Will
19-10-2006, 05:25 PM
Do you have an invoicing, time recording or customer support system? Perhaps you use software to carry out these tasks. Is it maintained and your data backed up safely on a regularly basis? Do you ever forget to send out invoices?
Creating, managing and chasing up invoices use to be a real pain, but still an essential part of running a business.
I've tried numerous systems for managing and automating as much of the admin as possible and I've found many benefits from carrying out a lot of my communication with clients online. Besides the obvious benefits such as reducing postage costs, never losing letters and getting delivery within minutes, using an online system with information stored centrally means your staff and your clients can have access from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Also, being able to forget about providing clients with invoices for recurring charges means freeing up a significant amount of time to do more interesting things like generating more business or going out and enjoying life (a rarity for many small business owners).
I want to tell you about one of the best online service providers I've come across and still use today because it's made some elements of running a small business much easier for me.
FreshBooks (http://www.linkah.com/freshbooks) provide an online customer management service with some great features such as:
Easily create, send and manage invoices
Track time spent on tasks (for you and your staff)
Equip your business with a customer support system
Send invoices by email (or post if your clients are in the US)
Accept payments with PayPal, Authorize.Net, & more
Automatically send invoices & late payment notices
Create robust reports and import/export your data
If you haven't tried something like this yet, then I urge you to take a look. Try the service with a free account and see just how easy it is to use.
FreshBooks (http://www.linkah.com/freshbooks).
Creating, managing and chasing up invoices use to be a real pain, but still an essential part of running a business.
I've tried numerous systems for managing and automating as much of the admin as possible and I've found many benefits from carrying out a lot of my communication with clients online. Besides the obvious benefits such as reducing postage costs, never losing letters and getting delivery within minutes, using an online system with information stored centrally means your staff and your clients can have access from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Also, being able to forget about providing clients with invoices for recurring charges means freeing up a significant amount of time to do more interesting things like generating more business or going out and enjoying life (a rarity for many small business owners).
I want to tell you about one of the best online service providers I've come across and still use today because it's made some elements of running a small business much easier for me.
FreshBooks (http://www.linkah.com/freshbooks) provide an online customer management service with some great features such as:
Easily create, send and manage invoices
Track time spent on tasks (for you and your staff)
Equip your business with a customer support system
Send invoices by email (or post if your clients are in the US)
Accept payments with PayPal, Authorize.Net, & more
Automatically send invoices & late payment notices
Create robust reports and import/export your data
If you haven't tried something like this yet, then I urge you to take a look. Try the service with a free account and see just how easy it is to use.
FreshBooks (http://www.linkah.com/freshbooks).