The article suggests a few strategies I’ve pointed out in the past, starting with setting a policy before you begin working with a client:

This policy may include when payments are due — preferably, no more than 30 days after a service or good is provided — and how overdue bills will be handled.

Within a couple days of an invoice going overdue, you should begin the process of contacting the delinquent client and working out when payment will be received.  Starting with phone calls that ask for an ETA on payment, then following up with written notices in the mail (using “the big red-white-and-blue Priority Mail envelopes from the Postal Service … since they relay urgency and garner more attention than a regular plain white envelope”).

If a client still isn’t paying their bills, then the next step is to consider using a collections agency.

The Wall Street Journal: Better Collection Policies Are Past Due For Many

Once you’ve installed the app, enter your Invotrak username and password (or sign up if you don’t have one yet).  Your phone will now automatically stay in sync with invotrak.com.  Some of the features of the app:

• View outstanding, paid, and overdue invoices
• Track and create new invoices
• Add timesheet entries and view entries from the past
• View and add client information

You can also connect with your colleagues and employees using the Invotrak app.  Employees are able to enter their timesheet information, while other admins can make changes to the set of invoices and clients you see on your own iPhone.

I hope you enjoy the Invotrak app!  Be sure to let us know what you think.

Update: we’re excited to note that the winners have been announced!  Congratulations!

I believe we have the issue fixed now, but please let us know if you experience any other issues (or have any questions).

“There are a variety of email options which I like - you can customize the email to make it more personal to the specific client. Invotrak also offers reports which are quite nice looking.” - Allen Stern, CenterNetworks

“…we have discovered a web application that is user friendly and informative, that application is Invotrak by Draconis Software. As a freelance writer I was able to utilize the software for an experiment in keeping track of my personal invoicing and time tracking needs, and I found this application to stand heads and shoulders above the others that I have used.” Luis Sandoval, Crenk

As a small up-and-coming web service, we really rely on our users to help spread the word. If you like Invotrak, please tell other people about it! And if you aren’t thrilled with Invotrak, for whatever reason, tell us so we can make it better!

There were also a few other places we’ve been popping up, including:

• Download Squad
• Emily Chang’s eHub

Did I miss anything? Any thoughts on how we might further get the word out about Invotrak?

Over the last few years, as a small web development company co-founder, and from running an invoice tracking service, I’ve collected some good advice and useful tips on how to ensure the cash comes in. I’ve found that clients often fall within one of three categories:

1. All paid up, on time, with minimal or no hassles - keep these around!
2. Wants to pay, but has to go through their company’s accounting department. Your point of contact isn’t the same person who writes the checks, and as a result, they often need to go to bat for you to get you paid at all, let alone on time.
3. Not at all interested in payments - either attempting to get out of their obligation or purposefully dragging their feet to make things difficult. These don’t usually leave you with much of a choice: go to court (often small claims court), factor, or forget about it.

Let’s talk about how to streamline category 2 client payments: your point of contact likes your work and wants to see you get paid, but they aren’t the ones who control the checks. Here’s a couple tips for when it comes time to send an invoice:

• The first step is to cover the invoicing basics. The invoices you issue should always contain as much information as possible about the work you did, including contact information, your (or your company’s) name and address, and a description of the work. Include as much additional info too, such as a PO number (if applicable) and your point of contact at the company. Your goal is to provide all the information the accountant who will write the check could possibly need, making their life as easy as possible. If they have to go digging for info, they’re likely to put it off.
• If you can afford it, you may want to consider offering a slight discount for prompt payments. Utility companies often do this: your total amount is listed and due within the agreed-upon time frame, but they also provide, say, a 1% discount if paid within 1 or 2 weeks. You can include a line like “1% 14, NET 30″ next to your Total line if you’d like to try this. If your client pays within 14 days, they can take a 1% discount, which should hopefully give them enough incentive to write the check on time.  There are a number of different discount strategies you can try too.
• Try sending reminder emails. If a client has a history of late payments, try sending friendly reminder messages a few days before an invoice is due. It’s especially helpful if you know who is writing the check, but sending them to your point of contact can be helpful as well. You can have invotrak automatically send a reminder out to your clients 3 days before an invoice is due.
• Make it clear in your contract - before you start working, of course - that you expect to receive payment by the date on the invoice. This drives home the point that a check should be in your hand by that date, rather than hearing things like “the check is in the mail”. Being explicit upfront means you’re serious about being paid for the work you do, while still being professional about the matter.

