Thinking of trying one of the free invoice makers available? Why are they popular, what are the downsides to using them and are there any alternatives to free invoice makers? Read on to find out.
Running a business online has its fair share of complications. In the 21st century, there are hardly any business owners who do not own an online site to run their business through the technologically advanced medium. How many ever such businesses did exist a couple of years ago, the advent of Covid-19 has pushed all these offline traders to the online platform. Now the participation is more and consequently, the competition amongst sellers has also increased several folds.
Conducting business-related endeavors online can be very demanding and difficult. You would need to be at par with every new innovation that is brought about and you would need to keep adjusting and modifying your business to fit these changing trends. The most difficult aspect of online maverick trading is managing the finances and ensuring that there is proper documentation of every transaction that is taking place.
Doing this manually would take up a lot of your precious time and effort. For this reason, businesses are now generating their own free invoice makers for their extensive ease of use and also their growing convenience in the daily buying and selling of goods online. But, like every good and workable thing in this world comes with its share of disadvantages, free invoices or free invoice makers have a set of cons too that every online businessman should know about. Read on to acquaint yourself more with these essential apps and some of their shortcomings.
Before we delve into the topic of online invoice makers and free invoice templates, let us talk a little about what invoices are and why exactly is the use of invoices necessary for your business in the current times. Come along, let us begin the discussion.
What are Invoices and Why are They so Necessary?
Invoices are generally a piece of document passed on from the seller to the buyer after a product has been purchased, in order to collect the due payment. This document contains a clear depiction of all the goods purchased, their quantity, the cost of each item etc. Invoices can be used as legally made records of all the details of a particular transaction that has taken place between a client and the seller.
Since everything is now based heavily on the internet, invoices too have evolved and are now available in the electronic version known as the e-invoice. These do not require any paper and can be sent via email, while the payment takes place online. These are secure, easy to maintain a record of and to preserve for future reference if the need ever arises.
Online invoices are important and necessary because they help in keeping track of transactions and record all finances, keep a check on the payments done and can also serve as protection for the seller against fraudulent court cases and lawsuits. These customer invoices can also help you to form several business analytics and gain insight into the kind of shopping patterns, likes, dislikes and trends that your customers have and follow.
Now that we have a clearer idea about what invoices are and why businesses need to opt for these invoices, let us delve into how free invoice templates work and how online business platforms can make the best out of these things without incurring any losses in the long term.
Free Invoice Templates – Uses, Pros and Cons
If you are a small business owner or a freelancer, then you must opt for customizing free invoice templates that are already available on various platforms such as though Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. These available invoice templates will ensure that a huge chunk of your time is saved and would also make certain that the due payment reaches you as soon as possible. All you need to do is to fill in the specific client information and these free invoice templates are ready to be used for your benefit.
These templates are easy to use and are made in the simplest way possible to ensure that everyone gets equal access to them. If you need to generate multiple invoices at the same time, then these templates are surely going to prove to be very handy. Through a PDF invoice template, you can ensure that your clients receive the bill immediately after the delivery has been made without any time lag.
Coming up with the right kind of invoice template can be a cause for concern for many business owners. To ease you off this burden, you can gain knowledge about how to make an invoice in the simplest steps, without much hassle or problems. Following these easy steps, you will be able to create an invoice that is legal as well as relevant. You can use any blank free invoice template for this work.
Invoice templates have several disadvantages too, such as watermarks. Although you have the choice to choose from multiple templates, most free invoice templates come with the watermark of their brand. As a result, what may happen is that your invoice will be used for the advertisement of a completely different brand. This can reflect poorly on the marketing sector of your company. Not to mention, this can heavily confuse your client regarding which company they are actually working with.
Free invoice templates can also bestow the user with a lot of unnecessary freedom. You may not want to design a template on your own because that would require a lot of knowledge and time. Whereas starting from a template that already has certain key elements to guide you with can prove to be helpful and also guarantees you a well-done invoice that reflects your brand and its message clearly. Along with this, is the factor of trusting a specific template company with financial data that should be confidential to your company and business transactions.
