When negotiating financing, it is advisable to compete on a case-by-case basis with financial institutions. A bank loan is usually contingent on a collateral security that will be easier to secure as the company becomes wealthier. This means that financing costs will be considerably lower than, for example, the normal investment and working capital loan. Also, a long-term customer relationship with a bank can affect the cost of financing because they are already familiar with your business. A career coach can guide you the best there.
- Try to centralize your banking and financial services at least over the long run, as using multiple banks will increase your financial costs and make it more difficult to secure collateral.
- Taking out personal insurance for a company and entrepreneurs from an insurance company that is affiliated with or owned by a banking group promotes access to affordable finance.
- Aim for a long-term bank relationship, because when a bad day comes, it is an advantage.
Billing
Traditional paper invoicing is, at least for the time being, a common practice in trade between small businesses and consumers. While paper invoicing can sometimes be a mandatory form of billing in consumer commerce and business, because of the recipient’s preference, it is definitely a good idea for an entrepreneur to try to minimize the cost of sending invoices electronically. Whenever possible, invoicing is convenient and quick to email in PDF format, leaving virtually zero billing costs. It’s a good idea to choose electronic invoicing as a method of invoicing when you do it regularly.
- When talking about electronic invoicing, we mean either the above-mentioned email invoice or e-invoice. E-invoicing is the delivery of the invoice data content to the customer in a specified format directly to the customer’s electronic information system, whereupon the invoice is automatically credited to the recipient’s accounts payable or to the online bank. The information contained in the e-invoice is automatically processed and contains all the information corresponding to the paper invoice.
- When sent to consumers, an electronic invoice can be sent to the payer’s online bank. Consumer e-invoicing in banks’ systems is called e-invoicing. If your company does not have a financial management system and would like to receive invoices as e-invoices, invoices can be submitted and sent electronically through the services of different operators and banks. You can also receive e-invoices for these services.
- Of course, these costs a bit. However, in my opinion, a modern accounting firm today must provide a billing system with e-billing capability to the customer at no extra charge.
If your company has a financial management system in place, find out if your billing software can send you e-invoices and your accounts payable can receive e-invoices. If your application is unable to do so, then it is strongly recommended that you upgrade to a newer version or upgrade to a new one with e-invoice processing capability.
