When running a professional services business, it is increasingly important to maintain the utmost efficiency. Integrated payments by way of invoicing and accounting allow you to do just that.
In a survey conducted by PYMTS.com, about 44% of small to medium businesses are wary of implementing new payments technology while only 4% of businesses have automated their invoicing process. For some, it can feel daunting to find the best accounting software for your medium-sized business, but we’re here to help.
That said, not integrating payments could cost a business upwards of $500,000 in fines each month due to security vulnerabilities.
Benefits of integrating invoicing, payments, and accounting
Get paid faster
When using an integrated platform there’s a minimal delay from the time the service is delivered to when the customer is invoiced. In fact, delivering invoices with the “Pay Now” functionality at or near the time of service typically results in getting paid much faster. With an integrated platform, you’re also not waiting for checks to arrive by mail. Instead, you can empower your clients to pay invoices online, anytime, anywhere with their preferred payment methods.
Elimination of manual labor
Having an integrated payments platform frees up your team to do more high-level tasks. For example, it takes 4 to 5 minutes to manually reconcile and process invoice statements with no payment integration in place. For perspective, at 100 to 500 invoices per month that can easily be anywhere from 8 to 40 hours of work. By using a platform that integrates invoicing, payments, and accounting you can optimize operational efficiency and eliminate data entry errors.
Deliver on security
Say goodbye to the hassle of switching between systems for invoicing, payments, and accounting, with integrated payments you can level up your security. Gone are the days when you had to unsafely store credit card information in Quickbooks. Having an all-in-one platform for all your payment processing needs allows you to encrypt and store information in an online PCI-secure vault.
What to look for in the right integrated payments platform?
Transparency
When deciding what integrated platform would be best suited for your business make sure to do your homework. Find out if the company offers a succinct and simple payment model for different card types. Stay away from companies that don’t offer a clear pricing model up front. If you have to get your detective hat on to get a clear answer on pricing, it’s too complicated and a sign the company is not for you. Don’t fall for tiered pricing models where similar transactions are grouped together and categorized into tiers, each tier is then charged a different rate. Depending on the types of transactions, you could be paying upwards of 4% more in processing. Steer clear!
Simplicity
It’s not news that streamlining invoicing and consolidating the systems you work with makes your business easier to manage. Integrated platforms should strive to make your business operations as simple as possible and empower you to make processing decisions on your own. Look for features that add simplicity to your business operations like an all-in-one platform with a client portal to allow your clients to easily access and see all invoices, save payment methods, and pay any open invoices.
Customer service
A critical factor in selecting the right integrated platform is if it provides real-live human customer service. If you can access humans and solve your processing problems, it’s a win. Don’t forget that you are the customer and that you’re running a business.
If you are currently using software to manage your business, you may not want to use an entirely different system just for payments. As a business owner, your main priority should be to optimize your operational efficiencies, and working from different systems for payments, invoicing, and accounting results in a disjointed experience. It may also take longer to gain useful insights into your business and insert a needless delay into your operations.
Interested in exploring BigTime’s new integrated payments feature, BigTime Wallet? Request your personalized demo today to learn more.
This post was written by Aliza Sharma, Partner Associate at Stax by Fattmerchant.
