I want to know do you send a bill to your clients every month?
I mean the bill sent by your company not from credit card company.Is it important?

I think most clients would appreciate some sort of invoice sent for their own personal records. It's also a good idea to send one just so they know that their credit card has been billed , and for what reason. This will prevent them contacting you a month after the charge was made (when they get their cc bill) asking why such and such amount was charged to their card.

Just my opinion though :D

Hello,
Sem is absolutely correct in his thinking. I personally believe that it is always smart to send your customer an invoice each month. It all comes down to making a positive memorable experience for your customers. Little things like sending a hard copy invoice to your customers and randomly calling them to check on their business shows that you are taking a genuine interest in their suceess. Customer satisfaction is not enough. You need to build a loyal customer base. So from now on when you ask yourself if little things such as paper invoices are necessary, ask yourself if it would help create a positive memorable experience for your customers. If it does then it is a necessary step to take in your company.

Greg

Another reason we invoice every month is that we use a 3d party processor. This means that our company name is not listed on the customers credit card statement, so on our monthly invoices we make a note so that the customers will recognise the name on their statement.

Here's the next logical question...

What program/script/method do you use for keeping track of your customers and sending them their monthly invoices?

Thanks!

Well there are a few different programs that will do this for you... do a search and you will find quite a few opinions on the different programs. I use Quickbooks Pro personally, so I can't help with each program that is available.

Originally posted by alohahosts
Well there are a few different programs that will do this for you... do a search and you will find quite a few opinions on the different programs. I use Quickbooks Pro personally, so I can't help with each program that is available.

He's right, there are a lot. We use ModernBill and QuickBooks.

We also send out a invoice in PDF format so the customer can easily print it out and put it in there paper files.. or store it on there pc/mac...

At the moment we are using a few products but we are blending them together to produce a total automated billing system with a PDF work flow backend.

In other words order will be taken, recorded and printed as a post script file then converted to a pdf and sent to the customers email address.

When its all finished we are estimating that it will limit dramaticly the amount of hours/days we would need to bill everyone per month.

We have used MYOB and have been successful in the past but i believe it limits you when you start getting resellers and have to bill for excess bandidth etc.

Just my opinion as usual.

We use Revecom (3rd party processor) and they send an automatic invoice to the customer when they are billed each month.

The format looks something like this:

Dear <Customer Name>,

Your credit card has been billed for <Service Description> from <Company Name> on <Date>.

Merchant: <Company Name>
Last 4 Digits of CC: 1234
Amount: <Amount>
Reoccurring: <Yes / No>

This charge will appear on your credit card statement as "PaySystems.COM".

--------------------

Or something similar. I can't quite remember off the top of my head.

We can also download a copy of all the invoices in an Excel spreadsheet.

THX!everybody.
one more question.There are clients paying money at different days of a month.Then I have to send my bill to them everyday.It's quite hard to do,right?

We have just started Paper Snail Mail Invoices.
Customers LOVE IT!!!!! Well worth the 34 cents in stamps every month per address. I really didn't think it matteres all that much, but they are very happy with it. Also shows a little proof you are a legit company too I guess.
We bill on the first of every month, all invoices are printed automatically. Takes a few hours that day, but I can not believe the respose we have had.

Originally posted by nba2003
THX!everybody.
one more question.There are clients paying money at different days of a month.Then I have to send my bill to them everyday.It's quite hard to do,right?

Good question - I'd like opinions on this as well. I'm about to start up a reseller operation, and was going to do the following:

Bill everyone at the beginning of the month and prorate the first month for newcomers who arrive in the middle of the month. Seems like the books would stay cleaner that way, the aforementioned invoices would be easier, and payments for all customers would generally arrive at the same time each month (with recurring cc's that is)

Any opinions?

Sem

Originally posted by Sesran
We have just started Paper Snail Mail Invoices.
Customers LOVE IT!!!!! Well worth the 34 cents in stamps every month per address. I really didn't think it matteres all that much, but they are very happy with it. Also shows a little proof you are a legit company too I guess.
We bill on the first of every month, all invoices are printed automatically. Takes a few hours that day, but I can not believe the respose we have had.
If your clients are not local people then the fee would be high,right?

Originally posted by nba2003

If your clients are not local people then the fee would be high,right?

It depends on where you are located. In the US, a letter to any of the 50 states is $.34

Personally, I'd provide a statement in the TOS that only US residents (in this case) receive hardcopy invoices. International customers must rely on digital invoices.

Sem

PS Anyone have any answers for my prorate post above? :D

Originally posted by nba2003

If your clients are not local people then the fee would be high,right?
Actually, most of our customers are within the US and a few in Canada. .34 US & .60 CAN We do not have this in our TOS as mandatory, so if mailing to international country gets high priced, we can either ask customer to pay costs or only electronic for them. At this point I do not forsee a problem. I just know that for my business, I prefer paper copies of everything, makes it much easier when uncle sam wants to hear about your year.