Billing Software & Online Invoicing in India

What is billing and invoicing software?

Billing and invoicing software are essentially the same thing, often used interchangeably. It's an online tool designed to create, manage, process, and streamline invoicing seamlessly. Typically, this software is available both online and offline, but having it online is preferable as it allows for data storage and backup on the cloud. Invoicing software includes features like quotation and invoice generation, expense management, inventory tracking, invoice and payment monitoring, GST reports, e-invoicing, and e-way bills. Compared to manual billing, online invoicing software helps eliminate errors, improve efficiency, and save time in the billing process.

Why do businesses need invoicing software?

Businesses need invoicing software to manage their business transactions that happen daily. Be it recording invoices, expenses, or payments, all these transactions should be recorded somewhere.

Now, the question is why there is a need to record all transactions.

So that the business knows where they sell their products to and when?

How much product did they sell at what rate?

Vice versa, how much are expenses on raw materials, machinery, employee salaries, etc?

So that business owners know how much receivables and payables are pending. What more can they improve? Or What steps should they take to improve the business transactions?

This exact question is answered by invoice software. So businesses always need invoicing software to run their businesses smoothly and efficiently.

Back in the day, these financial transactions used to be manually written on accounting books by professionals called “Accountants”, and this used to be called the “traditional bookkeeping method”.

As time passed, businesses shifted from traditional to digital invoicing. Why???

Traditional invoicing used to be very cumbersome as a person had to write it down in a book manually, which caused human errors and calculation mistakes. It is often impossible for one person to record all the transactions, even for businesses with small to medium sizes.

And drawing a report or summary of all these transactions is also tedious.

So most businesses now shifted to digital invoicing as it makes creating invoices and other documents simpler than handwritten documents.

Also, it is not feasible to maintain multiple books for one accounting business. In digital invoicing, all the documents are managed and recorded in one invoicing software with different dashboards.

So every business must use online invoicing software for this reason, even if it’s a small business.

Invoicing software is not just about creating invoices online; it can make multiple documents in invoicing software. Here is how Refrens invoice software works:

It is simple and easy-to-understand software. First, you have to sign up and create an account.

As per requirement, you can start creating the documents by clicking on the particular document section from the left sidebar. But here is a quick overview of how it works.

Invoicing software has two main parts.

• Receivables
• Payables

First, starting with account receivables.

Under accounts receivable, all those documents are created that help to generate revenue for the company by selling the product or service. It has quotations, proforma invoices, delivery challan, invoices, and payment receipts and accepts payments.

A typical business first generates multiple leads using the inbound or outbound lead method. Once the leads started to flow, they assigned those leads to their salesperson.

Now a salesperson's job is to educate the customer regarding the product or service they are offering. Now that the salesperson thinks this lead will get closed, they offer the pricing of the company's product.

And how is the pricing offered? By sending a quotation to the potential customer. Your salesperson creates a quotation for that particular product and sends it to the customer.

Now if the customer agrees to the price of your product, it is believed that the client has accepted the quotation. Now from here, you send a proforma invoice asking for the advance payment to fulfill the requirement. And Also proforma invoice also works as an order confirmation document.

Once the client pays advance payment, it becomes the business's responsibility to deliver the product at the same price within the delivery period. Many businesses also use delivery challan to deliver the product.

The product is delivered to the client, and an invoice is sent asking for the rest of the payment. The client pays the pending amount, and to record the transaction of that payment, a payment receipt is created and sent to the client, stating yes, that the business has received the payment.

Here, now an accounts receivable cycle is complete. The business has generated revenue and recorded all the necessary transactions by creating the relevant documents from the quotation, proforma invoice, delivery challan, invoice, and payment receipt.

Now let's talk about accounts payable.

Under accounts payable, businesses record all the expenses incurred at the time of business transactions. For instance, purchasing raw materials, daily expenses, office expenses, rent, etc.

These documents include purchase orders, expenses, and debit notes.

Free. No Hidden Charges. No Conditions. - You can create 50 invoices and other documents for free without paying a single penny.

Create, Manage, and Track Unlimited Invoices (Taxable & Non-Taxable Invoice) - Create invoices online, and easy to manage all documents in one place without any trouble searching through your folders and files.

