The last few years have seen a significant increase in the number of freelancers and solo entrepreneurs. In fact, freelancers now make up a whopping 47% of the global workforce.
However, as newcomers to a highly competitive industry, newbie freelancers can find the process of entering the market a little challenging. From low-paying clients to internet scammers, navigating the freelance sphere takes time and persistence.
But perhaps one of the most challenging parts of being a freelancer is getting paid on time. Especially when you consider that 74% of freelancers claim they experience late or unpaid payments regularly.
If you’re new to the hustle-heavy world of freelance, it’s important to cultivate a strong invoicing system that prevents late and unpaid payments from occurring. One way to do that is through e-invoicing.
What Is e-Invoicing?
E-invoicing is short for electronic invoicing.
A step further than digital invoices, e-invoices belong to a software system that automatically creates, processes, sends out, and stores perfectly accurate invoices on your behalf. As you can imagine, they are a game changers for many self-employed professionals.
Instead of creating your own digital invoices from scratch—or still printing or writing them out on paper—e-invoices empower freelancers to take control over their payments and ensure that no client has an excuse for late or insufficient payments.
How e-Invoices Can Get You Paid Faster
E-invoices offer freelancers (and any professional organization, for that matter) an opportunity to utilize faster, more efficient, and more accurate invoicing tools.
There’s a wide variety of different e-invoicing platforms to choose from. Yet, all of them feature a range of tools that facilitate fast invoice creation, data input, document storing, and sending, all with razor-sharp accuracy that prevents errors from occurring.
Here are 8 different ways e-invoicing promotes faster payments for freelancers that are consistently accurate and reliable.
Automatic systems are more efficient
Right from the start, e-invoices belong to complex, data-based systems that function automatically and are therefore more efficient than the average person. Driven by the information you provide about your work and your rates, an e-invoicing platform will handle everything on your behalf.
With their ruthless efficiency, these platforms can help you create and send out invoices faster, facilitating a quicker payment turnaround.
The invoice approval process is streamlined within these platforms, ensuring that each invoice undergoes thorough checks for accuracy and completeness before being sent. This not only saves time but also significantly reduces the likelihood of errors, making the whole process more reliable and user-friendly.
You mitigate the potential for error
One of the main reasons freelancers don’t get paid on time is that their invoices contain inaccurate information. This causes delays in invoice processing, as clients may need to confirm or negate your information before completing the payment.
Part of what makes accidental invoice errors so frustrating is that they are exactly that—accidental. No one would intentionally slow down the payment process when it’s their money in question. But without an electronic tool, those common errors often find their way onto the page.
With an e-invoicing system, you never have to worry about potential errors. Every invoice will be fact-checked, calculated, and screened to ensure that it’s 100% accurate and error-free.
Easier customization
If you’re in a line of work that requires you to add certain details or unusual rate calculation formats to your invoices, creating one from scratch every time can be a pain, even from a digital perspective.
With an e-invoice, you have more control over the customization and specificity of your invoices, allowing for more efficient payments to be made.
E-invoices look more professional and appealing
Another common reason behind late or unpaid invoices (especially in the freelancing world) relates to poorly constructed invoices that appear confusing or unprofessional. Clients can be surprisingly superficial, so the better your invoice looks, the more likely they are to pay on time.
Even though this might seem unfair, there’s no point moping about it. Instead, get your act together and find a layout that puts your profession in a good light.
But if you lack design skills, creating an aesthetically pleasing invoice isn’t always easy.
When you implement e-invoices, the software will do all that work for you. Often coming with the option to choose from multiple stunning invoice templates, you can rest assured that each outgoing invoice looks as sharp, professional, and visually balanced as competitors in your field.
Lower effort for you and your clients
The less effort involved with a task, the more likely you are to do it. And this applies to your clients, too. E-invoices are clean, easy to access, presentable, and require minimal effort to pay, making it much easier for clients to get on with the process of paying you what you’re owed.
Increased data security on both ends
Sometimes, the reason a client is taking too long to pay you is that they feel uncertain about the security of your invoice. These days, phishing and other cyber-based scams are extremely common, making people wary of opening documents they don’t completely trust.
But e-invoices can change that. Fully encrypted and legit, your clients will be able to see that your invoices have credit and are therefore safe to open, getting you your money on time.
Higher degree of control over the invoicing process
When it comes down to it, using an e-invoicing system is simply the faster and more efficient option. Through the heightened level of control you have over your invoices, and the ability to send and store them in a more legitimate way, you can speed up your payment rate and further your freelance career.
Conclusion: e-Invoicing Is A Valuable Tool For Every Freelancer
Being a freelancer may be tough. However, with the right tools at your side, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to enjoy a flourishing career.
As freelancing becomes further integrated into the contemporary workforce, e-invoicing will play a large role in separating the workers that thrive and those that get left behind in the dust.
Don’t be afraid of new invoicing tools and automation. Embrace both, and you’ll enjoy the many benefits of an efficient, independent billing system that set you apart from the competition.