The tedious task of tracking down field staff to check when, where, and what work they’ve completed, including hours worked and materials used, is undoubtedly causing a nightmare for your clients. Not to mention the wasted time spent manually comparing schedules to hours worked. This isn’t only an inefficient invoice management process, it’s a pesky and downright stressful task for everyone involved.

In times like these, post COVID, businesses are working towards getting back to normal as restrictions begin to ease. Keeping cash flowing will help to keep their business ticking over and prosper in the future. As their trusted accounting advisor, you’ll be their reminder of this and have a unique opportunity to offer additional tools to support them. 

So how can you help your field service clients streamline their invoice payment process and avoid missing money? By recommending systems that can remove the manual processes in their existing invoice management workflows. Let’s take a look at the top ways your clients can use job management software to streamline their invoice payment process and get customers to pay on time.

Single database for Contacts

Job management software like simPRO, provides a single location to store all customer information so your clients can stop wasting time trying to track down customer information for invoicing from multiple places and people in their business.

A single database centralises all customer information. It keeps it organised and up-to-date so that invoices and payment reminders go to the right customer at the right time.

Job management software not only houses all important customer information but can even automate sending customer invoices based on event triggers, such as field staff completing a job.

This saves your clients time and helps them to provide a more streamlined invoice payment process enabling customers to quickly and easily pay for work as soon as it’s complete. As a result, your clients can avoid the last-minute scramble to get customers to pay.

simPRO makes managing contact information in a single database even easier with duplicate contact reports and an option to merge contacts manually.

Both features help remove duplicate contacts and keep contact databases clean, so that customer invoicing remains accurate and accessible by any member of your client’s team.

Collect payments quickly and easily in the field

Remote mobile apps allow field staff to make real-time updates to job progress and contact information right from the field. With the simPRO Mobile app it also enables them to issue an invoice and take payment from the field via Square integration capabilities.

The Square Payments functionality makes it easy to include debit and credit card payment options for customers at the time of completed work. Using Square with simPRO is easy. Your clients simply pair Square’s contactless payment device with a tablet or smartphone to invoice and collect payments in the field. When a customer pays via Square, this updates in real-time to their simPRO database as well.

The latest update to Square capabilities in simPRO also allows your clients to take recurring payments from customers automatically. By providing customers with a secure automatic payment option for ongoing recurring payments through the simPRO Customer Portal, your clients can charge recurring invoices automatically when they are due.

As a result, your clients won’t forget to invoice customers, and customers will more likely pay on-time, keeping cash flow moving and helping your clients avoid the last-minute scramble for unpaid invoices.

Get invoice alerts

Cloud-based invoice tracking not only keeps track of invoices but also alerts your clients when they’re due or overdue. The latest invoicing update in simPRO shows an alert if your clients create a new job for a customer with outstanding invoices.

This allows your field service clients to easily follow up with customers on unpaid invoices as they find them, rather than waiting until the last minute or end of the month to track down missing payments.

This feature gives your clients the ability to follow up on overdue funds before booking in more work with that customer, helping your clients to stay on top of their cash flow. It also provides more visibility and transparency into customer payment history for the right members of your client’s team.

Seamlessly integrate accounting software

Job management software not only makes it easier for customers to pay on time, but also helps your clients run more efficient business operations. 

To ensure a truly end-to-end solution, it’s important your client’s accounting software can integrate with their job management software. This will help to eliminate manual data entry, tedious hours cross-referencing transactions and keep both financial and business data accurate. 

Software such as simPRO quickly syncs with Xero enabling customer invoices, and more, to be sent directly from simPRO to Xero. With a direct bank feed to Xero, payments to your client’s bank account will also be linked to invoices that most likely match that payment. Once in Xero, these payments can be brought back to simPRO, keeping your client’s data consistent. 

A comprehensive end-to-end solution

simPRO enables your clients to provide their customers with payment flexibility, create professional invoices from the field, and integrate with accounting solutions to streamline the invoice management process. As a result, your clients will see better cash flow and have more time to focus on completing work, winning new business and growing their company.

Want to recommend simPRO to your clients? Get in touch with one of simPRO’s friendly Partner Managers.