How to Set Up Email Invoicing to Bill & Collect Customer Payments

Email invoicing allows you to send your customers invoices instantly and effortlessly to get you paid quickly. In this post, we’ll show you how set up email invoicing so your business can better compete, saving you time and energy. You’ll see you can even get paid faster!

Benefits of Email Invoicing

Are you still managing your invoicing with paper, Excel or QuickBooks? Making the switch to a robust email invoicing system can save you time and help you get paid faster. By learning how to send an invoice through email, you can:

• • Send invoices on time – no more papers stacking up waiting for invoicing day.
  • Eliminate postal service delays.
  • Track outstanding invoices and follow-up on late payments.

Choosing an Email Invoicing Solution

Before you choose an email invoicing solution, think about the features you would use most. For example, do you want to know when customers view an invoice? Do you want to send automatic payment reminders? What about creating a professional design? Every email invoicing service comes with slightly different features, so determine what’s most important to your business first. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you want customers to be able to pay online? Features that empower your customers to pay online, whether it’s via credit card, debit card, or ACH transfer, can get you paid faster. Online payment options let customers click on the invoice and pay you in minutes.
• Want to track the status of each invoice? Choose an email invoicing solution that can track sends, opens, payments and outstanding balances. You can make sure customers have received and viewed your invoice, see what has been paid, and view outstanding balances.
• Wish you could stop reminding customers to pay on time? Then features like automatic payment notifications—including reminders, failures, confirmations, and late notices—are a must. Set up automatic reminders and never worry about follow-up again.
• Is it important for you to make a good impression? Look for an email invoicing solution with professional email invoice templates, so you don’t have to worry about designing invoices from scratch.
• Do you prefer to schedule when invoices are sent? You may want the ability to send invoices out on a set day and time, no matter when you create them. When you set up email invoicing, you have can schedule an invoice to be sent at a future point in time, or set up recurring invoices with automatic send dates.
• Would you like to decide who gets an invoice, and how? Look for options like the ability to send an invoice to multiple recipients, either via email or post, depending on your customers’ preferences.
• Would you like to customize your invoices? If control is important to you, then look for the ability to add supporting documents as attachments.
• Do you prefer to spend less time calculating numbers or typing up line items? Look for features like calculation support, which can automatically determine due dates based on the send date and determine subtotals and totals based on price, quantity, taxes, and discounts. Line item catalog support is also important, so you don’t have to re-enter goods and services every time you create a new invoice.
• Will other members of your team need access? Then cloud-based options are important, because they allow you to access invoices from any computer. They can also support multiple users so other members of your team can track and send invoices.

How to Set Up Email Invoicing: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you choose your email invoicing solution, getting set up is pretty simple. Here are the steps you will need to take prior to sending your invoice through email: 

• Add customer information. Enter the information for all of the customers you plan to invoice, including their names, addresses, and emails. If your solution allows you to import a customer list, this simplifies the process.
• Generate an invoice number. Designate an invoice number for tracking purposes. A system that auto-generates sequential invoice numbers makes this easy.
• Set up your payment terms. Indicate whether customers will be allowed to pay via debit card, credit card, ACH transfer, or even paper check.
• Add your line items. List all the services and/or products you would like to invoice. If your system stores line items and reuses them automatically, it can make this process very fast.
• Apply in any extra fees or discounts. Add in any applicable taxes or discounts. Your payment solution may already make this easy by calculating invoice subtotals and totals.
• Set up recurring invoicing, if applicable. If you want this invoice to be sent on a regular basis, you can set it to send automatically so you don’t have to recreate it again and again.
• Include any attachments. If you would like to send supporting documentation with the invoice, this is the time to attach it.
• Preview your invoice. Make sure everything looks right before you send it to your customer.
• Select recipients and send your invoice. Select the recipients who should receive your invoice, whether it’s multiple people for the same customer or others who will need it for their records. Select whether they should receive the invoice via email or post. Click send!
• Track and manage your invoice. You can monitor whether your customer has received, viewed, or paid your invoice. You can also set up automatic payment reminders to help nudge customers along if they forget to pay an invoice or are close to missing a due date.

How to Send Email Invoices with PaySimple

If the email invoicing features above are important to you, PaySimple is an ideal solution. Our online invoicing lets you send professional invoices, automate workflows, and get paid faster. When you send your invoices through email with PaySimple, you can:

• Use the Invoice Builder to create invoices in a snap. The Invoice Builder saves your favorite invoice templates; stores your frequently-used itemizations; automatically calculates taxes, fees, and discounts; and pulls from your existing customer records.
• Enable secure online payments. Accept credit, debit, and ACH payments and allow customers to manage their account and payments via the Customer Portal.
• Manage invoices in one place. Use PaySimple’s invoice management tools to edit and track the status of an invoice, generate reports and gain valuable business insights, and send automated reminders, payment receipts, and overdue notices.

If you’re ready to save time, get paid faster, and focus your energy on running your business, PaySimple can help. Learn more about our email invoicing options here, and be sure to check out a demo of PaySimple’s system to see how easy it is to make the switch.

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