All about e-Billing

e-Billing or electronic billing is an important aspect of modern billing. It is managed by the company’s accounts payable and accounts receivable department to automate the billing workflow. 

Meaning of e-billing

e-Billing is an electronic billing process in which the bills are sent, and payment is received online. An e-bill is generated by the company’s accounting software and is sent to the customer via email or web portal. e-Bill is a digital version of paper bills. e-Bills contain information about due dates and payment terms. A fully electronic billing system links the payment portal to simplify the payment process.  

Uses and benefits of e-billing

e-Billing is a process by which a business bills its customers. It also automates collecting payments, invoice tracking, sending out recurring invoices, etc. It is used to get paid quickly and securely. It offers a win-win situation for both business and customers by offering faster, convenient and secure modes of payment. Below are some of the benefits of using e-billing software:

• Improved accuracy and efficiency: There is direct communication between the electronic billing system and the accounting software, resulting in reduced errors. Also, the generation of e-bill requires less time than paper ones. This leads to improved efficiency.
• Brings Automation: Nowadays, businesses are trying to automate repetitive manual processes to improve efficiency. e-Billing is a big opportunity for billing process automation. 
• Better customer experience: e-Bills can be generated more professionally with smooth access and payment processing. This results in an enhanced customer experience.
• Better scalability: e-Billing system provides easy scalability as compared to paper billing. If billing volumes are increased, e-billing can easily scale up, whereas paper billing requires increased printing, management, and delivery investment.
• Energy efficient: e-Bills are energy efficient compared to paper bills, which require more energy and resources for production and delivery.
• Reduced overhead costs: By switching to e-bills, one can save printing, delivery, and postage costs. This results in reduced overhead costs.

Drawbacks in e-billing

Below are some of the disadvantages of using e-billing systems:

• Security: In e-billing, there is a risk that your customer information or payment details are being accessed by someone else if they are not stored on a secure network. Data security is a major concern while using e-billing systems.
• Offline customers: Certain customers do not have access to emails. Also, there may be customers who may want to receive paper bills. Thus, reaching out to such customers would be difficult in such cases.
• Spam: Sometimes, your emails are marked as spam by the email service providers. In such cases, it becomes difficult to communicate with your customers and address them to alter their spam filters to allow access to your invoices.
• Increase in cost: If you are using a third-party service provider for sending e-bills, you may incur an additional cost which may add up quickly. 

Tips for choosing e-billing software

There is a variety of e-billing software available in the market. Here are some of the tips for choosing the right e-billing software:

• Understand your needs: The first thing to do is understand your requirements from the software. Do you want it to be integrated with other software in the organisation, or do you just want it for invoice generation and tracking? Based on your needs, you can choose a favourable option.
• Industry-specific software: There are different needs for different industries. Based on your industry-specific needs, you can choose a preferable option.
• Integration: Your business might be using multiple systems for different functions such as human resources, accounting, payroll, billing, etc. Choose a billing software that can easily communicate with other software in the organisation for smooth data flow.

ClearOne billing software provides the enhanced features of e-billing systems such as:

• It helps to create invoices, bill estimates, proforma invoices, quotations, e-way bills, credit and debit notes, etc
• It sends invoices with QR codes and payment links to make the payment process easy.
• You can check the payment status of your bills on the ClearOne app within seconds.
• It facilitates cloud-based storage for easy access. 
• It stores customer data on a secured network.