Free Invoice Makers – Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
- Gives the Seller an Ease of Mind
Free Invoice makers take care of a lot of things very subtly, without raising an alarm or a nagging thought in your mind. While we are dealing with multitudes of pages filled with loads of data continuously, it is only natural that we might end up making some very embarrassing or unintentional mistakes. Chances of committing a human error are significantly decreased when working with an automated service such as an invoice maker. Since the level of interacting with the data and making an invoice out if is limited to the software or the invoice maker that you are working with, the possibility of a mistake happening is also reduced severely.
- Prevents Mishaps
Sometimes when conducting business-related transactions and communications by mail or by post, it may happen that your client takes an unusually long period of time to get back to you regarding the payment of the deal. On inquiry, you may find out that your invoice never made it to your client in the first place owing to the complicated and tangled-up procedures of the mailing system.
Your inquiry can, in turn, make your clientele worried and confused regarding the whereabouts of their order. You would then have to scour through all the data once again and come up with an invoice for a second time. Free invoices and online invoice generators help to prevent this from happening by making sufficient copies of every invoice that you create.
- Improves Public Perceptions About Your Business.
The kind of image your customers have in mind regarding your company plays a significant role in building effective word-of-mouth marketing strategies and bringing about more clients. The better services you provide your users with, the more conversations are going to arise about how well your company handles heavy transactions in a smooth and convenient way. Fast and free invoice makers can have that impact on the image of your company amongst your target audience. Buyers will be more interested in trying out your products and trusting your company with their needs because of your hassle-free transactions.
- Ease of Use
The most important advantage of using free invoice makers is their sheer ease of use. No matter in which software operation and usage you are in, you will face absolutely no trouble in trying to work with these simple invoices. Cut down on the hours-long manual work and switch to these invoice makers where all you would need to do is type in a few buttons and the work will be done for you within seconds.
Most of the times when you use software to generate your free invoices, once you insert the client’s name and designation, it comes up with the rest of the details such as the billing address and phone number automatically owing to the particular client’s previously saved records.
Disadvantages
- Customers that do not have an online presence will be left out
Not everyone is tech-savvy and is using online brands and products to fulfil their day-to-day needs. There are people who do not have a long-standing online presence and as a result, may be left in the dark regarding their invoices and how they can access every detail of their purchase. They might not be able to finish their paperwork, either.
There can be other businesses that you would want to establish deals with that do not have sufficient online presence or even a workable email. Just because they do not have enough technological awareness does not make them any less essential for your company’s growth. Manually done invoices can really do the trick with these clients, whereas free invoice templates would prove to be an epic failure.
- Inability to alter details
Free invoices, once made cannot be altered hugely later on. You will need to come up with a completely new invoice if you feel that your invoice needs changes in the future. The template may let you make minor changes owing to the order of the invoice or certain spellings of the chosen words but if you want to change the complete outlook of the invoice, you would, unfortunately, have to start off working with a new one until you have achieved how you envisioned your invoice to be.
- Can Get caught out by spam filters
Even though this might not be a very prominent issue to cause alarm amongst business owners that use free invoice templates, but everyone should take note of this issue. Since the only method of your invoices reaching your customers is through their e-mail ids, it is sometimes observed that too many e-mails from your company might lead to the email service marking your emails as spam. If this happens then each of your emails would reach the customer but would be deviated to the spam folder.
Alternatives to Free Invoice Makers
You may also use paid invoice makers if you want more efficiency in your work and also get access to advanced features. If you are just starting off with your business and have limited funds then free invoices maybe your resort but once you start earning the big bucks and would want your company to be up to the mark, then it would be wiser to select the right kind of invoice template service and to go ahead with them.
Make sure that you choose the right kind of invoice generator is you want to be on the safe side and not fall into the traps of any fraud or fallacy. If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner new to this field, then you need a guide to choosing the best free invoice app that is available in the market. Proper free invoices can have a generational impact on your business.
In this fast-changing world, nothing comes for free and nothing should be made in a way that wastes your time or energy. Everything has a market price and everything has an expiring date. If you want your company to boom with business and make great sales with easy transactions, sign up for a free 14-day Billdu trial and let go of all your business-related worries.