Sometimes there’s just no avoiding it: your client is consistently late in paying you, no matter how hard you try to nudge them into paying you on time. In these cases, you should determine how long it usually takes them to pay an invoice (invotrak has a Reports feature that provides this info) and factor this into the rate you charge your client for future work. You can even try telling them that you’re raising your rate (within the limits of your existing contract) because of consistently late payments. Be careful with this one though: if they start paying on time, they’ll likely expect you to drop back to your old rate.

No matter what, stay persistent. Communicate to your point of contact when there are overdue invoices. You’ll have a lot more leverage with their accounting department if someone inside the company is pushing for you.

Additional Resources:

• Freelance Switch: Getting Paid On Time contains tips on how to create an invoice, as well as what you should do once you’ve sent it. I’d reiterate their point on communication: regularly reminding your client about their invoice has probably been the single most effective tool I’ve used in the past.
• This article at Entrepreneur.com: Get Paid On Time details a number of steps you can take to improve your overall collection rate. A few might be a little extreme (such as joining a union), but sound advice nonetheless.
• For some basic information on how to create an effective invoice, check out Web Worker Daily: Creating Your First Invoice

The biggest one is the ability to create an invoice from a selection of timesheet entries.  In the past, you had to create an invoice first, then attach entries to it as line items.  Now, just select the entries you want to invoice for, select New Invoice for the client to send it to, and you’re on your way!

There’s a couple of other minor changes we’ve made as well.  Right now, I’m working on some additional screencasts to illustrate all the great new features of invotrak, and I hope to have these available soon.  In the meantime, be sure to let us know what you think!

First, we’ve updated invotrak’s interface to give it a much cleaner, more elegant feel. We’ve changed the navigation around a bit too, which we hope you’ll find intuitive while making it easy to move between sections.

Second, we’ve added a whole bunch of new features. Some of the most interesting:

• Create invoices! Now, you can either upload an existing invoice you create yourself, or create an invoice using invotrak. You can even assign items from you (or your employee’s) timesheets as line items on your invoice. It should make the process much easier.
• See reports! It’s now very easy to see interesting reports on your billings. See how your business is doing in a particular month, quarter, or year.
• Lots more! There’s a ton of interesting other little items we’ve added (clock in/out of timesheet entries, for instance) that makes invotrak even easier and more powerful to use.

Another major change to invotrak involves the advertising formula. There are no longer any ads on invotrak. Instead, we’ve replaced it with a simple subscription model that lets you pay for what you need.

We’ve been working very hard to put together this new invotrak, and we hope you like it. But of course, we rely on your feedback to let us know how we’re doing. So let us know in the comments!

(more…)

Dear [Client],

Attached is the latest invoice for services rendered. This invoice is for [amount], and is due on [date]. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks for your patronage,
Business Owner

It’s simple, but gets the job done. So now what? Is it really necessary to type this in every single time you issue an invoice? Nope. Not with invotrak. Just use the templates.

To set a template, go to your Settings page (click the Settings link at the top of the page), and copy the above text – or anything you want to say – into the Message Body box. While doing this, notice how I’ve put certain text inside brackets (for instance, [amount])? This is to signify a variable piece of information in this email, which changes for each invoice or client. For instance, when sending this email to Big Client, we want to say Dear Big, rather than Dear [Client First Name], which is rather cold an discourteous. Well, invotrak does this for us. In fact, you’ll notice on the right-hand side of the Settings page are a whole bunch of different bracketed-text phrases that can be included.

Wherever invotrak sees a word in brackets it recognizes, it replaces that text with the appropriate data. So, our email above becomes a customized greeting with the appropriate information for every single one of the invoices we send out. Letting invotrak handle these bits of data makes very good sense, as it:

1. Keeps us from doing these tedious entries each time we issue an invoice
2. Prevents us from making an embarrassing mistake

Next time you go to send an email, the message body will already be filled in using these templates and the appropriate variable text substitutions you’ve specified. You can then double check that invotrak got everything right before sending your email out. Simple, and effective.