Hints and Tips, Dos and Don'ts, Questions Answered, Minds Put To Rest
Sounds great! How do I get started?
Sending your first invoice using Billy is easy. It takes a few
minutes to give Billy your company’s details, but after that each new
invoice is quick...
- Step One: Fill out the Trial Account Sign Up Form. Most of this information is used to create your invoices
- Step Two: Add your first customer… fill in your customer’s details
- Step Three: Create your first invoice… fill in the product and price
and hit Send! Or put the product details into your Product Catalogue so
that you can easily use them again.
Statements are sent automatically to each customer according to the way
you set up each customer, or you can send one after issuing a receipt,
or any time you like.
Later you can:
- create standard products that you can add to future invoices
- create a schedule to automatically creates and send invoices over the period of a contract
- create line items to add to an invoice when you are ready to send it
You can also:
- issue receipts when you get paid by a customer
- issue credit notes
- issue debit notes
- generate activity reports
How can I be sure that my business information is safe?
Your customer and invoicing
information is kept in a secure database behind a firewall. Access to
it is password protected -- and you can change your password at any
time. The database is backed up daily to a remote server. So, its
a lot safer than a folder of paper on a shelf in your office. But it is
best to regularly export your transactions and keep a separate record,
just in case. You can export all your transactions as CSV (comema
separated values) files, so there will be a permanent record of your
transactions. And if you use Pastel, you can export your transactions
into that.
If there is no paper invoice, which one is the 'original'?
Invoices are issued when they are sent - the invoice is given a
sequential number and cannot be further edited. (Before being issued,
invoices are pro forma and can be changed). On issue, a PDF (portable
document format) file is created and sent straight to the customer --
this is the 'original'. A 'copy' is kept by Billy.
Can I use Billy to manage contracts?
Yes - Billy is ideal for this. You can schedule Billy to send
regular invoices over the lifetime of a contract - once a month for
twelve months, say; or at the same time each year. When the
schedule expires it is flagged so that you can renew the contract with
the customer and restart the schedule.
How do I know that the invoices that Billy sends have been opened?
Well, when you send paper invoices through the mail how do you know that they
have been received and opened? Usually when you get paid! Billy
is better than that. If the email with the invoice or statement
attached is not delivered, then you will get a bounce notice. But Billy can't force your customers to pay up (yet).
Is there a limit to the number of customers that Billy can handle?
No.
But if you send more than 100 invoices in a month, then
Billy will charge you a R50 increment for 100 more invoices. It doesn't
matter how many statements or credit notes you send.
Can I integrate Billy with other systems?
Billy
already integrates with Pastel Accounting. Other accounting system
integrations are planned. And it is also possible to input data into
Billy from other systems. The Billy development team is ready to help
with customisations.
You can't be the first to offer this! Who are your competitors?
Well, there are plently of coporate providers of billing systems and
electronic bill presentation systems. But we haven't found any that are as
easy to use, cost effective and as friendly as Billy. In South Africa,
you can check out the eBilling service offered by MWeb
(www.mwebbusiness.co.za). We are sure you will prefer Billy :)
Still haven't found what your looking for? Ask Billy.