Help- my new small business needs invoice generating advice please

[peoplepleaser1]

I lost my job in Feb and have started a small business. I run maybe 15 invoices at the end of each month.

My accountant told me to use a system called Xero and that it was very reasonable. I begun on the free trial and stupidly didn't check the price once the trial had ended.

Turns out it would cost me at least £500 a year to use it. I really don't want to use this type of system as it feels like a 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' and will really eat into my profits.

I'm fairly good on word and excel but have gone into a bit of a panic as I need to sort invoices today.

I know I could design one on word and type all the info in but I think that would be pretty labour intensive as I will reinvoice many of the same customers each month (but for a slightly different service / amount) and I don't want to have to type addresses etc each time.

Have turned to the wisdom of mumsnet for some sensible advice please.

Google Wave Apps.

My accountant recommended it. It's free.

You can also use to keep track of your income and expenses when it comes to filing for self assessment (tax return) x

To clarify, it's not owned by Google. That was an instruction - go to Google and type in Wave Apps! 😉

To give you time to decide a longer term approach I'd use Word. Just save a Word doc as a template for each customer with all the repeatable info and then when you do a new one, open it, do a save as, renaming it with the invoice date and number and change what you need to. Then keep an Excel spreadsheet showing customer, invoice date and number date due and a paid column. Simple.

We use quick books - less than £10 per month!

I’ve used Wave as well, I think a lot of smaller businesses find it useful.

I’ve also used Excel spreadsheets for invoicing in a small company. If you often invoice the same customer, you could just copy the previous invoice and change the date, invoice number and amount as needed and save your new invoice separately.

You can also set the spreadsheets up so that each invoice gets added to a monthly/annual total and then your year end is almost ready.

I use quickbooks which (i think) is £20 per month, but with a special offer of £10 per month for the first three or something. Not free, but brings your costs down to approx £240 /year?

What Twig said.
There has been a big push recently on Xero and similar systems because of changes to VAT. If you are not VAT-registered then this doesn't apply so you don't need the expensive software.

I'm with Twig. Been doing that for over 20 years. Why do you need a system to generate it?

I've happily used Quickfile for years. It's free as long as you have fewer than 1000 ledger entries each month.

Oops - 1000 ledger entries per 12 months, not per month!

I really wouldn't use Quickbooks it Xero and pay. Not at the moment.

I used Freshbooks for £20 a month for years and Wave does exactly the same as all of those (at this stage in your business) but for free.

If you make invoices in Word, send them as an attachment via email, then set a reminder on your phone to check it's been paid, fire another email off to the client chasing payment and then record the payment in excel, it's effort. Whereas with an automated system, you type in your fee, choose your client from the drop down box and fire it off. Two second job. And you can do it from an app on your phone if you're on the go. It automatically reminds clients they've not paid yet and can process payments online via stripe and mark payments as complete for you.

Then at the end of a year/quarter/whatever you can just pull off a quick report if you need one to see how much you've earnt.

Also good for tracking expenses as they have a receipt app and can connect to your bank account if you give them permission.

That's my take on it anyway.

And above that it's only £45+VAT per year.

Check if your business bank account includes anything, we use free agent because it used to be free with Barclays.
Although we also saved a huge amount of money (£6k!) By using a free agent based accountant.
My husband uses Xero and finds it times out too quickly without saving things, a nightmare if the phone rings or customer comes in whilst he's invoicing, we don't have that with free agent.

Although with Word I'm confused why it would be a huge amount of work? Once the templates are set up with the same names and addresses each month just do save as and amend the totals and services

If you’re not vat registered just generate an invoice template that’s quick to customise for each client. Convert to a pdf before you send though - word docs can be changed ;) Then make yourself a simple spreadsheet to keep track - inv no, amount & date / due date /paid date so you easily spot late payers and you’re done. Keep it simple!

Do it on excel (you could probably download a template from Google for free if you aren't sure how to set it out). Type out the address for one client, save as 'invoice template X', change the address to next client and save as 'invoice template Y' and so on until you have your main/regular clients done then save an extra template for any other clients. It takes time upfront but will save you a lot of time in the long run when you can just click on the right client template, write the details and send rather that having to type the addresses over and over again.

When doing invoice, save them as PDF files to email over. This way you also have a copy of each invoice. In excel you can use formulas etc to do all the maths for you which again takes time to set up but saves time in the long run.

I would also recommend creating another excel to keep track of invoices sent, to who, when, for how much and when due that you can go back to when payments come in and mark as paid or check if anyone's late. (if you charge vat it might also help to note much much vat you've charged on each invoice so you can easily work out roundabout how much you'll owe each quarter).

This is the system I use with DPs business, we have about 20 templates for different clients and I can knock out invoices in minutes. Then spend a few minutes adding the details to the invoice log straight after, on this I have a formula set up to instantly work out the vat as I add invoices.

I just use Excel as well and generate them to PDF and send. Update separate spreadsheet with totals etc. I don't see the need for software but thats just how I operate my business.

You can claim software as an expense on your SA so bear that in mind.

I work for a company with 26 employees. We invoice using Twig's method.

And we also do the same as LetmeFall does. Keep a separate excel spreadsheet with the following headings

Invoice No; Client Name; Nett; VAT; Total; Date invoiced; Date Paid

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and suggestions- mumsnet at its best.

I'm going to take a look at Wave as it sounds like it is good and also free. Will keep an excel log to track invoices sent along with payments.

Failing that I'll use the word plus excel suggestion.

I've worked with professional software systems for years but suddenly going it alone and on a small scale has thrown me! There seem to be so many ways to over complicate things, and so many people trying to sell me stuff I don't need!

Be careful with Wave as it's not UK/EU based and not currently fully compliant with UK/EU GDPR regulations yet, so not a good idea to put any personal data on to it, such as sole trader names and addresses, personal email addresses, etc. So not really suitable for creating invoices/statements, etc. which require personal names & addresses.

Xero is probably the worst of options as it's far too big and expensive for what the OP needs. There are much simpler/cheaper options, even Sage starter system is very cheap and does the job well. Plenty of alternative decent invoicing/accounting software for under a tenner a month, some under a fiver for the smallest/simplest of businesses, and they're compliant with GDPR as they're UK/EU based.