How To Choose The Right Small Business Billing Software
By Josh Bender, Sat Dec 17th

If you own or manage a small business, you know how much timecan be spent chasing down paper invoices, purchase orders andsales reports. It can be a real nightmare! That is where billingsoftware comes in. It allows you to record all your customers,sales, invoices, inventory, suppliers (and more) in a PC-basedsystem that is easy to use.

Deciding that you need to invest in good quality billingsoftware is not hard. The tricky part can be choosing the rightsoftware package for your requirements. There are dozens ofsystems on the market claiming to be the holy grail of all yourbusiness problems, but choosing the wrong one can cost youvaluable time and money.

Here's a simple checklist of 11 things to look for whenpurchasing software for your small business:

1) Customer records This is the core element of anybilling system. What sort of information do you need to recordabout your customers? There's the obvious things like address,phone, fax, mobile, email and web address. But what aboutmarketing-related information like "how did the customer findout about your business?", and "standard discounts" for keyclients.

2) Multiple contacts & Communication history If many ofyour clients are businesses with multiple contacts, can yourecord individual contact details for each person? Word of mouthis the most powerful form of advertising, and statistics showthat one of the most important factors in customer satisfactionis good customer service. Have you thought about keeping a logof all communication with your customers? It can be extremelyhelpful for improving internal communication within yourbusiness, and results in a more personalised service for yourclients.

3) Multiple shipments Obviously your softwarewill need to create sales orders - that's a gimme. But do youneed to record employee-related information, like who the"salesperson" was? What about flexible dispatch options, likemultiple shipments per sales order?

4) Search facility There's no point recording all thisreally useful information if there's no easy way to get to it.Check that the search facility is flexible and easy to use. Whatcriteria can you search by? Here are a couple useful fields youmay want to use: customer phone number, customer address, orderdate, dispatch date and dispatch consignment number.

5) Tax & regional support Are you able to change the taxrates on an order line basis? What about currency formatting? Ifyou and your clients are in Europe, then there's no point usingbilling software that can only handle US dollars.

6) Reporting Producing accurate reports in seconds issomething you no longer have to



dream about. In fact it is anecessity in today's competitive market. Ensure your billingsoftware can calculate information on sales based on date,salesperson and customer type. If you operate a B2B business,another key performance indicator may be dispatch totals, basedon date, and employee. But one important thing to remember aboutsoftware... you can only get out what you put in. So if you arelooking for a specific report, make sure that information isbeing recorded by your software package.

7) Backup I've seen first-hand how devastating a hardwarefailure can be. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of datacan be destroyed in seconds... if you do not have a backupprocedure in place. Ensure you select a software packagethat has a built-in backup utility or works with your currentbackup system.

8) Online help & support If you're a new computer user,then you'll definitely need a software package that has acomprehensive online and easy-to-use help system. Also check outwhat direct technical support is available through the vendor.Some software companies charge very high fees for personalsupport, so ensure you include this in your budget.

9) Budget How much are you going to spend? That reallydepends on the complexity of the software package you arelooking for. Smaller software packages can be found underUS$100, and larger more complex packages can cost well overUS$3000. Take a look at the number of customers you have, thenumber of sales orders you process, and choose a solution thatfits your business.

10) Customisations If you purchase an off-the-shelfbilling software package, you may require minor customisationsto suit your unique business processes and industry. Somesoftware vendors offer customisations at quite reasonableprices. But ensure you include this cost in your budget.

11) Other features What else do you want from you billingsoftware? If you deal with fixed price products, you may need acomprehensive inventory management system allowing you topurchase stock, manage inventory levels and supplier relations.Some quality software packages also include a useful follow-updiary, allowing you to keep track of tasks and assign them toother staff members.

When choosing a software package for your business, makesure you check that it offers everything your business needs.And then the only thing you'll have to worry about is what to dowith all your newly found spare time!

About the author:Josh Bender is an experienced database developer and qualifiedsoftware engineer. He helps small-to-medium businessesstreamline processes and improve efficiency using reliable andproven software solutions. Take a free test drive of'InstantSalesTracker', easy-to-use software:http://www.InstantSalesTracker.com

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