From its launch in 2008, Zoho Invoice has developed features designed to help small business owners.
“We have had small businesses as our target market since the beginning,” said Zoho Invoice product expert Harikrishna. “Invoicing is the first thing they need to do right.”
Harikrishna announced that Zoho decided to offer Invoice free to small businesses “as a way to give something back to the small business community.”
What Does Zoho Invoice Do?
There are many challenges surrounding the task of invoicing customers.
Invoicing is typically a time-consuming administrative task. For example, keeping up with who has paid on time, and who has not, can take up hours of time. Done right, an invoice presents a professional appearance. It clearly shows how much money is due, and when.
As part of business operations and planning, a software application like Zoho Invoice also tracks a businesses income and expenses. It can let you know what’s being sold, and who’s doing the selling.
With one click, you have access to a dashboard where you can view current amounts, outstanding amounts, as well as the number of days outstanding (16-30, 31-45, more than 45, for example). Using the dashboard you can easily navigate to customer information, project cost (fixed or hourly) and more.
You choose – there are more than 30 built-in reports you can generate from Zoho Invoice. For instance, you can track revenue from a specific project, performance of salespeople, what type of payment method is most often chosen, and which customers are spending the most money.
Zoho Invoice Quick Highlights
- Zoho Invoice is used by millions of customers and is used in 150 countries.
- Zoho Invoice includes the ability to use 17 languages and more than 170 currencies (with exchange rates built into the transaction).
Zoho Invoice Components
Here are some key components of Zoho Invoice that makes it an effective tool for small business:
Invoicing
- You can convert estimates to invoices, once the estimate is approved by the customer.
- You can create an invoice from a desktop computer or from a mobile phone.
- You can customize every aspect (such as adding a logo) and choose from many templates.
- You can send invoices by email, SMS, payment links or via the Zoho Invoice customer portal.
Payment Collections
- You’ll know your DSO (Day Sales Outstanding) with one click.
- Customers can pay in a variety of ways, such as credit card, ACH and PayPal.
- You can accept advance, partial or multiple payments, to keep the cash flow steady.
- You can set up Invoice to issue automatic payment reminders, at time lengths you choose after the due date (such as, reminder 3 days after payment was due, etc.
Expense Tracking
- You can track billable and non billable expenses.
- You can use GPS or odometer readings for mileage expenses.
- You can auto scan expense receipts.
- You can create recurring expenses, such as overhead expenses like phone, internet, leases.
Time Tracking
“Time Tracking is a favorite of customers”, said Zoho Invoice product expert Santhosh G.
“A lot of customers really like this feature of Zoho Invoice,” he said. “The business owner can log time spent on a project, using the web or mobile apps, and then add a time sheet note to the invoice.”
The time sheet note will list all days and hours spent on the project. The information will appear on the invoice.
Built In Reports
Business owners can choose to generate more than 30 types of reports from Invoice, such as:
- Sales by customer
- Performance of salespeople
- Revenue for each project
- Payment modes
Collaboration
- Business owners and clients can view Invoice in real time using the client portal (or the business can choose to not allow the client into the portal).
- In the portal, clients can view, edit and pay invoices.
- The business owner will get notified when the client views an invoice, and when the invoice is paid.
Native Apps
Using Apps, the business owner can keep up with Invoice while traveling, including:
- Estimates and quotes
- Retainer invoices
- Invoices
- Recurring Invoices
Integrations
- The Zoho Invoice integrations are seamless. Within the Zoho ecosystem they include: Zoho Flow, Zoho Creator and Zoho Sign (remote document signing).
- Additional third party integrations include: PayPal, Google Workspace, Office 365, CRM, 2checkout, Fundbox, Analytics, Authorize.net and more.
Tax Handling
- Zoho Invoice has 12 region-specific tax handling components.
- You can track sales tax levied on every transaction and use that info to generate tax reports.
- You can separate customers as taxable or nontaxable (exempt).
Compliance
Using Zoho Invoice you’ll be:
- GDPR compliant
- PCI compliant
- HIPAA compliant
- ISO 9001 compliant
Invoicing is absolutely critical to small businesses because without good invoicing you don’t get paid! The best way to make sure your invoicing is timely and that payments are being carefully tracked is with good invoicing software.
Zoho Invoice goes above and beyond in this department by offering a fully functional dashboard that not only shows you the current amounts on your invoices and what’s outstanding but also how long invoices have gone without being paid.
How much would you pay to have a tool that allows you to easily track invoices and overdue payments so you never leave money on the table?
Well, for now Zoho Invoice is being offered for free as a way to give back to the SMB community.
This article, “How Zoho Invoice Will Help Your Business – for FREE” was first published on Small Business Trends
