The Battle Of The Bill - The Fight For Control

In most organizations, control over invoices involves a battle between the Finance, Marketing, and Customer Care teams. Finance views invoices as crucial for revenue collection, Marketing sees them as key communication tools with customers, and Customer Care uses them to explain product and service usage.

Smart organizations recognize the value of collaboration among these teams to create effective invoices. A great invoice includes clear customer communication, financial charges, charge descriptions, and payment instructions. This ensures the invoice is understood, conveys the organization’s message, is not questioned, and is paid on time, satisfying all teams.

The Ultimate Battle: IT Control Over Invoices

Despite claims from Finance, Marketing, and Customer Care, in most organizations, IT controls the invoicing process. IT manages access to invoice templates, tools, and environments, determining what can be changed and by whom. This control arises because:

• The billing system is managed by IT.
• It operates on IT-controlled servers.
• The complexity of billing solutions requires IT expertise.

IT ensures stability through structured processes, preventing chaos from unskilled changes. Ultimately, the real control battle is between united business teams and IT for invoice management.

An Alternative to the Age-Old Struggle

Organizations are increasingly seeking ways to reduce their dependence on IT for invoice management. They aim to respond swiftly to customer and market needs without lengthy IT processes, update marketing content, and amend invoice templates cost-effectively.

Steps to Achieve This:

1. Define Invoicing Strategy: Decide if you need a single invoice design for all customers or different designs for various segments (e.g., B2C vs. B2B).
2. Design Invoice Templates: Ensure templates align with your strategy, incorporating clear communication, financial details, and marketing opportunities.

When designing a good invoice, ensure clear communication and effective white space management. A well-crafted invoice includes:

• Clear, concise information about the customer
• Detailed descriptions of products and services
• Accurate financial amounts (line items, total, taxes, etc.)
• Payment amounts, methods, and dates
• Informative content about relevant products and offers

A flexible billing and invoicing solution is essential. It should offer intuitive templating capabilities and access to extensive data sources from the billing system.

How LogiSense Can Help:

LogiSense bridges the gap between business and IT, ensuring seamless collaboration. Our solution simplifies invoice creation for business teams while maintaining IT control and stability.

LogiSense Billing allows business teams to design and amend invoices easily using Microsoft Word, with access to comprehensive billing data and event-driven actions. Templates are uploaded, tested, and verified, ensuring they meet business needs.

This approach enables business teams to manage invoice content swiftly, while IT ensures system integrity and accessibility. LogiSense brings harmony to the invoice management process.