If you’re finding that your clients are slow-payers, maybe your invoice language is to blame.

For instance, does your invoice invite action or inaction? An invoice that simply says, “Payable upon receipt” sends a non-urgent message to your customer that he can “Pay me when it’s convenient for you,” instead of “Please pay me now”. That’s just an open invitation to slow payers to drag out the payment process!

So you thought invoices are only useful to collect payments? But here’s a revelation - you can use the billing contact with your client for business promotion too!

By using invoice promotion you can give back to existing customers and maybe even solicit new work. You may also be able to get new customers.

Here are a few simple suggestions how you can use invoicing as a promotional tool:

• Print a little footer on the invoice to the effect, “10% Off your next purchase with this invoice” and encourage prompt action by giving a deadline, “expires 30 days from now”, etc.

FreshBooks, an online billing and tracking service, aims to provide its users with valuable metrics as a way of benchmarking against businesses in over eighty different industries. Statistics will include average time for payment, average invoice size by industry, monthly revenue, in addition to trends about online payments, payment methods and lots of other useful information.

Read the full Allbusiness article.

So [he] did what a growing number of other business owners are doing — he hired a software service provider to do the work for him. Now, FreshBooks, a Web-based invoicing service that takes care of generating and sending invoices, issuing reminders, and even processing online payments, manages his billings.

“I just set up the client account, enter the numbers and [FreshBooks] takes care of the rest.” [he] says. “Collection time is way shorter.”

Read the full Globe and Mail article.

FreshBooks is a feature-rich state-of-the-art Web 2.0 application that allows busy freelancers and other professionals to simplify the billing process and concentrate on getting the work done.

The many useful features of FreshBooks include:

• A simple interface so you can easily create, send and manage invoices
• Time tracking so you and your staff can manage and monetize your valuable time
• The ability to send professional invoices by US post or email
• Give your clients the option to make payment with PayPal, 2Checkout.com, Authorize.Net and other payment processors