7 Reasons Why Paperless Invoicing Will Change Your Business

In recent years, many businesses have transitioned to paperless solutions.

Paper invoices, receipts, correspondence, and even contracts have been eliminated, and for a whole host of reasons.

Sure, adopting a new way of conducting business, especially when it involves modern technology, can be challenging at first.

However, once you take the time to brush up on your computer skills, learn new software, and implement new strategies, you will realize that turning your property management company paperless is one of the best things you can do for your business.

If you are not sure how this might help your property management company, check out these 7 reasons why going paperless, specifically when it comes to invoicing, will change your business for the better.

Reasons Why Paperless Invoicing is Better for Your Property Management Company

Here is a list of the most convincing reasons why paperless billing can revolutionize your property management company, and garner you more success than ever before.

1. Increased Efficiency

Wading through countless stacks of papers looking for one specific invoice is not only a huge waste of time, it makes you appear unprofessional to your clients.

Rather than hold onto filing cabinets full of paper invoices for the allotted amount of time the IRS recommends, try creating digital documents that are easily stored on your office computer.

This way, when a client or tenant comes in asking for proof that an invoice was delivered or paid, all you have to do is scroll through your computer’s digital files, and find exactly what they are asking for.

The great thing about storing invoices digitally is that if you opt to use a cloud-based storage solution, you can access saved documents from any device.

Storage solutions like Google Drive and Dropbox are great for saving important documents, and can be used on desktops, tablets, and even smartphones.

2. Save Money

Paperless invoicing has the potential to save your property management company a lot of money when it comes to storage costs.

You won’t need to have a physical office space dedicated to storing your paper documents in filing cabinets when you save everything digitally.

This means you can invest in a smaller office space if you want.

Or, you can utilize the space you were using to store documents for something more useful. For instance, turn that “storage room” into another office, and hire another property manager to help with the extra business your management company has garnered since streamlining your invoicing process.

3. Faster Payment Collection and Disbursement

There is no denying that processing paper checks can be a tedious process.

This delays the payment process on the tenant’s end, as well as the depositing process on your property owner’s end.

By processing electronic payments, funds are directly transferred into the system and marked as paid. This means you and your clients know immediately when a tenant has paid their rent.

In addition, since funds are instantly processed, depositing collected rents into your property owner’s bank can be handled within one or two business days at most.

This is a far cry from the week or so your property owner typically has to wait while you process paper checks in person at the bank.

4. Better Bookkeeping

Modern invoicing software has everything for business owners.

This software provides ways for tenants to make easy and convenient online payments, document things such as tenant information, payment dates and amounts, and even have built-in reporting.

In addition, with online bookkeeping software, there is no need to manually enter any data and there will be no miscalculations.

This reduces the strain on your administrative staff, and makes bookkeeping a much easier task.

5. Increased Security

Concern about data security will always be an issue.

With digital storage solutions, you receive built-in security measures that are intended to protect the financial and personal information of both your property owners and tenants.

In fact, most cloud-based solutions offer bank-level data security to ensure your important documents never get into the wrong hands.

6. Easy Backups

If you have ever lost an original paper document that was not copied, nor saved elsewhere, you know the stress that comes with trying to explain that to your superior and your client.

Luckily, with digital documentation of all invoices and payments, automatic backups are easy to set up so that should something happen to the original paper copy, or the server hosting your client and tenant’s data, you have an external storage solution holding onto that important information that is easily accessible.

Save your business’ most important information in third-party cloud solutions, flash drives, or external hard drives.

This way, you have multiple backup points housing your company’s most vital information.

7. It’s Eco-Friendly

Not only will the environment thank you for going paperless when it comes to your property management company’s invoicing procedures, chances are high many of your clients will as well.

With more people than ever trying to make an effort to be more “green,” jumping in and doing your part will resonate well with many.

Remember, going paperless is not just about saving paper.

It is also about consuming less energy overall, thus reducing your carbon footprint. If you decide to go paperless, things like the fax machine, copy machine, and printer will be used far less, which saves energy.

If you currently own and operate a property management company, and have been toying with the idea of paperless invoicing, there is no better time than the present to begin transitioning.

Going paperless is about making your business more efficient, helping to save the environment, and reducing the stress you and your team have when it comes to the bookkeeping related to rent collections.

All it takes is a small investment and a little bit of a learning curve.

By switching to the paperless route, your business will be better off keeping up with technology, and will likely become more successful as a result.