Billing Boss is an innovative solution for helping you manage cash flow, invoices as well as new and existing customers. Although we tend to think about invoicing as an after sale activity where you have sold your service/product and now are looking to collect payment, you don't necessarily have to use it in that sequence. 

One of the innovative ways you can use Billing Boss to get paid is to capture a pre-payment or deposit for services prior to providing the service.  

In doing so, you reduce your risk of default or slow payment by collecting payment upfront from customers. Once you have established that the customer is credible or low risk, then you can revert back to providing the service and then billing for it. 

The advantage of using Billing Boss for this is that it creates an electronic paper trail of the pre-payment/deposit so you know who has already paid and you don't bill them again, as well you can use the pre-payment mechanism at your discretion - so if you are meeting with a first time client, you can ask for pre-payment or deposit, ensure that payment goes through first and then provide the service.  You may not necessarily do this with other clients or you may do it with clients who have defaulted in the past or are very slow to pay - its all at your discretion. 

Just a quick note though - this is really only most effective when you have a merchant account and get paid via credit card - otherwise, if it's via check you have to wait for it to clear before you can associate payment to the invoice. This is not to say you can't do it, but its most efficient with a credit card PLUS it gives your client a 30 day window to pay their credit card provider which free's up their cash flow!

So, how do you ask - can I do this? its pretty simple really. There are multiple ways of doing this but here is the easiest and allows for some back and forth between you and the customer. 

Assuming you have already setup your Billing Boss account, simple sign into Billing Boss and go to the Invoicing/Quotes tab and click on Create New Quote:

Fill in the details of the quote, save it and then sent it by clicking on the send link in the options bar on the left hand side:

Once you have had confirmation from your client about the quote, you can simply convert the quote into a invoice by clicking on the Convert into Invoice link in the options button where the quote is presented or go to the Invoices & Quotes tab and look for the quote in the Quotes section.

Once the customer has paid your invoice, it will show up as paid in the invoices section- and KA POW! you are ready to go.

You have just used Billing Boss to reduce your risk in getting paid!

Pretty Easy, Fast and Cool huh! Remember, getting paid faster and smarter doesn't need to be hard and time consuming if you are using the right tools!

If you have any questions, you can contact us through our forum  , twitter or email info@billingboss.com

Enjoy!

Peter

The Billing Boss Team