In today’s digital era, customers increasingly expect small businesses to provide the same level of service and convenience as large companies. Small businesses must project a polished, professional image across the buying journey to compete effectively.
Mastering the art of providing great sales, marketing, and service is essential to delivering a great customer experience. But it doesn’t stop there -s. Streamlined, secure, and professional invoicing and payment processes are essential to providing your customers with a great end-to-end experience. Of course, these solutions are also key to managing cash flow, reporting, forecasting, and other vital tasks.
This post discusses why automated invoicing and payments solutions are critical to improving operational efficiency and providing a better customer experience, and how one small business created an invoicing process to meet these goals.
Streamlining transaction processing is a top financial management priority for small businesses
Small businesses rank “streamlining transaction processing” as their number one financial management investment priority for 2024.
This isn’t surprising, as automated transaction processing affords small businesses many back-office benefits. Modern invoicing and payment systems help to:
- Reduce the time between billing and receiving funds, improving cash flow and liquidity—helping businesses get paid faster.
- Minimize the labor required for creating, sending, and following up on invoices, and processing payments.
- Improve visibility into financial status through real-time reporting and analytics, which aids in forecasting, budgeting, and financial decision-making processes.
- Lessen the incidence of late payments by automating payment reminders and processes.
- Strengthen security measures to better protect sensitive financial data, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
- Decrease the need for paper, printing, and physical mailings.
- Facilitate higher transaction volumes as the business grows, without a proportional increase in costs or resources.
Benefits extend beyond the back-office
Some small businesses may not realize that these solutions can also help address some of their top customer relationship goals, as noted in the chart below.
For instance, automated billing and payment solutions can help businesses to:
- Reduce customer disputes, by ensuring that they’re charging customers the correct amounts and that they’re receiving the right payments.
- Improve the buying experience by offering easy and convenient payment methods.
- Strengthen supplier and customer relationships with transparent, accurate, and timely billing and payment processes.
Drivers to modernize accounting and invoicing at Phil Pallen Collective
These issues drove Phil Pallen Collective to modernize its financial and invoicing processes. As discussed in detail in this case study, the company manages personal branding for professionals to help them succeed, serving more than 360 clients across 34 countries.
The organization had been collecting payments via an online payment portal. However, the payment solutions it was using were generic and didn’t provide the capabilities required to personalize the appearance of its invoices—not an acceptable situation for a company that stakes its reputation on developing exceptional branding for its customers.
The company’s founder, Phil Pallen, wanted to be able to create personalized, professional invoices that incorporated his company’s branding. He also needed an invoicing solution that integrated with financial applications to streamline redundant transaction processing chores.
After an international invoice was sent from a new country, and the company’s account was frozen by its payment provider, push came to shove. “My account was shut down and the payment was rejected,” Pallen said. “I need the freedom to travel for work and not worry about whether or not my invoicing solution can support international payments.”
Getting the job done with Xero and Stripe
Phil Pallen Collective turned to Xero’s cloud-based small business accounting platform and Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses.
Xero’s partnership with Stripe has given the company easy access to a flexible payment solution and a large network of financial solutions, including an online payment portal that can reliably accept international payments.
The company uses Xero templates to customize the look and messaging on its invoices, reducing the time the company’s two-person team needs to prepare invoices.
Once a client receives and pays an invoice, payments are securely managed through Stripe Payments, which also includes capabilities to set up autopay and email reminders to further streamline the payment process.
The integrated solution has also helped Phil Pallen Collective reduce the number of tools it needs to serve its hundreds of clients. The same system can process payments whether customers are invoiced or shopping on the company’s website and paying with a credit card.,
With all of its invoicing and payment information in one place, the company can run reports more quickly and easily, saving an estimated two hours per week on report creation. This gives the team more time to analyze the data and determine how to improve business performance.
Perspective
Change isn’t easy. Many small businesses know that they need to modernize their financial and invoicing processes, but face time and resource constraints that lead them to put off making a change.
However, relying on a patchwork of applications and manual processes that don’t work well together can quickly stifle a company’s ability to give customers the streamlined, professional experience they expect.
At a certain point, small businesses need flexible, integrated, and scalable invoicing and payment solutions to grow. It’s not just about staying afloat; it’s about setting your small business apart and elevating it to new heights. As evidenced by the transformation of Phil Pallen Collective, integrated financial solutions can help small businesses operate more professionally and efficiently, improve the customer experience, and scale their companies.
© SMB Group 2024
Note: Xero is an SMB Group client.