Invoicing is a critical part of running any business, but it can often be a time-consuming, manual process. Thankfully, mobile invoicing apps are changing the game by allowing you to create and send professional invoices right from your smartphone or tablet.
In this article, we'll explore what mobile invoicing is and dive into the top benefits it provides to help streamline your business operations and get you paid faster.
What is mobile invoicing?
Mobile invoicing is the ability to create and send invoices to clients using a mobile app on your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. Rather than being tied to your office computer, you can manage your invoicing on the go.
A mobile invoicing app acts as a mobile version of invoicing software, with all the key features you need to:
- Create and customize professional invoice templates
- Input client and payment details
- Track time and expenses to add to invoices
- Send invoices electronically to clients via email or text
- Accept online payments
- Track status of sent invoices and payments
- Access all data across desktop and mobile devices
So wherever you are, this allows you to have a complete invoicing solution at your fingertips.
7 benefits of mobile invoicing
As more businesses adopt mobile invoicing, it's becoming clear that this technology offers a number of significant advantages over traditional billing methods, which include:
Work from anywhere
The beauty of mobile invoicing is that it unshackles you from your desk. All your data is synced in the cloud, so you can access client details, create and send invoices, and check payment statuses whether you're at the office, on a job site, or traveling.
If you're a freelancer, contractor, or field service professional who is often on the road visiting clients, mobile invoicing lets you take care of billing while you're out and about. You no longer have to wait until you're back at your computer to handle invoicing—you can do it between appointments or right after finishing a job.
Create invoices on demand
Some of the most common invoicing mistakes are forgetting to send an invoice or waiting too long after a job to send it. A user-friendly free invoice app solves both issues by letting you create invoices immediately from wherever you are.
With your client's details pre-loaded into the app, you can quickly generate an invoice and send it off as soon as a project is complete. This is particularly handy for contractors, consultants, and other service providers who work onsite at a client's home or business. No more telling the client you'll invoice them later and risk forgetting.
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Customize your mobile invoice template with your business logo, brand colors, and payment terms and save it for fast invoicing every time.
Track time and expenses
For professionals who bill by the hour, mobile invoicing apps make it simple to track your time. Instead of having to manually log your hours after the fact, you can track time on the go as you work using the mobile timer. Just enter the project or client name, start the timer, and stop it when you're done. The app will log the billable hours for you.
Some mobile apps also integrate with GPS on your phone to automatically track travel time and employee mileage. You can also snap photos of itemized receipts for expenses and attach them to the associated invoices. All of this tracked time and expenses then gets pulled onto your invoice for billing the client.
With everything recorded in real-time, it ensures you don't miss billing for any hours worked or expenses incurred. It also provides a clear electronic record in case a client ever disputes an invoice. This automatic time and expense tracking is a huge timesaver over manual methods. It also gives you a more accurate picture of your time spent on each project, which can help with future job costing and profitability analysis.
Speed up payments
Perhaps the biggest benefit of mobile invoicing is its potential to get you paid faster. The easier and more convenient you make it for clients to pay you, the sooner they're likely to do it. Mobile invoicing helps expedite payments in a few key ways:
- Accept online payments: Mobile invoicing apps let you accept credit cards and other online payment options, like ACH transfers or PayPal. Many have payment processing built right in, so clients can simply click a link on the invoice to pay instantly online.
- Send automatic reminders: Let's face it, sometimes even the most well-intentioned clients forget to pay on time. Rather than wasting time chasing down overdue payments yourself, a mobile invoicing app can automatically send reminder emails or texts. You can customize the reminder schedule and message, then forget about it as the app follows up for you. This takes the awkwardness out of pestering clients about late payments and gets money in your hands sooner.
- See payment status instantly: With mobile invoicing, you can check the status of any invoice in seconds. Most apps have a central dashboard that displays all your invoices and indicates which are paid, unpaid, or past due. You can even set up notifications to alert you the moment a client makes a payment. With all this information at a glance, you always know where you stand cash flow-wise.
Provide better client service
Mobile invoicing doesn't just benefit you, it makes life easier for your clients as well. Clients appreciate the convenience of paying online or from their phone. It saves them from having to write and mail a check.
Receiving payments via mobile and sending invoices electronically also demonstrates that you're a modern business. If clients are used to getting paper invoices, they may be impressed when you send a sleek, professional invoice via email with an online payment link. It elevates their customer experience and suggests you're on the cutting edge of industry trends and technology.
Mobile invoicing also empowers you to be highly responsive to clients. If you're on the phone with a client who has a billing question, you can instantly pull up their invoice and payment history to assist them. The personal touch and immediacy you can provide helps strengthen relationships.
Streamline recordkeeping
In addition to simplifying the invoicing process itself, mobile invoicing also makes recordkeeping a breeze. All your invoices, payments, client info, and related data are digitally recorded in the cloud. With just a few taps on your phone, you can pull up any past invoice or client record.
This digital documentation is not only easier to access, but also reduces the risk of anything getting lost or thrown away accidentally. Cloud storage keeps your financial data secure and backed up. Having all your records organized and accessible from anywhere is also a major advantage come tax time. You can quickly pull the reports you need to give to your accountant or file your taxes yourself.
Improve cash flow management
Healthy cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. If you're not getting paid on time consistently, it can lead to financial strain and difficulty covering expenses. Mobile invoicing provides the tools and insights you need to better manage cash flow.
At any time, you can see the exact status of your accounts receivable, including:
- How much money clients owe you
- What invoices are coming due soon
- Which clients tend to pay late
- Monthly recurring revenue
- Your average time to get paid
By monitoring your cash flow trends, you can better anticipate ebbs and flows in income. This helps with budgeting, planning for large expenses, and maintaining adequate cash reserves. Some mobile invoicing apps even offer cash flow forecasting tools that predict your income over the coming months. This level of foresight is invaluable for making smart long-term financial decisions.
How to make an invoice on mobile
Making an invoice on mobile is quick and easy with the right app. Here are the typical steps to follow:
- Download a mobile invoicing app on your phone or tablet.
- Create a new invoice and select a template
- Add your business logo and customize the colors and layout
- Enter the client's contact info and invoice details
- Include a description of the products/services sold
- Specify quantities, prices, taxes, discounts, etc.
- Set the payment terms and due date
- Save the invoice and send to the client via email or text
You can also choose to make an online invoice with our free and customizable invoice generator.
How Ramp streamlines mobile invoicing with expense and AP management
While mobile invoicing apps can greatly simplify billing on the go, managing business expenses involves much more than just sending invoices. That's where Ramp comes in. Ramp offers a complete expense management platform with powerful mobile capabilities that make it effortless to track and control all your business spending. Not only that, Ramp also provides a seamless AP workflow to make juggling with invoices easy.
With the Ramp mobile app, you can access virtual and physical corporate cards, automatically capture receipts, and submit expenses as you go. Ramp's AI-powered software categorizes transactions, enforces spend policies, and flags any issues in real-time. Managers can review and approve reimbursement requests, adjust card limits, and monitor their team's spending, all from their phone.
By unifying every aspect of expense management in one mobile-friendly interface, Ramp saves you time and gives you unprecedented visibility and control over your business finances wherever you are.
John is a freelance writer and content strategist with over three years of experience and expertise covering topics on finance, HR/business, and IT security for small and medium-sized businesses. His work has been featured on reputable platforms like Forbes Advisor and Techopedia.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-iwuozor/
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