Three Reasons Why Invoice Templates are Worth Your Time
Invoice templates take an instant to download and mere seconds to use, yet many small business owners still think they’re not worth the effort. In reality, though, invoice templates come with a number of distinct advantages—including their adaptability, their accessibility, and their seamless implementation of proper invoice layout.
Who has time for invoice templates, anyway?
The answer many entrepreneurs will give is, not me. We can’t say that we blame you. After all, the life of the small business owner is always hectic, and there is never a shortage of things to be done. Downloading, exploring, and implementing invoice templates might seem like just another thing to add to the to-do list—an unnecessary waste of time.
But please, think about it from another perspective.
Invoicing itself is not a waste of your time. In fact, it is an essential use of your time, a core business competency that no small business owner can neglect. If you don’t invoice, you don’t get paid—simple as that. So invoicing is absolutely something that should be on your to-do list, like it or not.
Now back to invoice templates. Though downloading and using invoice templates may take a few moments, it is ultimately an activity that can save you much more time down the road, shaving many minutes off your daily invoicing processes. Don’t think of it as a way to spend your time, then, but rather as a way to invest it.
In this blog, we’ll try to convince you that invoice templates are well worth looking into. We’ll give you three particular reasons: That invoice templates are adaptable; that invoice templates are accessible; and that invoice templates are structured in a way that makes proper invoicing more effective.
Invoicing Templates are Adaptable
Our first point is about adaptability—and we’ll begin this section with a question: How do you prefer to invoice? Different business owners have different preferences, and there isn’t necessarily a right or a wrong answer. It just depends on what’s best for you and for your customers—invoicing online, invoicing via snail mail, or perhaps even a mixture of both.
Well, with invoice templates, you can in fact do both, or you can choose the method that’s best for you—no fuss, no hassle. Just good, clean ways to invoice effectively.
Sending an online invoice is certainly advantageous, and for a number of reasons. The most important one is simply this: When you invoice online, your invoice makes it to the customer almost instantly, instead of having a two- or three-day delay while the Postal Service does its thing. Also important is the fact that, when you send an online invoice, customers can click a link to pay you at their leisure, using either a credit card or PayPal.
Meanwhile, a printable invoice also has its merits. Some customers simply prefer it, feeling that it is more “official” somehow. And true enough: People receive so few snail mail correspondences these days that the arrival of a paper invoice carries a certain sense of importance, a sense of urgency.
Our point is not to advocate for one over the other. Our point is that if you download and implement invoice templates, you can either e-mail or print an invoice PDF in mere seconds—making this a supremely flexible way to bill your customers!
Invoicing Templates are Accessible
Here’s our second reason why invoice templates are worth your time: In the end, they actually won’t take much of your time at all. Invoice templates are incredibly accessible. Do a quick Google search and you’ll see that there are plenty of them out there; you can download them in seconds, and start using them immediately. Invoice templates are almost always free, too. There is no hurdle to implementing them, and in fact we have some free invoice templates available right here at BizXpert.
What could be easier?
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, we should note that there are some other invoicing tools out there that are similarly accessible—easy to find, easy to acquire, and often inexpensive, even free! Online invoice generators fit this bill; we have a BizXpert invoice generator you can use right away. Invoice apps often fall into this category, as well. Not every invoice app is free, but the BizXpert one is!
We bring it up because these tools offer even more utility, even more features than an invoice template ever could—so if you like the invoice template but need more, generators and especially apps will provide higher degrees of invoicing automation and invoice management.
As a starting point, though, you could do much worse than invoice templates—which brings us to our third and final point…
Invoicing Templates are Structured
It’s not just that they have a structure. It’s that they have the right structure. Invoice templates provide you with a clear skeleton, the proper foundation for good invoice layout and invoice design.
And that matters. Invoices have a standard format for a reason. The standard invoice format ensures that all the correct information is in place, with nothing superfluous. In other words, it ensures that invoices are thorough but also simple—useful, readable, and quick! Well-designed invoices enhance the customer experience and help you to get paid quicker, so it’s very much worthwhile to ensure your invoices are designed the right way.
This begs the question: Are your invoices designed the right way?
If you’re invoicing from scratch, the answer is difficult to pin down—but if you’re invoicing with the help of invoice samples, then you can rest assured that your layout is on point. And even if you one day move beyond invoice templates, using them for a short time will help you master the art of invoice design—something you will take with you throughout your entrepreneurial life.
A Better Way to Invoice?
Invoice templates aren’t going to suddenly make your invoicing process a cake walk. Let’s be clear about that. The best way to ensure a proper invoicing process is to invest in true invoicing automation—and that means an invoice app, like BizXpert. With BizXpert, you can not only create invoices but send them, sort them, track them, and customize them—all within seconds. It’s simply the easiest way to invoice.
If you’re looking for a tool you can download and use immediately, though, without a learning curve, then try invoicing templates today. You might be amazed at how much easier they’ll make your entrepreneurial life.