Send Quotations instantly and convert them into invoices - Once the quotation is approved, you can create an invoice with just one click without creating it from scratch.

Add Unlimited Team Members and Users - As your business grows, so does your team. Don't worry; Refrens can add multiple team members to the business.

Permissions and Roles - It's only enough to add team members to the business once you give them access to which section they can access.

Add multiple businesses to one account - Similar to adding team members; you can add or create multiple businesses under one account, so there is no need to access from different email IDs.

Multiple Countries and Currencies Supported - You can create invoices for different countries and currencies. There is no restriction in creating the invoice for your global clients.

Duplicate Invoices to save time while invoicing - Refrens introduced the option to duplicate the invoice so that you can create an invoice instantly by just changing a minor part of the invoice and sending it to the client.

Enabled Recurring Invoices - Creating invoices is one thing, but creating the same invoice repeatedly is tiring, and this is what Refrens has removed. You can enable the recurring invoice, which gets created automatically and can even be sent to your client via email.

Send invoice Reminder to get paid faster- The client rarely pays within one email. So keeping this in mind, Refrens invoice software has a feature of invoice reminders to send reminders to the client for the payments.

Add Logo, Digital Signature, and attachments - It shows professionalism when you add a business logo, signature and additional information to the invoice.

Customize Invoices with multiple templates and colours - Customization is one of the significant features every business looks for; Refrens has multiple invoice templates and a lot of colour options to choose from, which helps to showcase your brand.

Real-Time Email Alerts - You will get alerts about the invoice, whether the customer accepts the invoice, whether the invoice paid the invoice and many such alerts.

Invoice view - Paid, Unpaid, Overdue, Part paid - Easy to check the status of the invoice and other documents on the dashboard, giving you a glimpse of the total amount received and the status of pending invoices.

Send Invoices through Email, Download as PDF, Print, or WhatsApp - Refrens not only allow you to download the invoice but to send the invoice via WhatsApp and email to the client. You can easily track the invoice if sent via the Email feature.

Robust Reports - Invoice Report, Client Report, Expense Report, Vendor Report - Refrens provide the most important reports to analyze the client, accounts receivable and payables.

Graphical Representation for easy understanding - Everyone knows that figures confuse most of them, and graphic is one thing even newbies can understand properly. Keeping this in mind, Refrens provides a graphical representation of the amount yet to be received, and you can also check the daily, monthly and weekly data.

Bulk Uploads Invoice and Client - It is a hefty process to fill by one client and invoice data, especially at the time of migration. So Refrens invoice software allows you to bulk upload the invoices and clients' data all at once, thus saving time and effort.

Live Customer Support - Unlike other invoice software, Refrens invoicing assigns a dedicated account manager so your business can run smoothly.

Create Invoice

Invoices are one of the most important aspects for your business to grow. Creating invoices for your business helps identify your regular customers, who pay on time, and details about part-paid invoices and invoices due.

When selecting an invoice software, ensure it has all the necessary and basic features like duplicating or triplicating the invoice, downloading the invoice, and printing and emailing it. In addition, there should be a feature related to deleting or cancelling invoices.

Using our free invoicing software, create, manage, track, download, or email unlimited invoices for free without hassle. There is no Watermark, free templates, and easy-to-check invoice status using our free invoice generator.

Create Proforma Invoice

A proforma invoice is a document created for the buyer showing the commitment to deliver the product or service at an estimated price. Many vendors accept advance payment from their clients by sending them the proforma invoice.

A proforma invoice is created before the final invoice is sent to the client. Therefore, consider it as a confirmation document for the client as well. Once the client gives confirmation, you can dispatch the product or service along with the final invoice.

Refrens proforma invoice allows you to convert proforma invoice to invoice so that you don’t need to create the invoice from scratch. Here the proforma invoice and invoice are linked with each other. To create a proforma invoice you can use Refrens proforma invoice format.

Create Quotation

A quotation is the first document in the business you send to your potential customer, and as you know, the first impression is the last. So creating an attractive and converting quotation is necessary if you want to convert the client.

