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Everyone who has ever worked with invoices knows the biggest problem that is hidden behind them – they often don’t get paid. Have you ever experienced that moment when you spend your time, create an invoice, send it to a customer with beautiful added text and then – nothing?
For you to understand the depth of the problem, British small and medium-sized businesses report the current value of unpaid invoices of around 7.4 billion pounds. The average time for an invoice to be paid is estimated at over 54 days, which is eight weeks later than required by law to be considered as paid in time.
As you can guess, the problem is much bigger than it may seem at first sight. With such numbers, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that unpaid invoices – or those paid with serious delays – are one of the biggest problems for small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed specialists who work as freelancers.
Is there a way for businesses to resolve the invoice problem? How to send invoice online UK and get it paid? In short, yes, the solution exists – and now we are going to tell you more about it.
The Problem: Chasing Invoices and Late Payments
Common scenario: unpaid invoices, ignored reminders
The most common scenario for business works as follows: the customer places an order, the business forms and sends an invoice, and nothing happens next. You can send tons of reminders, but the problem is that they are ignored just like the invoice itself. Why is it a problem? Well, first of all, it consumes a business’s time, requires resources and attention, creates problems for adequate sales forecasting and market analysis, and now also remember that there are businesses that accept after-purchase payments, where unpaid invoices also create direct financial issues.
Business impact of late payments
Regarding open source data, over 36% of invoices are paid with a delay. 55% of small and medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom report that they have unpaid invoices that date back to 2022! When it comes to direct effect on business, entrepreneurs report spending between 21 to 30
hours monthly to chase customers who have unpaid invoices. 44% of businesses report issues with cash flow due to unpaid or late-paid invoices, which cause them to terminate salary increases and stop hiring processes. Even the government itself recognises the threat of this problem, providing potential solutions, such as legal regulation of invoice payment deadlines, widening of small businesses’ ombudsman authority and so on, but as for today, the effect is still smaller than it should be.
Why freelancers and small businesses suffer most
The answer is simple – because small and medium-sized businesses and freelancers don’t have enough financial resources to allow themselves to ignore such a problem. Large enterprises often rely on long-term B2B contracts where such issues don’t exist, and even when we are talking about business models where large businesses supply goods directly to customers with the use of an invoice system, they still have enough financial endurance to stay stable even with many contracts being unpaid. Also, small businesses and freelancers can’t rely on government support or get good loan conditions from banks to support their capitalisation.
The Solution: GoSolo Invoicing Tool
What is it and how it works
GoSolo is an invoicing app for freelancers and small businesses that is built to resolve the issue of unpaid or late-paid invoices. This is a cloud-based solution that requires no hardware to be all set and includes all the capabilities and features you need to work with your finances, even the accounting options for you to eliminate the need for another business system and save you money.
How to create an invoice in under 2 minutes
GoSolo business account with free invoicing allows you to create an invoice in three steps: choose a layout, add your company logo if needed, choose whether you need a VAT or no-VAT invoice, review the information mentioned in the invoice and send it in one click – and you are all set.
Sending invoices with payment links
GoSolo allows you to create an invoice with a payment link which will directly lead your customers to a payment page, where they will be able to choose their preferred payment method – Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfer or their credit card.
Payment tracking and built-in invoice reminder tool
GoSolo invoice generator with payment link allows to track invoice payments in the same interface of the application where you create and send them. You can see all the statuses invoices are in and how they move between them. Also, you have automated built-in reminders that will remind customers of unpaid invoices when needed, in accordance with the rules and logic you can set on your own.
Why It’s the Best Invoicing App for Freelancers
Bundled with a free business account
First of all, GoSolo isn’t just an invoicing app – it’s an all-in-one platform created for small businesses to streamline and optimise payment operations. This means you can create your business account for free in under 10 minutes without going to the bank and spending hours (or, more likely, days) waiting for approval – and instantly receive a complete set of tools to accept payments, offline and in person.
No need for extra tools or integrations
We understand the pain of the business because of a need to purchase and further integrate dozens of different solutions, each of which manages only a few business processes. But what if all the processes and automations you need were included in one solution? That is exactly what we want to achieve in GoSolo and do our best on this path. Besides invoicing, we offer you the following features – business account, virtual business address, checkout, tap to pay, company registration, accounting and many more – and all on a single platform.
Looks professional, easy to use
The design and interface of the business solution are critical – and we invested months and a lot of resources into building GoSolo in a way to make it truly intuitive and easy to use. Comprehensive interface, easy navigation, understandable workflows, detailed FAQ and knowledge base – we care that you could use our solutions as efficiently as possible and so it could bring real value for your business.
Tips for Invoices That Get Paid
It is not enough to have a solution that builds and sends invoices and reminders – it is critical to do it properly, in the way customers won’t be able to ignore. Here is a comprehensive checklist for effective invoice generation to eliminate unpaid and outdated invoices.
Send immediately after service
This is the thing that really matters – when the customer receives the immediate invoice, they have less chance to change their mind, see another option from your competitor or even forget about the urgent need for a product they have chosen. Today’s world is very competitive, so speed in service and sales is an advantage you can use to your favour.
Include payment links and clear deadlines
Payment deadlines are the way to motivate customers to finish the payment, which, in tandem with immediate invoices and links to the payment, works great. A payment request with invoice eases the process, and customers love effortless service.
Use polite, automated reminders
Reminders matter, but they have to be polite, encouraging and focused on the benefits the customer gets from your product or service. You can also use slight emotional motivation. Automate reminders with GoSolo to forget about losing time on this routine process.
Use branded, clear small business invoice templates
Branded, clear and stylish invoices make a solid impression and can become another argument for a client to finish the payment – as it is not great to ignore a solid company. This is where a branded invoice generator makes a difference.
Already Ltd? Manage your business account + admin in one app.
The problem of unpaid invoices in the UK is bigger than it looks like, and even government measures have little effect. Thus, we as GoSolo payment tools developers decided to deal with it on our own and help you eliminate unpaid invoices once and for all with automation and process optimisation.
Create and send your first invoice in 2 minutes with GoSolo – and then benefit from automatic reminders, easy templates, business account integration and accounting.
