoicing system to a digital invoicing solution.
1. Searching for the Right Software
Now that you have decided to adopt paper-free invoicing, your first step is to start searching for software. You need to consider certain factors when purchasing a paper-free invoicing solution. First, you need software that can store all your financial information and invoices in a safe but easily accessible manner.
Secondly, the software can offer you maximum benefits while staying within your budget. For this, you need first to determine your invoicing needs. This will help you narrow down the features you really need in your paper-free invoicing solution. There is no point buying a top-notch if your roofing company has basic invoicing needs.
However, invoicing software must have templates, an edition tool to help you customize templates, reminder options for due invoices, etc. Using cloud-based invoicing software is one of the best options these days. Now you do not have to be in the office to generate invoices. You can create one on the go and even email it to the client in a PDF format.
You can look into several solutions when shopping for automation and digitalization of your invoicing and bookkeeping system. You can get basic apps that will only allow you to store data and share documents, while more advanced solutions such as Vergo will enable you to take digital notes, send payment reminders, and make online payments.
2. Digitalize your Existing Records
This should be your top priority when moving away from a conventional/manual invoicing system towards an automated solution. Therefore, you must eliminate any existing clutter of manual invoices and create a digital record of existing records of previous invoices.
You have to remember that once you go digital, you will not need the paper invoices anymore, so it will be a waste of space to keep hard copies. Yes, it is going to be a very rigorous exercise. Still, it will be a one-time activity to transfer all your manual transaction and invoice payment records from paper to paper-free software solutions.
3. Get All Stakeholders on Board First
While you may think of adapting paper-free invoicing as purely an internal decision for your roofing company, it also affects other parties. For instance, while you may be forward-thinking in generating digital invoices and emailing them instantly, not all customers may be tech-savvy. What about an old couple with no access to a computer or customers with disabilities.
Another instance is where your vendor or contractors may not have an option to make an online payment. Therefore, you must first speak to your project managers, employees, contractors, vendors, and even clients/customers.
One of the best ways is to float the idea in the room and leave the topic open for discussion and feedback. Once you have the feedback, rectify all of the concerns and move ahead with implementing paper-free invoicing.
While speaking about getting other domains on board before going paperless, you must also try to digitalize any operations associated with invoicing. For instance, you will not print any invoices and review them digitally. In this case, you might want to consider digitalizing your financial reporting function, your accounts payable and accounts receivable departments as well.
Similarly, one of the best ways to improve the cash flow for your roofing business is to link your paper-free invoicing to a secure online payment system. This will enable your clients to click on the link, land on the payment portal for secure instant transactions.
Conclusion
If you are a roofing business that wants to adopt paperless operation, follow the tips in this post to implement paper-free invoicing. All you need is to determine your needs and budget and find a suitable software solution.
