Time and billing entails payment tracking and invoicing. If you do it right you will get paid well and get paid fast. If you do it wrong, well, you might not get paid at all. Each of the following common time and billing methods have pros and cons as follows:
Time and Billing Through Automatic Credit
With this method of time and billing you grant everyone a certain amount of credit. You're at relatively low risk, what's the most you'll lose, $250? You attract clients with this method. However, if you don't say what the terms are, most people are going to assume it is net 30. If you are not firm and assertive with this time and billing practice those 30 days quickly turn into 60 days and more. If you extend credit to everybody, odds are you will lose sooner or later. That is not a good thing at all. Despite its marketability this is not a recommended method.
Time and Billing With Minimum Deposits
The second time and billing practice is to require a deposit before starting a project. Typically the deposit ranges from 25% - 50%. If you are really aggressive it's 100%. Collecting the deposit is often the easy part though. With this time and billing method how do you know when the project is complete? For this time and billing method to work you need to make sure the end point is very clearly defined. You also need to have the luxury of time between engagement and work. What if the deposit check bounces after you've started, and perhaps finished, the work?
Time and Billing Using a Merchant Account
This is a preferred time and billing method. The first project is done on a credit card authorization before you even start. A signed proposal or quote is faxed back to you with credit card information. You pay a small fee, 2 ½ to 3% to the credit card vendor, but at least you don't have to beg for payment. You don't have to take the risk of not getting paid. You don't have to go through the hassle of checking credit references and taking credit applications for a one-shot deal. The credit card charge can be disputed but this does not typically happen if the work is completed satisfactorily.
The Bottom Line on Time and Billing
Every method of time and billing has its pros and cons. What has proven to work best in the computer consulting industry is to use merchant accounts. This does not mean that time and billing using credit or deposits is wrong, it simply means that the least risky method is the use of credit cards.
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Time And Billing Software
One simple thing that can eat many man hours like this is invoicing or billing. More often than not, offline billing systems make some sort of error in the invoice management. It can be as simple as mismatch of the billing records or it can be as complicated as missing a bunch of invoices. However, even a simple mismatching or misplacing problem can eat into so many crucial and important man hours. Just assume the case of such thing happening at a financial year end audition before an external auditor. That should be the last thing that you will expect at such times.
The only thing that can save your business and your company from all such head aches is good time billing software. A full feature packed time billing software suit can be a real good solution to solve all the billing and invoice related problems. A good solution will ensure that you and your company will never miss out on even minute things that are related to the invoicing or billing.
Let's take taxes as a simple example. You normally will not like your company to be late on paying taxes. Doing so may not only ruin your dignity as a responsible citizen but also will show adverse effects on your relation with the tax related government agencies. This will definitely become a huge head ache not only in the sort term but also in the long term.
But, with proper time billing software you are saved from these issues. It will help you remember all the nuances of taxation issues. It will help you in detailing all the issue when audition takes place in your company. It will help you in keeping the records properly and in accordance with the financials laws of the land. It will help you clear all the doubts that the tax man gets during audition.
In case of large corporations the above processes can be streamlined by having full time department with professional financial consultants. They will assure that all the billing and invoice issues in a proper way. But, this associates with a lot of cost in terms of salary and the support material that these professional financial consultants need.
How ever if you take the case of smaller companies and more so in the case of a start-up, this can be a daunting task because of the huge amount of cost associated with the process. In either of the cases we can avoid any troubles and we can also cut the cost and time associated with the process quite dramatically just by going for a right time billing software.
One most important aspect of a professionally developed time billing software is the ability to have repeated invoicing. The software can easily be configured in such a way that it can deal with repeated invoicing. This can do wonders especially in long term projects and in the case of repeated customers with almost same type of billing information.
You can also customize the time billing software in such a way that it can produce customized invoices for different clients. This increases the ability of the business to talk to its clients in a much customized manner. This can increase the satisfaction levels of your customers by multiple folds and hence it shows direct impact on your future deals with those customers and even on your bottom line.
One basic thing that you need to know before you can bill a client is the amount for which you have to make the invoice. Even when you are working on long term projects where you need not have invoices raised every week, it always better to know how much billing has to be done on a weekly basis. This helps you in making right decisions with your deals. You can use nice time billing software for this purpose as well. Some feel that, this much needed feature for all the top and middle management guys to take right decisions. After all right decisions can only be taken when you are provided with the right information at right time.
Hence an investment in a right and professionally designed time billing software can help you in dealing with all the issue that are related to the traditional invoicing system.
Both Joshua Feinberg & Ron Mcneil are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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