How To Choose The Right Software For Recurring Billing

When a seller charges the buyer automatically based on a predefined agreement for goods and services, it is called recurring billing or subscription invoicing. Such an agreement creates auto-invoicing tasks on behalf of businesses by collecting recurring fees from customers without fail.

For small to medium-sized businesses and freelancers, this accounting solution is vital for positive cash flow and quick payments. Moreover, it can mitigate misunderstandings while automating trivial tasks. 

Here are three of the most popular subscription businesses around the world:

• Prepaid Internet/ Home Wi-Fi Subscription
• Amazon Prime Subscription
• Utility Bills (cable, water, gas, electricity)

Most subscription billing solutions are designed for managing accounting processes without any hassles. When an error does occur, you can set up customized auto-reminders that alert customers during failed bill payments. Most importantly, can speed up payments and keep a tab on the transactions in one place.

It is good to pick a service provider which offers recurring invoices in addition to one-time payment. However, you need to ensure the invoicing application actually meets your business requirements. To do so, review the five top features and compare your demands with the shortlisted software options.

1. The Name Of The Game: Automation

By automating repetitive tasks in their billing processes, small business owners can boost efficiency and cut down on operational costs. You can also gain insights into cash flow, profits, and revenue with reports and statistics generated from automated processes. 

When a smart subscription billing service can be accompanied by incentives and rewards you can automate, it even encourages the customer to pay ahead of the deadline. In fact, automation is crucial for business payment processes because manual errors often lead to costly legal and financial obligations. Hence, picking a good billing software solution with advanced automation tools will optimize your accounting tasks.

Here are the three main reasons you should use software with embedded automation for repeating invoices:

• Complete Billing Workflows: Schedule accounting tasks from start to finish for several clients without the help of a developer or accountant.
• Save Time, Money, Resources: Save time and resources by sending recurring invoices automatically.
• Automated Payment Reminders: Auto-generated invoice reminders can help businesses process the payments quickly.

2. Billing Period Frequency Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually, Annually

You can select the services of a recurring invoice solution by its price. Most differ based on the payable lengths such as monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or half-yearly cycles. You need to set a billing frequency that matches with the dates of your contract and invoicing software can help with that along with much more.

There are two reasons why setting the payable account frequency is a must-have feature when seeking a good solution.

• Custom Billing Dates: You can create your own personalized sale cycles by setting a custom date based on the starting date of the contract.
• Never Forget The Billing Date: Invoicing software will remind you when to invoice the client once you create and update new invoice cycles.

3. Failed Transaction And Error Management

Dunning management is a term that refers to the capability of an invoicing software to handle challenges that arise from declined credit card payments. With a billing solution provider, you can create custom sequences by adding email reminders to address errors due to payment failure in recurring invoices. It can include automated retries based on repeated failed bills depending on the credit records of your client or customer.

Here are two ways on how invoicing software resolves the main challenges of bounced invoices.

• Reduce The Impact Of Failed Transactions: Dunning tools can alleviate the negative effects of failed payments by recording necessary payment information of the client.
• Automatic Due Date Notifications: The intuitive reporting features of billing applications help freelance agencies by sending auto-reminder emails to customers before and after the due date.  

4. Multi Currency Support

Businesses with clients and customers from all over the world need a billing solution that supports multiple currencies. This increases the chance of repeating invoices getting paid in a timely fashion. Invoicing software also saves your time and money by handling currency conversions and accounting for total multi currency-expenses on its own.

There are two key points that make multi currency support vital for freelancers and SMBS.

• Saves Resources: You do not have to employ a professional to handle your multi-currency repeating payments; and thus it saves your money.
  
• Work With Anyone: Having a global recurring invoice solution that can manage multiple currencies gets you paid quickly from domestic and overseas clients.

5. Subscription Billing Software Vs. Payment Gateways For Recurring Billing

While a billing system requires you to buy the service, payment gateways are often available free of costs. To determine the best strategy that complements the accounting processes of the business, it is important to compare your requirements with the features of each recurring payment service.

When you sign up for an invoicing software subscription, you receive a personalized dashboard to streamline the complete accounting processes. Ranging from multi currency expenses to late payment interest, these solutions are customized for business invoicing purposes. Furthermore, these platforms can generate custom reports and statistics based on the accounting transactions you handle via the application.

Although third party payment providers can send invoices directly to the client, their features stop there.

For growing ecommerce businesses and freelancers, billing solutions offer integrations with payment gateways while the opposite is not very easy to find. In light of this, most invoice subscription software offers advanced accounting solutions best for managing businesses efficiently.

Best Subscription Billing Software Available Today

It is true that software for invoicing is designed to resolve common accounting challenges. Consequently, you need to lookout for specific features like automation and error management when choosing a software for recurring receipts.

Here is a list of the top four subscription accounting solutions you can use for repeating payments.  

• Tipalti is an invoicing platform that offers Accounts Payable Automation (AP Automation) to improve workflow efficiency.
• FreshBooks software for invoicing provides custom dates in addition to billing period frequencies that include weekly, monthly, or yearly.
• Invoice2Go supports up to 45 currencies, which is ideal for quick disbursement of repeating bills.
• Xero’s accounting platform integrates with Rerun, which is a web-oriented solution perfect for US and Canadian businesses in need of recurring and one-time invoices. 

To conclude, it is important to choose a software based on its multifaceted features with your critical business needs in mind.