In general billing, invoicing and accounting software referred to the same type of software. Companies tend to market them with different name - sometimes depending on the feature sets they provide. In this article I am considering them as the same software.
Okay, you have decided to use billing software for your business. You search for “invoicing” or “billing” in the Internet, you find probably more than one hundred web based invoicing software. Which one to choose? It is a daunting task to select right one. You may have look at some of the comparisons analysis done in the some of the blogs. You are still not sure. Let me make it clear – you are not alone. Pretty much every one go through this pain without knowing exactly what they are singing for. So I am not going to write here comparison among available software rather I am creating a guideline to select billing software.
1. Are you sure you need billing software?
Since you are reading this blog I am sure you already know you need billing software. Since billing software term is used so vaguely, it is very important for you to determine what exactly you are looking for. Just to tell you our experience – Our customers initially were interested for invoicing software. Later they realized that some of the billing software also provides order management. Since their company supplies goods for its customers, it became clear to them that they should choose software which can do the both: invoicing and order management.
2. Depth or coverage?
Ask yourself, do you use the entire features of Microsoft Word? If you ask me, probably I only use 30% of what Word is capable of. And if you ask around you will find similar answers. Only difference is that use cases in my 30% may not be the same in others. This means we are not using all the features software provides. There is a saying in the Software industry, “only 80% of the features are mostly used”.
So when you analyze software, ask yourself what you really want rather than what the software provides. Many software provides a lot of features, but they do not do good job in any single feature. Some software provides very few features but they do good job on what they provide. Here is my prioritization of
features set of billing software:
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- Easy to use the software: must have
- Quotation and estimation: must have
- Emailing quote to customer as PDF file: must have
- Converting a quote to invoice: must have
- Emailing invoice to customer as PDF file: must have
- Quote and Invoice support for both Goods and Service: must have
- Ability to customize quote and invoice: must have
For example you should be able create Quotes as shown below from the same software:
- A basic inventory and ability to select items from inventory while creating quote and invoice: must have
- Commercial invoice (export invoice): depends on your use case
- Multi-currency (foreign currencies) support: depends on your use case
- Recurring invoice (subscription billing) support: depends on your use case
- Time tacking: depends on your use case
- Ability to accept quote by customer by logging in to the same software: nice to have
(I have found almost no use for this feature because most of the customers want quote or invoice through email)
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- Basic payment processing: must have
- Integrated payment processing with credit cards and banks: nice to have
- Sales order fulfillment support where you can track customer orders, ship it and handle returns: depends on your use case
- Purchase order management – keep track of your purchase, inventory and billing: depends on your use case
- Ability to search quote and invoice: must have
- Double entry ledger accounting: depends on your use case
- Various accounting reports: must have
- User management and access control: depends on your use case
- Expense management and reporting: depends on your use case
- Mobile apps: depends on your use case
- Many other features accounting software typically provides: nice to have
3. How is easy to use software? Is any training required?
Software typically are cheap. Downside of it is there is a little support from these companies to help you out on how to use the software. But upside is – you may hardly need this help. Most of the accounting software are user friendly and intuitive to use. But still there are plenty of software which are comparatively not that easy to use. So best thing is to avoid using those software.
You can do a quick test:
- Responsiveness: check whether the company replies free customers questions. Send a question about product help (e.g., how to send invoice PDF to customer? How to upload a logo? ) through “Support Contact” page of the company’s web site. If you get an answer within 24 hours then it is reasonable.
4. What is the cost to switch the vendor?
It is possible that many times as your company grows you may want to use more efficient software then what you have. Also if the online software company go out of business or stop adding new features which are must-have for you then you may have to migrate to another software. Software migration is not an easy task. So first thing you should find out whether you can get the data dump from the company you are inclined use for billing. Most of the company provides this facility. Secondly, you should find out whether the download data are in a common standard. If so then it is easy to migrate those data to another software. If not then it may cost you little bit to import your data to another billing software. At least you should ask whether the company plans to implement a common standard for download data in future.
5. What types of support is available?
Many times you may need immediate support from the Company even if you are not a paying customer. You may have locked yourself out, you may have deleted a customer profile, you may have messed up some of your invoices and would like to resolve those issues immediately. Make sure that you have the ability to contact the support team to resolve those issues.
6. What is the cost to own this software?
I know this is one of the most of important criteria for many of you. Careful – cost of ownership is not always what you pay at the beginning but what you would end up paying in the long run. Look for following:
- What is the monthly cost for a paying account that you eventually want to subscribe?
- What is the cost for additional users?
- How much it is going to cost if online service goes down for longer time?
- Is this company listen to customers and add features requested by customers?
Once you have done you analysis, next thing you should check around software. Your objective is to find out whether it satisfies what you are looking for. Only after you are satisfied what you are looking for you should look for extra which you may like to use.
