Best Smart Invoice Scanning Tools for Your Business

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Did you know that most businesses lose up to 5% of their revenue in invoicing errors? Managing invoices can be a challenging and time-consuming task that is prone to delays, and errors. Automating your invoice process is the best solution for managing your business's accounts payable tasks efficiently and effortlessly. 

With so many smart invoice-scanning software programs available, you can simplify and streamline the billing process by creating client profiles, adding payment options, and managing expenses. 

Must-have Features of Invoicing Software

While there are a plethora of options for invoice scanning in the market, there is no one perfect solution. This is because every business is different and needs different features that suit their requirements. 

Here are some of the aspects you must consider when choosing invoice software for your billing needs.

Free plan’s value: Many invoice software come with free plans but not all free plans are worth it. Some are just lead magnets just to get users signed up for the premium plan. When choosing an invoice software, select the one that offers the most out of the free plan. 

Customizable invoices: Branding is one of the important factors that distinguishes your business. The invoicing software you select must be able to customize your invoices by adding specific colors and logos so that your customers will understand your invoice is legitimate. 

Reporting tools: Look for invoicing software that features reporting tools so that you can have a better understanding of your money. 

Recurring billing: Automatic billing can save you a lot of time and when you choose an invoice software, look for the ones that support recurring billing.

Android & iOS Apps: It would be highly convenient if your invoice scanning software has an Android & iOS application

Integration with existing software: The invoicing software you choose must work alone with your existing account software to ensure seamless data transfer. 

Data security features: Look for invoicing software with robust security measures so that your sensitive data is safe from unauthorized access.

Top 5 invoice scanning software 

Now let’s take a look at some of the top 5 invoice scanning solutions that you can use for your business to drive growth. 

1. Wave

If you are a small business looking for free invoicing software, look nowhere else. Wave is a simple, intuitive, and user-friendly invoicing platform that takes no previous account experience to use it. 

Wave is a cloud-based invoicing software to streamline the billing process by managing invoices, processing payment and tax information, managing payrolls and finances, processing credit scans, and scanning recipients. 

Some of the best features of Wave are its intuitive interface, ability to create customizable invoicing templates, create estimates for potential customers, etc.

While it might be an ideal solution for large businesses, Wave is perfect for freelancers and entrepreneurs to manage their billing efficiently.

Pros
  • No recurring fees.

  • Supports an unlimited number of users.

  • Best business features.

Cons
  • Limited scalability.

  • No proper support.

  • Time tracking feature missing. 

2. Zoho Invoice

Another free invoicing software to automate invoices is Zoho Invoice used by small businesses to manage and organize their accounts professionally. If you have been struggling to manually create and manage each invoice, Zoho is an excellent tool to create invoices, keep track of payments, keep track of invoices sent and received, view payment history, and do more. 

Zoho allows businesses to send up to 1k invoices every year and it allows creating project estimates and keeping track of project history and client interaction. 

The software also supports popular payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe.

One of the best features of Zoho Invoice is that it can be integrated with Zoho analytics and other third-party apps like Google Drive and Dropbox. It also comes with a reporting dashboard to gain insight into your invoice’s status, record offline spending, and collect payments in advance.

Pros
  • Visually attractive.

  • Customization features .

  • Client portal and excellent reporting feature

Cons
  • The design needs scrolling.

  • Development skills are a must.

3. Coupa

Coupa is an efficient and accurate invoice automation software that helps clients optimize operations efficiently. The invoice management software comes with features to reduce overall costs, free your accounts payable team, improve cash flow, etc. 

The software allows users to benefit the most from e-invoicing adoption for all types of invoices including PO-backs and non-PO invoices. 

Some of the best features of Coupa are its ability to digitize and automate procurement, payments, expense management, AI for performance optimization, and intelligent and proactive financial forecasting.

Pros 
  • Streamlining purchasing process and real-time tracking. .

  • AP payment processing with automatic 2-way and 3-way matching.

  • Fast notifications of issues.

Cons
  • Poorly designed and confusing UI. 

  • Customer support is not very prompt.

4. Paymo

Paymo is a project management software designed for small and medium-sized businesses including educational institutions. While it is primarily used to manage projects, it also features invoicing and online payment capabilities. 

Paymo can be leveraged to create and send invoices to clients in different templates in over 15 languages. It also combines financial management features to help you manage your finances, track the budget of your projects, and receive financial overviews within the same platform. 

Paymo allows users to generate invoices on tracked time and expenses making the billing accurate. It also supports payment gateways including PM payment, PayPal Strips, etc making online payments convenient.

Other best features of Paymo as an invoicing software include Work time tracking, Reporting and analytics, collaborating features, and connecting with third-party integrations like Google Calendar, Zapier, Slack, Jotform, etc.

Pros 
  • The software offers a plan with decent features.  

  • Creation of multiple projects with Gantt chart.

  • Supports over 15 languages. 

  • Available as Android and iOS apps for easy access. 

Cons
  • Storage is limited. 

  • Advanced support is offered as priority support. 

5. PayPal

The digital payment platform PayPal also offers an invoicing service to their clients. 

While it might not support entire client profiles or doesn’t offer detailed subscription billion, PayPal does its job as a free invoice makes. PayPal is a straightforward-to-use software for beginners. 

You just need to type in the client’s name, contact information, and pricing and then send the invoice. It also supports invoice customization features like adding custom fields, logos, and sending payment reminders. 

PayPal is a highly reputed platform that allows you to send invoices on the go However the invoicing features are basic when compared to robust invoicing platforms.

Pros 
  • Prominent digital payment service .

  • Straightforward to use with invoicing in one place. 

Cons
  • Basic and limited features. 

Conclusion

Invoicing software is a great addition to your business and makes it easy to track tasks, create estimates, and invoice management a breeze. 

Look for invoice software that generates invoices automatically and tracks billable hours. No matter your business type, choose the one that has features to help your business. Finally, the best invoicing software comes down to the cost, features, pros and cons, and whether it is scalable to support your business type and size. 

Choose the best invoicing software according to your unique business needs.