Are You Happily Invoicing Your Customers?

This post is part of the Entrepreneurship series – sponsored by AcceptPay from American Express, a new online solution that lets you electronically invoice customers and accept online payments-all in one place. Offer more payment options, manage your cash flow and get paid faster with AcceptPay. Learn more here.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

Our entrepreneurship series – sponsored by AcceptPay from American Express – is compiling interesting resources, valuable tips and useful services that can help out small business owners. One of the key themes we want to discuss is the process of invoicing — because what could be more relevant to a small business than getting paid? Every business (small or large) needs to deal with billing customers and efficiently accepting payments. For smaller companies, though, invoicing and payment collections can become a more time-consuming process than it should be.

For those of you out there who are already happily invoicing — what kinds of invoicing software do you use? What kind of billing solutions have you tried? What is your opinion of online payment solutions? (full disclosure: AcceptPay is a player in this market.) How would you evaluate an online payment system for your company?

However, if you’ve ever encountered invoicing challenges that started to eat into the enjoyment of actually running your business, do you have a happy-ending story for your billing solution? What would you recommend for other small businesses that might have similar experiences? What kind of procedures have you developed to make your accounts receivable easier to handle and more reliable?

To other helpful folks who aren’t (yet?) entrepreneurs, what types of small companies do you think might benefit from using online payment solutions (that may not already be doing so)? How would you describe the market for online payment services? What recommedations have you seen for small business invoicing software?

We’re looking for your input on these topics, and the best response will be published on the Entrepreneur’s Corner edition of Techdirt, as well as receive a monetary award. Other high-quality insights may also receive monetary bonuses, depending on the content and how many insights are submitted.

This is a case from the Insight Community, a powerful new marketplace that connects companies with intelligent communities like Techdirt. Click here to learn more.