Posted by PegiT_MN on 7/27/12 9:44pm
Msg #428402

Feedback Please Regarding Invoicing

Could my dear friends here at Notary Rotary please tell me what your invoicing procedures are? I have my handful of title companies that I sign for on a regular basis, and I either get paid automatically, or I must send them an invoice to get paid, but I alway get paid. However, I am not sure how to do it for these companies that only call me once in a great while. I may only do one every couple of months for them. With the market picking up, I am geting quite a few new title companies and I would like to implement a good practice for invoicing.

Thanks for your help.

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 7/27/12 9:53pm
Msg #428404

I have very few companies these days that require an invoice. Most either have online reports to complete or just require an email with a tracking number.

Reply by Jack/AL on 7/27/12 10:16pm
Msg #428406

I ask for the correct billing process, and do as told. Most do not require an invoice, so I do not send one. Are you insinuating that you do something other than the norm for those which do not require an invoice?

Reply by Belinda/CA on 7/27/12 10:42pm
Msg #428407

I made up my own invoice in WORD. Just make

sure it contains all the pertinent information such as:
Your name and contact info
Date
Who it is to
What job you did for them
Details such as tracking #, escrow number, and/or loan number, borrower name, date of assignment, etc
Agreed upon fee
Who to make check payable to
and the like.

You can then email this to them as an attachment.

I work for two companies that require invoices in this manner.

Reply by Notary1/CO on 7/27/12 11:03pm
Msg #428408

I have a PayPal account for my business and use the PayPal invoice feature. Under Request Money, select Create an Invoice. Fill in the job details, amount due, due date, and payment terms and PayPal sends the invoice by email. If you need hard copy, print the invoice. The client can pay with PayPal, credit card, debit card or mail a check to my business address. You can save the invoice as a template to use or modify for the next job.

If online payment is received by PayPal, I get an email notice. If I get a check in the mail, I log in to PayPal and mark the account as paid by check.

Lots of the general notary work I do for law firms and businesses is paid the same day I email the invoice. You can track any past due accounts in PayPal and send a friendly payment reminder or a stronger reminder or demand for payment. I download my PayPal transactions into Quicken Home and Business for accounting.

Reply by JENNY/TX on 7/28/12 12:12am
Msg #428414

I love my Quickbooks Simple Start program. All bookkeeping in one place. You can customize your invoice to look just like you want it. If you would like I can email you a sample invoice with usual items included. Just PM me with email address.

Jenny

Reply by JENNY/TX on 7/28/12 12:16am
Msg #428415

Sorry was replying to PegiT_MN.

Jenny

Reply by CJ on 7/28/12 12:55am
Msg #428419

In Word, I created a "Notary" file. In that, I have an "invoice" file. I created a generic invoice.

For each job, I put date, last name, city, their w/o number, fee and tracking number. Tracking is important because sometimes they say I did not do the job, and they can punch in the tracking number and see that I did send it back to them.

Any time a company does not pay me, or they want an invoice, I put their name on my generic invoice and save it under their name. I put the current unpaid job(s) on the invoice, save it, and email it to them. I started this before I got quick books so I still use this system.

Reply by MW/VA on 7/28/12 7:04pm
Msg #428488

I also use QB Simple Start. I put every signing in as an

invoice. It's my record-keeping sytem. You can email an invoice, if necessary.
BTW, one of Intuit's tricks, however, is to force you to upgrade the program by not allowing invoices to be emailed. I did that once, but I'm not going to do it again. If necessary, I can print the invoice & then scan & email it. It's that darned MS issue again, I'm sure, because I'm getting those irritating "error" messages now when I close out my QB program. I just can't see paying for software upgrades every couple of years when what I have is working just fine.

Reply by Notary1/CO on 7/28/12 12:30pm
Msg #428456

PayPal Invoicing

PayPal invoicing provides invoice tracking and payment processing. There is no monthly fee. There is a small transaction fee. For simplicity, my invoice number is the job date/time stamp, for example, #2012-0728-11AM.

I also use PayPal payment buttons on my website. Customers can pay for goods or services 24/7 by clicking the payment button and proceeding to PayPal checkout.

You can also install the PayPal Here phone app, and a free plug-in credit card reader into your smartphone, that allows you to accept encrypted credit card payments anywhere by swiping the credit card on your smart phone. See details, not compatible with all smartphone models.

See https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-payments-standard

Reply by JanetK_CA on 7/29/12 7:07pm
Msg #428596

Re: PayPal Invoicing

Maybe I'm old fashioned in my thinking, but there's something about having to depend on a system that is "out there" for this kind of thing that I feel very uncomfortable with. While most people probably have no problems with Pay Pal, I've heard too many comments about how challenges with disputes about a payment, etc. to make me very wary about depending on that kind of system.

When all communications have to be done on-line if you have a dispute, I don't want to allow access to data that important to potentially be impacted by someone else. As an occasional back-up, why not, but I'd rather have my business data on my own equipment. Just my personal bias...

Currently, I'm one of those who made up my own invoices in Word and I have my own system to keep track, but as my business has grown over the years, it's become cumbersome. So I'm getting ready to transition to Quick Books because I need something more streamlined. (I'm definitely NOT looking forward to the process, 'cause bookkeeping is one of my least favorite jobs!)

Reply by Notary1/CO on 7/30/12 12:47pm
Msg #428650

Re: PayPal Invoicing

I have used PayPal for years, works fine, no problems. I have separate PayPal accounts for several different websites. It allows me to automate payment processing which saves time.

Invoices are automatically stored on PayPal but you can print a hard copy or save a PDF copy on your computer for backup. My PayPal transactions are uploaded into Quicken Home and Business for accounting. I transfer payments received by PayPal to my business checking account. Fewer trips to the bank to deposit checks received by mail.

You can also get a credit card or debit card linked to your PayPal account.

If I ever do have a problem with PayPal invoicing, I can create an invoice with Quicken Home and Business. Using Word to manually create an invoice is inefficient and is not integrated into accounting software. This means more time spent doing manual data entry and manual accounting which is prone to errors.

The computer industry is moving toward cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Reply by CopperheadVA on 7/28/12 6:01am
Msg #428426

When working directly for a TC, I include an invoice back in every package along with the docs, unless some other specific invoicing procedure has been given to me in the notary instructions. If the job of is for a SS, I either fax or email the invoice to them instead of sending back with docs. If it's a job with a company that uses the coffee site platform, I never send an invoice because the online update process takes care of that.