Create professional quotations and send them to the clients instantly. Once approved, you can easily change the quotation status to Won, Lost, or Rejected. This way, you learn how to improve your product or service pricing range or need any discounts. Directly manage your quotations from leads sections using a free quotation maker or you can use quotation format for free.

Create Purchase Order

Creating a purchase order is one of the best ways to maintain the inventory. However, it also shortens the purchasing cycle of an organization. Using Refrens purchase order generator, create and manage unlimited free purchase orders.

Add the product or service you want to purchase and send it to the vendor. Once you receive the product, you can easily add to the stock and help manage the inventory. Create PO from various free purchase order templates and customize it per your requirements.

Create Sales Order

Upon receiving a Sales Order, a business checks its inventory to ensure product availability. The items are then picked, packed, and shipped to the customer as per the order specifications. Once the customer receives the products and confirms their satisfaction, an invoice is generated based on the Sales Order.

Record Expense

When running a business, it is obvious that expenses are sure to be incurred. It can be daily expenses like daily employee snacks, printing, etc. or monthly expenses like bills. Therefore, it is as important to manage your expenses as you do to manage the invoices.

Using our free invoice software, you can manage your expenses incurred daily and monthly. In addition, you can also manage your vendors and vendor reports with one click under expense management.

Create Delivery Challan

Delivery challan is a document specially created when transporting or moving goods. It is sent along with shipped goods. With Refrens online invoice software, create a delivery challan within 60 seconds.

Create Credit Note

There needs to be more than an invoice for the business, but there are times when the customer returns the goods or services for some reasons like damaged products, sending wrong products, or other reasons. Here comes the use of credit notes which helps to manage the amount. If you create an invoice, creating a credit note is a good practice.

Create Debit Note

Like a credit note, the debit note is essential for the business when purchasing any goods or services. There are possibilities that your purchased goods are damaged or overcharged by your vendor or any other. In this situation, you can easily create a debit note against the invoice and send it to your vendor. Both debit and credit notes can be used for filing taxes.

Manage Inventory

The best way to maintain your stock is to use inventory management software. It helps in storing, maintaining, and using the company’s stock. Refrens free invoice software provides inventory management, not just invoicing so that you can perform all the accounting activities in one place—no need to register for additional software for inventory. Check here our online accounting software here.

Create Payment Receipts

When doing business, you obviously sell the products or services to your clients. But along with the product, you send a payment receipt to your customer as proof of payment. Payment receipts can be sent for partial or full payment of the invoice. This document is useful to both seller and buyer as both have the same document as payment has been made by the seller.

Manage Your Clients

Easy to manage your clients under client management. Add multiple custom fields and as much data as you want. Upload bulk client data, and you can export the client information simultaneously.

Manage Leads

Whenever you get any leads, add the entry and track the status of the leads and the details like the source of lead, budget, follow-up, lead assignee, and lead status, whether the lead converted or not. If the leads get converted, you can directly create the quotation from leads. No need for a quotation again from scratch. To know more about Lead Management you can check out Refrens Lead to Quote Software.

We provide our users with different reports to focus on a particular part of their business and grow rapidly. Date-wise and client-wise reports are enabled to download. Different Reports includes

Proforma Invoice Report - Detailed overview of proforma invoices, useful for tracking pending transactions and forecasting revenue.

Invoice Report - Comprehensive summary of all invoices issued, including payment status, ensuring you stay on top of your receivables.

Client and Vendor Report - Management of client and vendor details, enabling effective communication and relationship management.

Payment Report - Keep track of all payments received, providing clarity on your cash flow and financial health.

TDS Report - Manage Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) records, ensuring compliance with tax regulations.

Credit Note Report - Keep a record of credit notes issued, maintaining transparency in your financial transactions.

Line Item Wise Report - Detailed analysis of individual line items, aiding in precise evaluation of sales and expenses.

HSN Report - Manage Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) codes for products, simplifying tax calculations and compliance.

Purchase Order Report - Monitor your purchase orders, ensuring efficient procurement processes and timely deliveries.

Expense Report - Track your business expenses, helping you manage your budget effectively and identify cost-saving opportunities.

Delivery Challan Report - Record of delivery challans, ensuring accurate tracking of goods delivered to clients.

