To simplify business management functionality and organize finances in the most effective and hassle free manner, businesses require the right time-tracking and billing software. When it comes to time-tracking and billing activities, businesses have to deal with many day-to-day challenges. The traditional method of using spreadsheets for tracking multiple invoices and accounts is a cumbersome and time consuming process. Regardless of size, companies can improve productivity and profits by efficiently managing time and resources. For this, they need good software that can simplify invoice & billing activities and optimize business processes. There are many benefits of using an online time-tracking and billing software.
Track accurate time
One of the biggest challenges is tracking and recording billable hours on different projects. When the tracking of time is not accurate, businesses often miscalculate billable hours and lose a substantial amount of money on billing. Additionally, if a company is dealing with multiple client projects, the process becomes even more complex. With time-tracking and billing software, it is easy to refer back to time entries and calculate hours worked on each project. Management can then conveniently track project related information, bill the correct amounts, and thus generate more revenue.
Track and attach expenses to invoices
Along with tracking billable hours, it is also essential to keep expense records up-to-date. Tracking expenses and keeping them organized can become difficult when dealing with multiple clients. Since project work can include a variety of expenses, including professional and personal, tracking them can be cumbersome. To effectively track and manage expenses a better option is to use an automation system such as a billing software. It is quick, error-free, and allows you to create and attach expenses to invoices without much effort.
Streamline invoice processing including creation and facilitating review process
Another tedious task is generating invoices to the clients and getting paid promptly. If you are a business owner, then cloud based billing software makes the process easy, as it avoids the necessity to depend on office systems for making invoices or carry large paperwork outside of the office. You can instantly create invoices from existing data on the cloud, share it with the client by email, and get paid faster than through traditional processing. In addition to all of this, the software allows you to control the invoicing process to ensure accuracy. Employees can enter their time and expenses as they work and the management can review and approve all of the time slips prior to generating invoices.
Flexible billing interface
As a business owner, you might be working on multiple projects simultaneously and may want to generate bills for each project with a different set of criteria. The fee options and hourly rates can be different for each client and you may have to consider a special billing arrangement for a specific client. It can become complicated to incorporate these many options in billing unless there is a flexible streamlined process for such activities. The flexible billing option offered by time-tracking and billing software improves billing capabilities of any size business and minimizes the time and effort spent on the invoicing process.
Accommodates split billing
Some businesses may need to generate multiple invoices with different hourly rates for a particular project. If a company is working on multiple projects, then it becomes tough to divide or split bills between the clients accurately without. Time tracking and billing software provides flexibility over billing and offers the best control on revenue management. Instead using a case-by-case basis to generate invoices for different clients, the software allows you to create customized formats so that the bills get generated automatically without much manual effort.
Robust comprehensive reporting
Apart from tracking working hours and generating invoices, companies may need several types of reports to evaluate various aspects like pending fees and expenses, user productivity, billable vs non-billable hours, etc. It takes a substantial amount of effort to manually put these elements together and generate reports. With billing software, it is easy to access data from the cloud and generate customized reports to suit any business needs. Software with a robust reporting system is very beneficial as it allows you to understand project activities, time and absence tracking, client payment history, and many other items.
Integration with other software
Creating a seamless transition of data between various systems increases the accuracy and eliminates the need for duplicate data entry. A superior time-tracking software effectively integrates with other software and minimizes the situations that require redundant data entry. The software easily communicates with other systems, makes workflow more efficient, and reduces the opportunity for errors. By consolidating the data from different systems, businesses can improve accuracy in reporting, reduce administrative workloads, and have greater insights into business activities.
Access from multiple devices
Whether it is tracking the time for billing hours or generating recurring invoices for periodic payments, it is good to have a flexible method of accessing data in the most convenient manner. You don’t need to be in front of the office system to manage your billing transactions; all you need is a good billing system and a smartphone with internet access to finish your work on the go. The time-tracking application is fast, effective, and requires no other software installation to access from mobiles. It just needs a couple of clicks to create invoices, send emails, and acknowledge the receipt of payments from your clients.
Secure business information
No matter how big or small the company is, keeping the backups of data and protecting them from security threats is critical for all businesses. If you are dealing with multiple clients, then keeping the paperwork for several years would be a tedious task because it may involve several reports, invoices, employee time, and expense tracking sheets. The cloud based billing platform provides backups for the entire data and allows you to customize the settings for security purpose. This method protects against unauthorized entry and security breaches and reduces the possibility of losing information.
Customized dashboard
Instead of drilling down into the data in a detailed manner, sometimes you may need to see consolidated key aspects of information in a well-organized manner. When data is put together on one screen it becomes easy to evaluate things like sales, work productivity, cost, and expenses. By customizing the billing software dashboard, businesses can readily access key information allowing real time visibility on various projects.
These are only some of the ways that a tracking and billing system is useful for a business. Regardless of the size of an organization or the type of business, tracking and billing software offers many benefits to help companies grow, be more productive, and increase revenue.
