Why Freelance Designers Should Use Invoicing Tools

There are a plethora of tools out on the Internet today that help designers and developers alike. Many times however, we believe they fall short because “we can handle it ourselves” without the extra cost of such tools.

Conversely, we find ourselves spending quite a bit of time trying to complete such tasks which respective tools would reduce the time spent by a fraction. With this being said, within this article we get our hands dirty and discuss several reasons as to why freelance designers should use invoicing tools.

Automation

Automating some of your tasks is definitely a time saver, especially when it comes to invoicing because it allows you to eliminate hand-written notes on whether you’ve sent (for example) recurring invoices to certain clientele or not. You can also automatically keep track of who owes you money, what projects need to be billed, and if an invoice has been paid by your client all without having to strain yourself.

Many invoicing tools contain a great deal of features such as auto-invoicing, tacking on late fees, direct client payments, and much more! Such invoicing tools allow you to be empowered by true automation. What’s better than enjoying your Friday while invoices are being sent out and paid?

Saving Time

One important aspect you should remember when debating whether you should utilize an invoicing tool is they tend to take us away from all the manual labor you may have to spend putting invoices together.

Remember when there were barely any invoicing tools offered several years back, and freelancers would have to manually create an invoice in Microsoft Word or Excel? Invoicing tools have entirely revolutionized the way we bill clients permanently, why not take advantage?

Furthermore, by using such services, you can easily eliminate tragic mistakes that are near impossible to correct. In the era we currently live in, being able to save time is certainly a “fortune” in itself.

Modules

There are a few great invoicing tools that offer plugins or moduling systems where you can easily expand the service by making your own modules or by downloading user created modules/addons.

What this means is, if the invoicing tool or service does not have a feature you wish to enjoy, such as an integration between one of your favorite services or tools (i.e. Basecamp), you can easily have that integration by installing a module within seconds. The power of expansion at your fingertips.

Multi Currency Support

Heading over to Google to convert the currency to the one you need every single time you have an International client can be daunting, and very in-efficient.

This is exactly why many of the great invoicing tools provide currency selection/conversion right from the invoice itself, thus whether your clients are from Europe, the United States, or anywhere else, you can swiftly support their currency and receive an instant payment without the headaches.

Direct Billing and Late Fees

We all know whether we freelance or work for an agency the difficulties of ensuring your client pays. Therefore, the implementation of direct billing and payment features where the client can view the invoice and pay directly using several different types of payment methods was necessary to the invoicing industry.

This not only helps you eliminate the payment method discussion, it also rids the client of any excuses to not pay the correct amount due.

If your client has a hard time paying the invoice, how do you think they’re going to do with paying when they’re supposed to?

Late fees has to be one of the best features of billing clientele, reason being, when we contact clientele via email to get our dues, we sometimes have to fight for some time with clientele to receive what we ask for, and this can sometimes go on for a month fold without any additional collection for spending time fighting for our end of the bargain.

By having some type of late fees structure automatically integrated within an invoicing tool, the clientele has notice, the longer they take to pay an invoice, the higher the invoice will be. This can help if a client is afraid of late fees pilling up and chooses to make the payment when required.

You must also keep in mind that every client is different and late fees may not work all-together.

Great Invoicing Tools

• 30+ Essential Freelancer Tools for Billing and Invoicing
• 20 Invoicing Tools for Web Designers
• Top Project Management And Invoicing Tools For Designers
• 14 Web-Based Invoicing Tools To Make Sure You Get Paid
• Best Online Invoicing and Billing Tools for Web Designers
• 10 Incredible Invoicing Tools For Web Design Professionals
• 5 Great Free Tools For Your Invoicing Needs
• 50 Great Invoicing Tools and Apps. For Freelancers
• 15 Online Financial Tools for Freelance Designers
• 20 Tools For The Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget

Conclusion

To conclude, invoicing tools and services are beneficial to us as a whole. They allow you to safely manage the billing and invoicing part of your career and definitely helps reduce problems associated with clientele and invoicing “mishaps“.

Have any other reasons why invoicing tools should be an integral part of your life, let us know below!