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Recurring Invoices + Your Business = 😃?
TylerK
Member Posts: 94 admin
At Wave, we want to create tools that save you time and help your business thrive. Recurring Invoices are a great way to get work done without having to really do work. You can set them up to happen on a repeating basis, send a one-off invoice in the future (i.e. as a scheduler), or in payments enabled regions, even allow for recurring automatic payments to get paid faster.
If you're not using this feature yet, you can learn more about it here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003223043-Getting-Started-with-Recurring-Invoices-Automatic-Payments-Webinar
With that said, are you using Recurring Invoices for your business? Regardless of your vote, we'd love to hear more about your thoughts in the comments below.
Recurring Invoices + Your Business = 😃?
This is a public poll: others will see what you voted for.
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Comments
Yeah, I use them more often than not. I just have a couple of clients who keep me on retainer for IT work. Simpler for everyone to make it a kind of monthly subscription.
If only I could! My consultant jobs are always different and need to be invoiced differently. I'd love to figure out a way to use them, but it wouldn't really work with the way I run things.
Yes, we use them. Will request feature enhancement specifically for them - we bill same invoice on which we need to indicate period - i.e., month, and we update them manually each month (except when we forget and look dimwitted).
@XY Hashbarger One of the things I love most about Recurring Invoices - they help EVERYONE!
@Edgar Microni That's a very good point! If you ever get a consultancy job on a monthly basis they make work but if you're always tackling new and exciting things, One-Offs are the way to go.
@Brandi Solid feedback. The ability to "keep things in one place" would help a few people out. We always have members of the Wave Product Team scanning the Community but I'll definitely bring this to them directly.
One of the reasons we love WAVE - the recurring invoices! Our company builds and maintains online marketing (custom websites/SEO) for many clients. WAVE fits our culture & business model. How? WebMax is all about ease, simplicity, all-in-one package that saves time and money. Our customers love the consistency, they know what to expect each month, super affordable and best delivery, just like WAVE.
Waiting for a feature where you can split up the payments on one invoice. We sell insurance policies and our customers sometimes pay in 3 payments over 60 days. Rather than having 3 separate invoices we are looking for a feature that automatically sends out the invoice for the installment payment.
@webmaxdotca Wow! Amazing insight there. Glad Wave meets the needs of you and your customers
@droddick A feature like that is definitely on our radar. It would also be useful if a client has a balance across many invoices and they want to "pay it off" in one payment.
Although I don't have a business model that can take advantage of recurring invoices, seems like a great feature for those that do.
What I would really like to see is recurring BILLS! Why that is not standard is so confusing. Rent, utilities, website fees, insurance, storage, security, internet, software licenses.....just imagine having to input that every single month for every single one every single time, plus add the payment info? Come on....please?????
Thank you for the feedback @poetnprophet!
@Tyler
Another vote from me for installment payments. This is huge and would actually allow me to use Wave over SlickPie!!
I use a mix of automatic and manual sending. It's great you can switch that on and off. Sometimes I need to tweak them. I've worked around the need to manually send by entering "for the week following the invoice date" into my service description.
I do wish there was a way to setup a default invoice and payment email messages when sending to clients manually. On the desktop this is blank, so have to enter the whole message each time and on the mobile app this is populated by a Wave default but not quite the wording I'd use, so have to tweak it. One default for all devices would be ideal (just like the invoice footer/notes)
@PJandCompanyLLC instalment payments, discounts, I want it all!
@fido customized messaging can definitely be improved to make it more tailored to your needs and your business' brand. Thanks for the insight - I'll be sure to let the Product Team know.
I would like to see the Products or Services automatically update the pricing of that product or service for Recurring Invoices. I currently have about 100 recurring invoices and if I have a price increase for a product, I have to go in and edit each recurring invoice. Is this possible?
That's a great suggestion @Judith Jones ! Having a Product Roster that updates in real time would be a real timesaver (HA! that sounds much more clever than I meant it to). There may be some nuances such as how these updates would play with accounting and report generation that would be hard to handle but unique problems just require creative solutions
I really like the recurring invoices but it would be a great benefit to me and I am sure others to set up automatic reminders with the recurring invoice. I send off a number of recurring invoices every month and some of my clients need a bit of a push to get them paid. Having this automated would help me very much.
I think we can all use extra reminders these days, @awassall! We have reminders available for standard invoices but not quite yet for recurring. If you're in a payments enabled country, you are able to set up Automatic Payments which will help quite a bit in these situations. Unfortunately, due to regional availability, not all countries can take advantage of this feature. Hopefully one day!