GST Report - GST report is useful for filing the GST. Currently, we provide a GSTR-1 report. You can check out our GST billing software for more.

We are adding more reports to our system.

No matter what type of business you are into, whether you work alone as a solopreneur or freelancer or as an agency, small business, or large enterprise, there are some factors you always need to consider when deciding on buying online invoicing software.

Here are some of the factors you can look into when choosing the right invoicing software; there can be more depending on your business needs, but these are the basic factors every invoice software must follow. So starting with the first one:

Business Size - First and foremost, assess the size of your business. Different invoicing software solutions cater to various business sizes. Some are tailored for small businesses, while others are better suited for larger enterprises. It's essential to choose software that aligns with the scale and complexity of your operations. For small businesses, consider keywords like "billing software for small business" to narrow down options that specifically cater to your needs.

Business Needs - Identify your business's unique invoicing requirements. Some businesses may need features like recurring billing, expense tracking, or integration with accounting software. Make a checklist of your business needs and prioritize them. Look for invoicing software that offers customization options to ensure it aligns seamlessly with your workflow and specific requirements like "invoice accounting software".

Features and Functionality - First, if the invoicing software does not have the features or the functionality you are looking for, you must not even consider researching it—the invoicing requirements change from business to business and the type of business. For instance, businesses that sell services or online courses do not need an inventory system or proforma invoice but a proper proposal or quotation document. And there are some features every invoicing software must have, like customization, invoice templates, recurring invoices, reminders, and reporting. Consider your specific requirements and ensure the software can accommodate them.

Ease of Use - Invoicing software must have an easy user interface so that it becomes easy to create, edit, delete, or duplicate invoices without any prior technical knowledge. You should feel intuitive in navigating from one dashboard to another with a clean and organized section that enhances the system's usability.

Scalability - With the growth of your business and team members, will the invoice software handle the increased invoicing volume? The increased number of clients, invoices, and transactions always set the seal of performance issues.

Security and Data Protection - Businesses deal with very sensitive and confidential financial data. So the invoicing software must have proper backups, access controls and data protection. Always look for software that has industry-standard security and data protection regulations.

Mobile Accessibility - If you need to invoice on the go, you must consider the software offering mobile apps or mobile responsive software. It helps you to create invoices, track payments, and view reports from anywhere at any time.

Trial Period - Before committing to a long-term contract, take advantage of free trials offered by invoicing software providers. A trial period allows you to test the software's functionality and see if it meets your business needs. During the trial, evaluate the user interface, ease of navigation, and how well it integrates with your existing systems. This is especially crucial for businesses looking for "invoice billing software" that seamlessly integrates into their operations.

Upgrades and Maintenance - Choose billing software that offers regular upgrades and maintenance. The business environment is constantly evolving, and your software should adapt accordingly. Check the provider's update frequency and whether these updates come with additional costs. Regular updates ensure that your invoicing software stays current with the latest features, security patches, and compliance requirements.

Customer Support - Always go for the purchase of free invoicing software that offers extensive customer support. When you are facing any issue, you can contact support to resolve it as soon as possible. The support team must always be available on live support, by email, or over the phone.

Customer Ratings and Reviews - One of the most reliable ways to gauge the performance of invoicing and billing software is by considering customer ratings and reviews. Platforms like Capterra, G2, or Trustpilot provide valuable insights into the user experience. Look for trends in feedback, paying close attention to comments related to ease of use, customer support, and any issues users may have encountered.

Backup - Data security is paramount, and having a reliable backup system is crucial to safeguarding your financial information. Ensure that the invoicing software provides robust backup options, including cloud-based invoicing software solutions. This ensures that your data is secure, and you can recover it in case of any unforeseen events.

Pricing - The price should be affordable and should be under your budget. There is no point in giving a chunk of money for the features you will never use. Some software charges per invoice, some charge per month irrespective of the invoice you create, while others charge only a one-time fee. Also, consider the additional user to add under the business, customization, integration etc.

You can read reviews and get recommendations from other businesses in your industry or size range by reading reviews and ratings. See what customers think about the software's reliability, ease of use, customer support, and overall satisfaction. You can check out other review sites for review and feedback on the invoicing software you are willing to buy.