B2B Electronic Billing

The use of electronic billing in your day to day interactions with other companies is essential if you are to come across as a professional and modern company.

Electronic billing (or e-billing) is the sending of statements, invoices and dunning letters to companies with whom you have entered into business. Although the postal service is not redundant in this field, it is less fashionable than the modern alternative of electronic billing.

How do I begin electronic billing?

To begin electronic billing, a client database must exist. This should record all invoices and statements which are sent to clients, and the date on which this occurred so the sending of dunning letters (where necessary) can be correctly timed. E-billing systems will send these documents either in the form of an email, or as a link from an email. Both options require the customer to answer security questions in order to access their private account information via your website.

Why is e-Billing superior?

Rapid Billing

E-billing sends invoices and statements to customers automatically, when they have received a service. Therefore, an invoice received via e-billing can be paid sooner than one sent through the post. This is good for your company as B2B transactions can involve vast amounts of money and a payment taking longer to arrive is a payment upon which you are not gaining interest! The speed at which e-billing is able to send dunning letters is also important for you to maintain effective credit control.

Document safety

E-billing offers better document security than postal or fax methods of invoicing. Because an invoice or statement sent using e-billing will never be put into print (unless the client prints their own paper copy), it is harder to intercept than a paper letter. This also means mail received via e-billing is less easily lost.

Many e-billing systems require the client to use a password to access their document. This adds additional security and allows you to know when the document you sent out has been viewed.

Being environmentally friendly

Due to invoices, dunning letter and statements not being printed, the e-billing process saves vast amounts of paper. All documents are sent out with a footer showing the message ‘do you need to print this document’ as a reminder to customers that pointless printing wastes paper. Electronic billing also saves energy which would have been used to print these documents in the past, and run a folder inserter machine to fold them into envelopes.

More information on electronic billing can be found by visiting Corcentric.