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#Invoicing vs billing software

To explain the consolidated billing process, let’s look at four essential steps. The term consolidated means to combine or unite.

Customer’s name, address, and contact data.

The invoice must include at least the following information: Usually, the invoice has a specific template with customers’ and businesses’ information. It supports internal accounting and VAT operations with a record of the goods and services sold. It will include detailed data on total due, along with the specification of water usage and fixed and usage-based rates.Īn invoice is a legal document that requires payment for rendered and combined services the business provides.

#Invoicing vs billing software

When you use a service or have a subscription, the company will issue an invoice requesting payment for what you owe them.įor instance, a water provider will use its water utility billing software to automatically send its customers a monthly invoice. However, an invoice is a document a company sends to the customer before the payment is due.įor example, when you buy groceries and pay at the register, you receive a bill. When talking about billing, people commonly confuse the terms bill and invoice.Ī company will issue a bill to the customer after payment as evidence of the transaction. It’s the difference between a bill and an invoice. The correct term is consolidated billing because billing is a process, and the invoice is only the document, the result of that process.īefore we explain how billing works, let’s examine a vital topic crucial to understanding billing. Hence the other name – consolidated invoicing.

The Energy & Utility industry uses utility billing software with consolidated billing to combine the water and sewage charges, electricity and gas usage, and any additional services the customer might use.Īt the start of the month, the customer gets an invoice showing the usage, price, tax, and balance he owns for every service.Īt the end of the invoice is the total balance, the total amount he owes the utility company for that month.Ĭonsolidated billing results in one invoice, where the customer can transparently see what the company charged him. The invoice contains the total payment the customer owes with detailed information on each charge, when it happened, at what price, etc.

That consolidated bill is then transformed into an invoice and sent to the customer. Who needs Consolidated Billing and Invoicing?įirst, consolidated billing should not be mistaken for the term Bill consolidation, a debt management strategy also known as debt or loan consolidation.Ĭonsolidated billing is a feature of the billing software that combines customers’ multiple charges into a single bill.Why use consolidated billing and invoicing?.The Consolidation of Charges into One Bill and a Single Invoice.