As your business grows, invoices, POs and other forms are likely to become more difficult to handle – especially if your client base is growing but you still have the same number of hands. Things can easily become time-consuming and prone to expensive administrative errors. Which is why, an outsourced invoice processing automation service could make your invoice processing a lot easier to handle.
So, to help you keep things black and white, here is our brief checklist for a robust invoicing and PO process.
Take a good look at your invoicing process:
When designing your invoicing system, remember that, as well as getting paid in good time, your invoices will be really important to your customer, not forgetting your business’s annual tax return. So:
Is your invoicing system easy for everyone to understand and use?
- Are your invoices optimised for speedy payment? Have you included the customer’s PO number (if they gave you one) and will they understand exactly what you’re invoicing for, when the payment is due and how they can pay it?
- Are your invoices fully compliant? Do they show the date, a unique invoice number, the necessary company information and your VAT number, if appropriate?
Set up an effective PO system
POs link monies paid out to internal budgets and verify the validity of incoming invoices. Ask yourself:
- Does everyone authorised to make purchases understand your PO system? Have you made the accounts department solely responsible for raising POs?
- Is every PO raised accounted for against internal budgets to avoid overspend?
- Are you making sure your suppliers quote your PO number when invoicing you to avoid delays in making payments?
POs and invoices don’t have to be a hair-pulling experience. Outsourcing can make tedious tasks easy for everyone, giving you time to focus on what’s important to your business.
