Meet Xero, Your New Accounts Rottweiler

Many small business owners find the hardest part about running a creative agency is the invoicing.

Of course, the getting in of the money is fun. And an important part of the business. But the thing about invoicing is that it’s a bit  tedious and a lot boring, unless you get a massive kick out of seeing the amount of money you’re about to make (And even then).

Naturally, most creative people would rather be getting creative, not crunching numbers and churning out invoices. Sometimes we’d rather be back in a J-O-B than doing this mind numbingly boring task. (Okay, maybe not quite that bad).

The point is, with so much work coming in (a good thing) you can often lose track of all your invoices, and who owes you what (a bad thing).

Forgetting Who Owes You Money, Is Never a Good Thing.

The main issue is that the money is in their bank and not yours. They’re getting all the benefits of having the cash that you’ve worked hard for, when you could be paying bills, earning interest or just spending on general things you love.

Secondly, chasing people for money is not a nice thing to do, even if it is money that’s rightly owed to you. Asking clients to pay their bills is a very sensitive subject, and if not done properly, can sour otherwise great relationships.

They say you should never lend money to friends, for this very reason, and many creative agencies have such good clients, they are like friends!

So Here’s What You Do.

You get a rottweiler. A digital rottweiler that is, unless you’re in need of a new mascot for your office.

We wouldn’t recommend setting a real rottweiler on the clients who owe you money, but using Xero as your debt collector, well, that’s a different matter.

We know we keep talking about Xero, but it really is that good. Why do you think people talk about chocolate all the time? It’s that good.

Xero lets you do all kinds of fancy pants things, and it is especially useful at managing your invoices and collecting money.

Xero As Your Debt Collector

With Xero managing all your invoices, you can be free to get as creative as you like. Seriously, you don’t have to worry about a thing. Xero will take care of everything by doing these cool things:

• Automatically sending out invoices when the job is done, instantly.
• Creating and managing recurring invoices, for those clients on monthly retainers.
• Regularly reminding clients of when their payment due date is, in a simple, efficient and impartial way.
• Chasing those clients who have missed a payment, and sending them overdue notices at regular intervals.
• Displaying and printing reports to show you who owes money and when you can expect it, to help you manage finances and cash flow.
• And generally just making your life a whole lot easier.

Get Paid In Your Sleep

Just think how many hours you could save with Xero, instead of trying to calculate, input and send out invoices yourself. What could you be doing with that time?  (Spending money on more cake, as we discussed in a previous post, for one thing.)

Xero can automate everything for you, so you don’t have to lift a finger, and yet will still get paid as and when you should. Clients get their invoices and payment dates, along with regular reminder notices, and you just sit back and relax.

All Xero’s features are accurate and impartial, so it takes away all the awkwardness and pain of asking your clients to pay you the money they owe. Simple.

And if they have a problem, just direct them to your Rottweiler!

See? Told you Xero was really good.

So why not sleep, go on holiday, drink fine wine and eat cheese and chocolate. Whatever takes your fancy really, whilst you watch the invoices fly out and the money come rolling in. Just ring us first, before you go wild, if you need help setting up Xero!