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hi everyone,
cash flow is king and if we didn't invoice out we wouldn't have a business to run. invoicing is one of the most important things to get right in our businesses. so with that i mind i am looking at our own processes to try and improve them. below is our process, what i am looking for here is your ideas & solutions that your happy to share with the CommitCRM community so we all have better and more suscessful businesses. thanks in advance! Steve Current Invoicing process 1) We create a ticket for a customer’s issue 2) Do the job either remotely or onsite 3) Job details go into our Outlook calendars against the ticket number 4) We sync Outlook with Commit 5) A virtual assistant processes the calendars in CommitCRM end of day and adds the charges into Commit 6) I close and print tickets each morning that are completed from day before 7) I add to the pile of completed tickets 8) I work through the pile of printed completed tickets and In CommitCRM push the ticket to QuickBooks to create the invoice 9) Print QuickBooks invoices 10) Look over invoices, make adjustments as required and email to customer Problems with current process 1) Delays in getting invoices to customers 2) Not getting payment as job completed 3) Causes cash flow issues if invoices not going out quick enough 4) Causes issues with customers who think a job was a no charger, e.g. a quick remote job, when they finally get an invoice Goals 1) To be able to invoice customers at time of job completed 2) Have invoices ready for customers when they pick up computers 3) Invoice customers on the spot when doing remote jobs 4) Get invoices out quicker 5) Not rely on just me to check invoices before they go out Equipment/systems we have to help 1) We have a terminal server (with QuickBooks & CommitCRM installed on) that we can remote into to create an invoice 2) We run exchange so calendar syncing from any device is easy 3) We can VPN and RDP into our own workstations easy enough 4) With have our own custom application written that “talks” to QuickBooks, giving us a stack more functionality (price lists, ordering system, stock control, customer payment notifications) Obstacles 1) Time. Not having time to stop and do an invoice before needing to get to next job 2) Testing. Sometimes you need to let customer use computer for a day or so before knowing if an issue is 100% solved. 3) Myself. Having to check each invoice to give it a “fair test” 4) Multiple systems. Putting everything in Outlook then syncing to Commit, then pushing invoices to QuickBooks. I like how these system all sync, and would be lost without it, but it is an obstacle nonetheless. 5) Outlook. I need staff to be putting everything in Outlook, so I can see where everyone is at all times. So getting it to CommitCRM then QuickBooks is the issue. 6) Small jobs. We do so many small and fast remote jobs. How to bill out? Let them accumulate or invoice each one. over to you all, if we can share our knowledge i'm sure it will be a help to all of us..... |
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Depends on your business model. For a mainly MSP model direct debit would work well. for businesses who do a lot of break/fix and workshop walk in repairs, direct debit simply isn't a viable option. I know i would say "are you joking?" if a shop asked me to authorise a permanent direct debit setup when i got my PC fixed.
Sapsford i think you can save a lot of time if you do have your techs generate invoices on completion of the job where possible. Saying they don't have time before they have to get to another job is false economy. somebody else's time simply gets taken up doing the invoice at another time. You do need to give your techs more autonomy though, as they would need to login to CommitCRM from their laptop on completion of the job, add the charges, then generate and email the invoice (or print to a mobile printer) and ask customer for payment. that said, we mostly serve regular business clients (but who aren't on managed/maintenance contracts) and they generally don't pay on completion of each job. I send out invoices to business clients weekly with 7 day terms. As long as this gets done every week, even though there is a lag, there's no cash flow issue as you are always being paid for some weeks invoices. I'm looking for ways to speed this up to though. its tricky when you do want to cast an eye over the billing before the client gets it. I get my techs to add the charges into CommitCRM and change the status to Ready to Bill. I then check the charges in Commit, and then set to Complete, then an admin person generates the quickbooks invoice and email it and ticket sheet to the client. that way i can still have a quick look at the job and the charge in one location and i'm then not wasting my expensive time generating invoices and emailing stuff. Home clients we expect and ask for payment by cash or cheque on completion of job. |
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For our regular clients we have them buy a block of time/money. In CommitCRM just set it up as a contract and when the guys go onsite they just put their time in and we send the customer a summery once a month.
We have found that by time you bill for a remote service, say 15 minutes you have lost money billing for that time. You have to bill them collect the 20 dollars deposit the check and have accounting go through it all. If you tell them for remote work they will get real time billing (only the time it takes) and if not you have to go onsite it will be a one hour minimum. We are also looking into using Interlink for our smart phones that way it will speed up the process and help deal with the web interface issue with CommitCRM. |
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Pre-buying blocks of time/money sounds like a great idea for regular clients. I think i'll push that onto my regular business clients. Promoting it with real time billing is a good idea, i have a minimum remote and onsite fee so they would save money and i get to improve cash flow and save admin time.
Sapsford, what is this virtual assistant you mention? |
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g'day people
after 2 weeks of really trying to get better at this we are doing the following: 1) in the field using the web interface to put in all charges as we go rather than do when we get back to the office we still type what we do into our outlook calendars to keep track of times then a simple copy and paste into the web interface resolution field this is working OK so far 2) i have customised a charges report that we can give to customers on site or when they collect their computer better and more timely information to customers, prepares them for an invoice they will get within a week 3) 50% of our work is to regular business customers so we are invoicing them weekly grouping small charges etc we give 15 days terms to all 4) we invoice out parts used each day on separate invoices 5) we are pretty good at getting monthly invoices out for recurring items & services as we have setup CommitCRM contracts - easy to push out I agree with natrat, obsticles in getting customers cards on file for auto billing and block of money/time is definately a good one to aim for new things, in order for techs to have the confidence/ability to invoice out, looking at labour codes that have set fees for certain work eg computer service router/modem install computer install printer install so we would choose the code and be able to invoice out on the spot natrat, i hire 6 people via odesk.com. all are based in Phillipines 1 - admin girl 2 - web designer 3 - QB programmer 4 - access database programmer 5 - HR girl 6 - magnento programmer work in progress, will post anything better/new we come up with thanks all Steve |