Recurrent invoices are good, but ...
they are only half of the story of a subscription based business. I am new to wave, but I am finding it clunky for subscription based businesses. I usually invoice my customers after they have consumed my service and I have lined up my invoicing so that it aligns with my year end (june 30th). But I have customers who have purchased a year of my service and pre-pay. And they will automatically re-pay the following year, so the recurring invoice is good for that.
But then wave gets really clunky making me handle the deferred recognition of that revenue manually. I would like to see a feature for subscriptions were it ties the steps on page 70 of the "wave fearless accounting guide", and all the tax steps needed and the recurring invoicing together into a single feature. Without that, a subscription based business seems hard to manage in wave.
That's great feedback, @GregVeres and I am glad to hear that our Fearless Accounting guide helped in some capacity. There are many nuances in the way businesses operate and do their books so this kind of insight is very useful to planning future refinements.
No. Doesn't make sense. I've tried it but it is really only a workaround for me. My customers also pay in "installments" so they aren't really recurring invoices. What we really need is SCHEDULED invoices. Let me create an invoice TODAY that is due on June 18th, 2019 and set a date to go out of June 4th, 2019 and send it out automatically. THIS would be great for my business. (I know we can create a single recurring invoice, but that is a tedious workaround).
Even better would be the aforementioned "installment" payments. My customers pay a down payment now, then 1/2 the balance in a few months and the remaining balance several months after that. If I could enter ONE invoice now, set the amount due NOW, the amount due in December and the amount due in June, with due dates and send dates....and Wave would just take care of it all....well that would be SWEET.
For now I would settle for scheduled invoices.
(also, another vote for recurring bills!)
Hey @TimK! Really appreciate the clearly articulated insight here. While the feature is named "Recurring Invoices" you do have an option to use it as a Scheduler of sorts. It is a bit of a workaround but you can sent up a Recurring Invoice to "end after 1" which means only one will be created and sent. I have attached a screenshot from my Wave account that would send one invoice on September 21st and then "end" (so no subsequent invoices are created).
Yes, I know 'recurring invoices' can be used as scheduled invoices, but it is somewhat tedious. Being able to enter a single 'bill' with multiple payment dates and amounts would be ideal. At a minimum, a function that allowed users to create multiple invoices at the same time would be great for me.
It would be nice if, during creation of the first invoice there was a button or checkbox that says "create multiple invoices"....and when the first invoice is done, it takes the user into a second invoice retaining the same customer info and saving us a step.
These options all require Wave to implement the ability to set a future send date without using 'recurring invoices'.
Tim
Thanks for the follow-up and the extra details, @TimK. I'll bring your comments to the attention of the right folks on our end!
Hi there, I just wanted to add a comment that I love recurring invoices and it would be even better if there was some way to note the time period the invoice was for retainer clients. For instance, if there could somehow be Services: September that automatically becomes Services: October for the next invoice. Or a range of dates. Even if it was a note that could be made manually in advance for the next X amount of invoices...if that makes sense. Rather than be needing to remember to edit it before the invoice goes out. Thanks!
Great point to add, @Delaney! Wave as a whole is currently wrapping our head around how to best handle deposits, retainers, etc. and then bringing that logic to things like Recurring Invoices (or Invoices in general). Making them "smarter" as you described would a be a great win - also makes it more personal thank "Monthly Fee" and having to look at the date. Thanks for the insight!
Just made a comment to add the ability to 'delete recurring invoices' for invoices that haven't yet been used instead of archiving as 'ended', but another feature would be to allow for uploading an amortization schedule. This applies to recurring invoices. I am in the private money lending business and when i loan an amount money (ie: $30,000), the customer pays me back each month in interest (income) & principal (notes receivable). I have created a work around since Wave only allows for incoming money to go Income, but the bill needs to be split into 2 income accounts (int & princ). However, in regards to a recurring invoice, the amounts of the interest & principal change each month, so i literally have to create 12 'recurring invoices'. One for each month. And I have the 'recurring invoice' end 15 days later. This allows me to set up invoices that are sent in the future, but enable me to have different interest & principal amounts on each bill. Easy enough work around, but definitely not intuitive. Being able to upload an amortization schedule would make the process easier and keep me around for the long haul. Once I get up to 10+ loans, I'll be forced to transfer to QBO b/c your system would be creating too much work me.
Definitely a nuanced business type and payment structure there, @GoodAccounting. Specific business flows like this are always good insight to have but given the niche format I don't see this being on our Road Map in the near future.
@Tyler Thanks