Have you ever missed a session off an invoice?
Invoicing can be the most time-consuming process for any administrator in a nursery setting. Collecting data for the previous period and ensuring that all invoices are 100% accurate can be a daunting experience.
In this article, we look at some of the best practices we have seen over the years, to minimise the time invested, reduce errors and bring payments in on time. It is worth mentioning, however, that those settings that find this process the easiest are always those that have a rigid invoicing process, and share it openly and transparently with parents.
Childcare fees are a significant investment, and if you are clear and consistent with how you expect to be paid, it can prevent many awkward conversations further down the road.
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What is an invoice?
An invoice is a clear representation of the service delivered, or intended to be delivered, and the associated costs, up to a date. It should include everything that the parents are being charged for, and can include services in the future as well as those already delivered in the past.
An invoice should not include any reference to items previously invoiced, but may include a bought forward account balance to provide an accurate payable amount. You must include your company registered address and company registration number. Consider also the invoice date, which should reflect the date that invoice becomes accountable, not the date you produce it.
If you wish to advise parents of unpaid amounts from previous invoices, this should be achieved by sending a Statement of Account which details all items outstanding. However, the following tips will help you build a platform to reduce the time spent preparing invoices and collating information, and trim the weeks you wait to receive payments.
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Professionalise the process
You should be able to instantly track the status of each invoice you send out. To make this easier for you, and more professional-looking to parents, an invoice should contain a unique invoice number, a date and a breakdown of sessions for that invoicing period.
If you email invoices, send files as a PDF, not Word, so that parents can’t easily make amendments or see any previous information saved on the document template.
Click the invoice image to see a larger version
Invoice consistently on the same day every month. There will always be parents that struggle to pay on time, but sufficient measures need to be in place to protect you from losing income. If you give the impression that you have a variable approach to producing invoices then parents will adopt a variable approach to paying them!
Every invoice that you produce should clearly state your payment policies and expectations of the payee. There should be a clear penalty for any late payments; and it should be enforced, it will leave a lasting impression on the parent to pay on time, and others will hear about it. There is no other industry that would allow debt to accumulate without a penalty for doing so.
Review Abacus’ full invoicing capabilities
Consider also that parents will assume that you have received their voucher payments, just because they have been deducted at source. If this is not the case, make this clear to them so that there are no nasty surprises furtherdown the process. If the voucher company fail to make a payment to you, they are ultimately responsible for covering that debt.
Want to freshen up your invoicing process with a professional-looking system? Abacus helps invoice over 100,000 parents each month, to a total of over £200 million per year. See for yourself by booking a full demonstration of the invoicing process today!
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Track and manage your income better
Make sure every invoice has a uniquely assigned number. Many invoicing tools automatically do this, but if you’re not using a system, you can easily create or assign a number for your records. The number helps make the invoice traceable and easy to reference for both you and the parent.
Emailing your invoices to parents will save you time and money. Going beyond the paper and print costs you save, invoices won’t get lost and parents receive their invoice instantly. With manual processes in particular, it can be easy to fall behind with billing, causing invoices to be sent out late. If you invoice late, payments will be received later and parents may adopt a lethargic attitude to paying on time.
If you only accept cash or cheques, you can give parents an excuse to pay late, and tracing payments to invoices becomes ardous. To make this process easier, consider adding a remittance slip to the invoice, which clearly states the bill payers name, invoice number and ask them to write down the amount paid. This will make it easier to allocate the payments received, although you must check that the amount paid reflects what’s written on the slip!
Online payments are far more accountable, thereby avoiding any potential conflicts, and require less manual intervention. Whilst few nurseries can offer Direct Debit, other payment methods like standing order or even credit cards can encourage parents to pay on a specific date. Preferred payment methods and due dates should be clearly stated on the invoice.
If you don’t currently have a credit card merchant facility, consider creating a Paypal account and include a direct link to this within an email. The easier it is for a parent to pay you, the faster you get paid, and Paypal is very well trusted!
Abacus is with you until the end! After preparing the invoices and calculating the figures, Abacus gives you a simple option to email invoices straight from the system to selected recipients. What’s more, invoices remain accessible to parents securely online via our Parent Portal service, for them to reference at any point. Book an online demonstration to see the full invoicing process in action!
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Streamline your invoicing process
Manually preparing invoices each month is horribly time consuming and prone to errors. The most obvious of these is the “post-it note syndrome” where session changes are agreed with parents and jotted on a piece of paper to be dealt with later. Inevitably, these accumulate and then become a major task at the end of the month, with the obvious risk of some amendments being missed altogether.
Then there are all other elements of an invoice from extra products to meals, discounts, trips etc. The only way to manage these is to keep one live document updated every day. Free entitlement further aggravates invoicing calculations, and then some parents require their invoices split between multiple bill-payers! If you try to bring this all together at the point of invoicing, it nearly always results in errors and omissions, not to mention the stress it can bring.
From our experience, the settings that spend the least time managing invoices and payments all have one thing in common; one type of invoice, nearly always monthly, and one method of payment. This is made clear to parents from the start, and in reality, there are only a few customers that would walk away from the childcare place they want because they are asked to adhere to these conditions.
Abacus cuts invoicing times by up to 85%*
Since the introduction of the free 15 hours, customers have praised the work of Abacus and the benefits of having an automated system implemented.
Many customers who approach us about Abacus, currently spend 2 days per month compiling and sending invoices; with Abacus they can now complete the whole process in minutes.
Abacus is the most flexible and intelligent nursery management software available. Providing you have booked the sessions into the system, Abacus will calculate factors such as extra sessions, meals and free entitlement automatically. Find out how Abacus helps with free entitlement, or book an online demonstration.
*Statistic based on survey conducted on Abacus Customers
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Unlike other software providers, we offer unlimited training at no extra cost. We are available 12 hours a day, 5 days a week to provide exceptional support and training.
We don’t charge for extra sessions, no matter how long you’ve had the system. Therefore, if you had a temporary member of staff covering the normal administrator for a few weeks, simply book them in for free sessions with us so that they quickly learn how to use the system. Simple!
