Last updated on April 7th, 2024 at 11:14 am

As technological advancement continues to incentivize a global shift away from outdated business operation procedures, an increasing number of companies worldwide are moving their invoicing to the cloud, embracing automation improvements, and invoicing customers on the go. Invoicing software is becoming more automated and intuitive, but to make sure you use these advancements to your company’s greatest benefit, it’s still important to be aware of the latest developments in billing and invoicing software.

Custom billing software adapts proactively to the latest developments in automation, mobile-first development, and cloud-based operations to give your company a competitive edge. By staying ahead of the competition, you’ll be able to incorporate 2025’s billing software innovations today. Here’s what you need to know.

Automation

In the past, it was necessary to bill customers, manage subscriptions, and process refunds manually. For larger companies, invoicing required multiple full-time employees, which raised costs and trapped talented assets under endless piles of paperwork.

It’s now possible to automate the entire invoicing process from beginning to end. Companies can set up custom billing software in a matter of days that continues operating for years with no need for manual intervention.

Simple tasks, such as starting or ending subscriptions, can now be handled by complex machine learning algorithms instead of human operators. Automated billing software can also calculate how much tax to charge, when to charge customers, and when to provide refunds.

Using automation, it’s also now possible to retry failed payments, offer coupons, and provide additional add-ons without manual intervention. Furthermore, automation improves billing software security by eliminating human error and controlling operations from one central source.

Without automated billing software, it’s necessary to manually intervene whenever payment fails, which wastes time and slows down the fulfillment process. Traditional billing software also makes it necessary to calculate the cost of upgrades and downgrades manually.

For subscription-based services or transactions that use percentages, recalculating invoice amounts manually is especially tedious. The unique benefits offered by automated billing software are already removing pain points and promoting greater efficiency, and as machine learning and artificial intelligence become more proficient, unnecessary obstacles between innovation and growth will continue to erode.

Mobile Invoicing

A decade ago, mobile invoicing was clunky and prone to errors. Mobile billing software has come a long way since then, and integration with iOS, Android, and other mobile platforms is now seamless and intuitive.

Both professionals and consumers are rapidly moving away from laptops and desktop computers and turning to mobile devices for daily operations. This trend is especially pronounced in the developing world since countries like India have curtailed cash access and strongly promote electronic transactions.

With mobile invoicing, it’s now possible to operate entire businesses in decentralized locations with employees who spend hardly any time in the office. Paperwork is reduced while efficiency and job satisfaction are improved, leading to reduced turnover rates and faster growth.

Mobile invoicing is often free, and it only takes a few minutes to integrate apps like Square into your mobile billing operations. This significantly reduced onboarding time helps companies embrace electronic invoicing, and most mobile billing platforms also have desktop equivalents.

By syncing both mobile and desktop operations with the cloud, mobile invoicing is becoming the front-line approach to new customer acquisition, managing subscriptions, and more. Most mobile billing software platforms are equipped with detailed analytics engines, which further promotes the rapid shift toward using mobile devices for the majority of business operations.

Moving to the Cloud

Only a decade or two ago, handling invoicing entirely on paper was still commonplace for businesses around the globe. Moving billing operations to digital platforms was already a big step for many companies, and this transition was further hindered by the dangers of data loss and the necessity of constant backups.

Cloud-based invoicing arose to fill the gaps in the existing electronic billing model. By storing data in an off-site location, businesses no longer had to worry about data loss, and for the first time, billing software became fully worry-free.

These days, however, companies are relying on the cloud for far more than just data security. Performing invoicing operations with cloud-based software also promotes easier collaboration, faster access to data, and simpler implementation than offline options.

Billing software development has heavily focused on cloud-based operations to provide companies with a unified approach to keeping track of invoices. In some cases, existing billing software providers have implemented cloud capabilities, but the advent of the cloud has also allowed new providers to develop cloud-first billing software.

Questionable security was one of the major reasons that many companies resisted migration to cloud-based billing software. By allowing your sensitive financial information to be held on a third party’s servers hundreds of miles away, you inherently expose yourself to risk.

Developers of cloud-based billing software have addressed this sticking point by incorporating additional security measures. Encrypting invoice data with advanced algorithms is now the norm, for instance, and as the entire arena of cloud computing has become more secure, related benefits have trickled down to the specific application of cloud-based invoicing.

Invoicing Is Evolving Rapidly

In five years, it will seem archaic to manually intervene in the invoicing process in any capacity. Cloud-based invoicing already organizes the invoicing efforts of an entire company into one format that’s universally accessible across multiple platforms, mobile devices are becoming the preferred access point for initiating and monitoring invoicing operations, and automation is rapidly taking the hard work of invoicing away from human operators.

While existing tools for digital invoicing can be appropriate for companies that don’t mind doing things the same way as the competition, it’s often more prudent to develop custom software that takes your organization’s unique needs into account. Custom invoicing software development is intuitive and scalable, and it’s fully tailored to your particular organizational structure and long-term growth plans.

The latest developments in invoicing and billing software are reducing errors, improving efficiency, and promoting growth. By embracing the evolution of invoicing today, you can proactively prepare for the business landscape of 2025 and beyond.