News Archives - Envoice

Accounting Software, Invoicing tool or Do Invoicing the Traditional Way

2017-09-12 | News | No Comments

Each business has to handle its finances which include invoicing and bookkeeping in most cases. It can also include estimation of taxes, expenses, and billing from clients, which is the key feature in every sustainable and profitable business.

With the tendency of growth in all online businesses, as well as the increment in the number of freelancers and independent contractors, the need to have the right online tool or software to help with invoicing and bookkeeping is getting more stronger.

But when is the best time to get rid of the endless spreadsheets and docs in the cloud and start using a tool that can save you time, make you seem professional in-front of your clients and help you get your finances in a row?

Each and every one of us has started doing their invoices the hard way – the traditional way. In the beginning, the accounting needs to be simple and easy. All you need is a good knowledge of MS Excel, Mac Numbers, or Google Sheets. But as your business grows your accounting and invoicing becomes more complex. And you need more time to do it by yourself and it is a risk for potential mistakes while doing it.

Then comes the need to research and try out invoicing tools or accounting software or maybe both.

Here are several points to keep in mind on why you need an invoicing tool or accounting software:

If you create invoices, you need an invoicing tool. That’s the only way you can benefit from features such as recurring invoices and automatic payment reminders.
Invoicing software is very affordable. Some invoicing tools start from 0$ – 20$ per month depending on the features they offer.
When looking for “Accounting Software,” keep in mind to look for “double-entry accounting” or “double-entry bookkeeping” feature. If the software does not have that it’s an accounting software.

But what if you are a freelancer that has only a few clients. Or you just started your business?

Here are some criteria to have in order to qualify to use an invoicing software or tool:

You don’t have inventory.
You don’t have any payable account – like stuff you haven’t paid but you are going to soon
You are a one-person business and you don’t have any employees

Invoicing tools bring a lot of benefits for your business. Here are some of them:

They have fewer features and are simpler to use
Better value for money. Usually, they are much affordable for starting businesses
You can be paid faster especially since most invoicing software allows you to receive online payments via services like Payoneer, PayPal or Stripe
Accounting software can be hard to manage and confusing if you don’t have an accountant knowledge.
You will be more organized and you will look more professional in front of your clients
You can collect automatic payments and sales information
You will save time and resources used for traditional invoicing
You can send invoices from everywhere and have secure data

So do you use accounting software, invoicing tool or you do your invoicing the traditional way? Let us know!

By Eva Piperevska

Invoicing: Do it Yourself or Hire a Professional?

2017-09-05 | ALL, News | No Comments

Many small business owners struggle when it comes to bookkeeping, accounting or invoicing. Some decide not to use the services of professionals and others tend to pay accounts at the moment they launch their business.

There are situations when business owners decide they will use professional accounting or invoicing only part time like when they need to create a business plan or company formation, to fill in the loan application or create government audit.

In all cases when starting a business you need to focus on the growth of the company and eliminate all time spending tasks. Because if it takes you 10 hours to do your invoicing, and your time is worth $100 an hour. That’s a cost of $1000 to do your invoicing yourself.

So if you are thinking of doing your invoicing yourself or hiring a professional here are some tips you can take under consideration:

An accountant can do a complete analysis of your financial situation and offer strategic advice. It’s always good to have a professional take a look at your business finances and give you a clear picture of the whole situation. Even if it just an audit.
Outsource if you can afford in-house. Many small business owners stick to outsourcing accounting or bookkeeping services for quite some time and in some cases, they outsource them for part-time as they don’t need a full-time person for that type of task.
If you decide to hire an accountant do that when you are ready to delegate – some business owners need to control everything in order to run their businesses but the moment you let go of some of this control you can focus on your part and that is managing your business and employees. That moment is perfect to hire an in-house accountant.
Hire an accountant when you need to deal with government or audits – these are serious matters where you need to have a professional on board. Have this in mind when you need to fill government paperwork, you are being audited or even in a situation when you need apply for a business loan or overdraft.
Calculate and plan – if you are a small business or you are just starting you can start doing you invoicing or account at first, as there are a lot of tips, tools, and software that will guide you on how to do it best without taking too much time from your core business

Whatever option you choose is up to you and what you think is best for your business.

By Eva Piperevska

10 tips on practicing to become a strategic leader

2017-08-31 | ALL, News | No Comments

If you start researching you can see that most companies have leaders that have strong operational that are needed to maintain perfect organization and productivity in each team. Which of course is crucial when running a business.

The lack of employees with know-how, experience, and confidence can bring down your business and cause problems that can not be fixed in time. In some cases, this means total anarchy in the company, missing respect, and managerial hierarchy – mostly seen in the companies or startups where the lean organizational structure is practiced.

But it does not matter if you are a new small business owner or a startup founder. Having a strong leadership and management in the company is the key to running a successful business.

According to a research done in 2015 among 6,000 senior executives analyzed only 8 percent of them turned out to be strategic leaders or those effective at leading transformations. But what it takes to be a strategic leader to run a company in good times and bad times through different transformations? Here are several tips that you can practice to become a successful strategic leader:

Distribute responsibility – one of the things you can do regarding the distribution of responsibilities is to know your own current and future role and responsibilities of the company after which to identify each employee’s duties and level of responsibilities. That way you will have a clear structure of roles and responsibilities in the company as well as you can be informed of the potential each employee has as well as be ready for possible restructure if needed

Be honest and open when sharing information – employees prefer honesty instead of internal PR and missing out of important company information that is considering their work position and future in the company. So being open is hones can build strong loyalty towards you and the company

Have several ways for raising and testing ideas – from brainstorming to A/B testing, from encouraging one to one meetings with team members to open discussions, there are multiple ways to bring out ideas within the team and boost team work and team spirit.

