Are Emailed Invoices As Good As The Digital Ones?

In short this post will go through the various kinds of email invoicing.

Digital invoices and emailed invoices are often considered interchangeable terms, but as we perceive it, in reality they are quite different.

Emailed Invoices

Bulk invoice emailing is generally done nowadays by attaching the invoice as a PDF document. This enables the invoice to be sent inexpensively to the recipient who can utilize a free product to open and view it. The idea here is that once the customer has received the document, he or she can then pay it. Theoretically, the invoice is not only sent out quickly, but also implies that the customer can send back a check or credit card payment within hours or within a few days and thereby helping to accelerate cash flow. Sadly, though this works in some situations, the procedure is rarely this smooth and various issues may occur.

Firstly, the merchant should have the email address of the customer to send a PDF. Secondly, the PDF is still a document which most customers not only have to open, but will frequently print and put in a pile to deal with later, when they are ready. This implies that the customers might wait as long as they did before to pay the invoice. Along with this, an emailed document delivery doesn’t inspire the customer to pay by electronic mediums any more than an invoice arriving in the mail does. Research shows that customers frequently like to have the option to pay online by credit or debit card for instance and can frequently do that by calling the merchant. Eventually, in B2B invoicing, the emailed PDF presents new layers or challenges as these often need a digital signature. PDF technology is now quite better in permitting digital signatures to be safely added to invoices, when they are sent in the mail. Nonetheless, the procedure is no way easy and presents various logistical problems, specifically when multiple approval signatures are necessary.

Digital Invoices

You will get digital invoice on a website. Sometimes this is integrated in part of a vendor’s website or it is hosted on a third part website. In most cases, the digital invoice serving procedure is also quicker than emailed invoices, as there is no requirement to generate a PDF and attach it to an email address. Moreover, though a customer might be notified that a new invoice is available through email, it is not necessary to have an email address. This will invariably mean that digital invoices will frequently “scrape” or collect new email addresses from customers gradually.

Maybe most importantly, email invoicing is considered as a truly online way. This implies that not only can the customer view the invoice but they can utilize various online features to deal with the invoice or just to pay it instantly.

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