Create a safe environment for failure – most people have fear of failing which can lead to demotivation, lack of contributing to team work and fear of losing their job. That is why it is crucial to use methods like test-driven development, eliminate the blame game points and reward some failure moments, divide failures into: preventable, complexity-related, and intelligent mistakes and deal with them with a different approach, and create best practices for safety and risk management to avoid unavoidable failures in complex systems.

Give access to another strategist – diversity and different point of view can always be beneficial for the company, especially when it comes to strategies from different industries or teams that can see things objectively and share ideas for improvement.

Provide opportunities for experience-based learning – real-life experience has often shown that working in outside environment can boost learning, brainstorming, developing new ideas and boosting team work. Having that combined with opportunities like month climbing, cycling, fun games, swimming etc can give surpassing results among the team

Hire for transformation – not just to fill in someone else’s spot. If your company is growing and developing, then hiring new competencies is an important requirement for seeking executive talent from outside your organization.

Bring your whole self to work – embrace the fact that you can be vulnerable. Too often we avoid difficulties, challenges, and conflicts with others because we’re afraid of the consequences of speaking up. But, if we engage in those kinds of conversations, we can increase our ability to resolve conflicts and create deeper connections.

Find time to reflect – period for you to create a good time-management schedule, self-retrospective, and organization as well as one-thing-at-a-time focus

Let the leadership development be your ongoing practice – don’t push yourself to bring results in a short period of time. Unleashing leadership potential in all employees will help you develop your leadership skills as well, boosting team spirit and helping company growth.

By Eva Piperevska

5 most important points every PayPal account holder should know

2017-08-17 | News | No Comments

If you are a freelancer or a small business owner and you have a PayPal account, there is at least one example where you found yourself struggling with PayPal plans, fees, TOS, different account types etc.

FREE E-Book: 3 Important Things To Know About Calculating PayPal, Payoneer and Stripe Fees >>>>>> Download >>>>>

If you do a short research on Google Search you can find hundreds of people having issues with Paypal, Payoneer or Stripe fees. Those people in most cases had problems with not knowing the additional fees that they were charged when doing a transaction paying online or converting to another currency.

We are Envoice wanted to do a thorough evaluation and research regarding those so called “hidden” fees and come up with several points that every PayPal account holder should know.

There are two types of accounts in PayPal. Personal and Business. One person can have two accounts: Personal and Business
It’s free to open a PayPal account for all account types.
Receiving funds from a PayPal personal account is free but Receiving funds from a PayPal business account involves fees
You can also receive funds from a credit/debit card.
Stay safe and never click a PayPal link in your email. There are lots of scammers around.

If you want to know more about each specific PayPal fee download our FREE E-Book: 3 Important Things To Know About Calculating PayPal, Payoneer and Stripe Fees >>>>>> Download >>>>>

By Eva Piperevska

4 ways to protect your business cashflow

2017-08-15 | News | No Comments

4 ways to protect your business from cashflow

Most businesses have one common enemy, and that is cashflow problems. It does not matter if you are selling a product or providing a service, in case you don’t get paid on time, your business might be on the edge to fail.

According to the statistics, 41% of failed businesses blame cashflow issues as a primary reason for their failure.

So most small business owners handling invoicing and billing is an unknown territory. So they either transfer all this is accountants and business advisors or try to handle themselves and fail to run it properly.

But as a small business owner, there are several hacks you can do to keep away from cashflow issues and concentrate on your business. Here are some of them:

Separate your personal and business funds:

Even though it seems very simple example, there are a lot of business owners that think they can start and run their business with merged personal and business accounts. But when they start sending invoices, they can come to a situation when they won’t have money.

Follow up invoices quickly:

Most business owners tend to let invoices go late – either because they are caught up with other business relates tasks or they are afraid to look push while chasing payments. This can be solved if you are using an invoicing software where you can create reminders and ready-to-go emails to send regarding your due payments.

Secure your work in the beginning;

Some business take deposits for new customers, finish one part of the project before receiving the payment or find other arrangements to secure that their time and effort will not go to waste and they will be paid in the end.

Use recurring invoicing for regular customers or clients:

Most businesses that sell products and services paid online use recurring methods to keep their customers engaged and keep the money coming each month. If you are using an invoice app or invoicing software – you can use recurring invoicing and not worry if you will get paid on time each month.

By Eva Piperevska

Recent News

Category: News

Each business has to handle its finances which include invoicing and bookkeeping in most cases. It can also include estimation of taxes, expenses, and billing from clients, which is the key feature in every sustainable and profitable business.

If you start researching you can see that most companies have leaders that have strong operational that are needed to maintain perfect organization and productivity in each team. Which of course is crucial when running a business.

If you are a freelancer or a small business owner and you have a PayPal account, there is at least one example where you found yourself struggling with PayPal plans, fees, TOS, different account types etc.

Most businesses have one common enemy, and that is cashflow problems. It does not matter if you are selling a product or providing a service, in case you don’t get paid on time, your business might be on the edge to fail.