The advantages of recurring invoicing software

The time spent working on your company’s bookkeeping is time taken away from running and growing your business, which is why anything that can be automated should be. If you offer recurring services, subscriptions, or repeat product deliveries, recurring invoicing software lets you schedule the creation and sending of invoices. Once the settings are in place, you no longer need to worry about follow-up. Of course, you always retain the ability to step in at any time and change the billing terms.

What is a recurring invoice?

A recurring invoice is issued when your business generates a service or a supply of goods on a repeated basis. These transactions are governed by a contract that defines the nature of your activity. This includes subscriptions of all kinds and sets out the details of your service, its amount, its frequency, and its overall duration.

The recurring invoicing software must then issue an invoice according to a schedule known as the billing schedule. Discover Bizyness and save time by automating the invoicing task for your business, whatever your line of work.

Which activities lead to the issuance of recurring invoices

Any repeat service can be the subject of creating a recurring invoice, provided the terms of the service are set out in a contract or subscription. This can, for example, include:

• a lease agreement, with the corresponding rent payments;
• the rental of equipment or vehicles;
• equipment maintenance contracts;
• cleaning contracts;
• maintenance services related to an IT fleet;
• the renewal of a software subscription, including its updates;
• the rental of cloud computing space;
• legal, technical, or technological assistance;
• accounting services, etc.

The terms of the subscription contract

You must make sure your subscription contract is properly drafted and compliant with the law. Otherwise, you expose yourself to claims from your client and you will not be entitled to demand payment of certain unpaid amounts.

Draft your Terms and Conditions of Sale

Drafting Terms and Conditions of Sale is mandatory in all cases, whether your services are one-off or recurring. The law sets out the seller’s legal obligation to provide pre-contractual information depending on the nature of the transactions:

1. presenting the Terms and Conditions of Sale is mandatory when the offer of goods or services is addressed to individual consumers, in a B2C relationship;

2. presenting the Terms and Conditions of Sale is optional between professionals, in a B2B relationship, but they must always be available on simple request.

The Terms and Conditions of Sale describe your commercial offer in detail, from the order through to payment. They complement your subscription contract.

To draft your Terms and Conditions of Sale, you can find templates online covering the usual standard clauses. Choose a template that matches your business and customize it based on the specifics of your services. Bizyness recurring invoicing software lets you include a link to your Terms and Conditions of Sale for your clients.

Choosing a billing frequency

The billing frequency can vary, which makes it possible to accommodate the widest range of activities. Moreover, the invoice does not necessarily have to correspond to every service delivered. For example, you could offer a monthly subscription for machine maintenance while issuing only one invoice per year.

You can offer any frequency: monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, annual, and so on. Nothing stops you from setting a custom recurrence.

Your contract also defines the subscription’s start date. A monthly contract might, for instance, start on the 1st of each month or on the actual date it was signed, which can be any day of the month.

Fixed-term or open-ended

You can offer two types of contracts when it comes to subscription duration.

Open-ended duration

In the first case, the subscription can renew automatically. As long as the client does not cancel the contract, it is renewed from one period to the next. This avoids having to re-sign a subscription at every renewal date.

The client can stop their contract at any time, but must, where applicable, comply with the cancellation terms. This is usually a notice period of a set length. For example, a monthly subscription might need to be cancelled at least fifteen days before its next renewal date, a duration specified in the original contract.

The contract may also impose a minimum term before it can be cancelled. In the case of your monthly subscription, you could require a six-month commitment before the client can stop it, while still respecting the notice period.

While the seller can impose conditions, the client is entitled to refuse a change to the terms of the contract. Indeed, you must inform them in advance of any change, whether it concerns the terms of performance or the price. For example, you might decide to remove a clause or increase the price of your subscription.

The client must be informed early enough to allow them to cancel the contract if the new conditions no longer suit them. They must be informed by a personal letter or email, with the cancellation deadline clearly highlighted in a visible box. If you fail to comply with this rule, your client may terminate their contract free of charge, effective from the renewal date. If they had already paid for the subscription period following the last renewal date, they are entitled to request a refund within 30 days.

You can also offer a contract that can be cancelled at any time, with no conditions attached.

Fixed-term duration

In the second case, the duration can be limited in time, and the contract must then be re-signed at the end of its term. Your monthly subscription could, for example, be set to end after a year, allowing you to review its terms, particularly pricing.

Your client is then free to renew their subscription or not.

Termination of contracts in the event of non-compliance by the seller

If you fail to meet your obligations, your client may terminate the contract under certain conditions. If you miss the delivery date or, in any case, it is not fulfilled within 30 days of the contract being concluded, your client must act in two steps:

1. they set you a new, generally short, delivery deadline: if you meet it, the contract continues; if you still fail to deliver or provide the service, the client moves to the second step;

2. they are entitled to terminate their contract by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt.

Furthermore, if you deliver to your client or renew your service by mistake after the contract has ended, the service is considered “unsolicited” and you cannot demand payment from your client for it. Indeed, a consumer’s silence does not constitute consent.

If you wish to recover your delivery, you cannot ask your client to cover the return costs; you must bear this cost yourself. If you fail to comply with these obligations and pressure your client to return the goods, they can file a complaint with the public prosecutor, as this may be considered harassment. Recurring invoicing software such as Bizyness lets you easily stop automatic invoice sending whenever needed.

Managing your subscriptions with recurring invoicing software

If you sell subscriptions, you will quickly find yourself overwhelmed by bookkeeping, whereas recurring invoicing software makes the task easier, guarantees the legal compliance of your documents, ensures you never miss an invoice, and lets you thoroughly check on payments.

Ensure your documents are legally compliant with recurring invoicing software

To be legally valid, your invoice must include mandatory information (contact details, Siren number, dates, etc.). Do not take these obligations lightly, as the penalties for non-compliance are far from negligible:

• a tax fine of €15 per missing or inaccurate item for each invoice, capped at a quarter of its amount;
• a fine of €75,000 for an individual (€375,000 for a company). This fine can be doubled in cases of invoicing failure, complacent invoices, or fictitious invoices.

Numbering rules are also strict: numbers must be sequential and no two invoices should ever share the same number. In the event of an error, you must issue a credit note before re-invoicing under a different number.

Recurring invoicing software automatically manages the mandatory information and numbering of your invoices. If you are a sole trader, it handles VAT invoicing if you exceed the VAT exemption threshold.

Set the frequency for automatic invoicing

When you sign a subscription contract, it takes just a few minutes to create the first invoice and define its terms: client details, nature of the service, and amount. From this first document, you build in the recurrence tied to the subscription.

You can choose to have the invoice sent automatically to the client, in PDF format, as soon as it is generated. In some cases, you may prefer to keep control over the sending date.

Say your subscription involves a monthly maintenance contract. Your schedule might vary slightly from month to month, so in this case you would authorize sending the invoice on the actual date of the service. It then only takes you a few seconds to start the process.

The time savings are clear, since your recurring invoicing software takes care of duplicating the original invoice, adding the new date and invoice number.

The delivery note tied to the service

When setting up your configuration, you can also choose to generate a recurring delivery note. Indeed, in the case of a subscription, you don’t need to create a new quote or purchase order, but generating a delivery note serves as proof that the contract has been fulfilled.

No risk of forgetting or making a mistake

Software doesn’t make mistakes, and it keeps you from missing a due date. Your service is systematically invoiced, with no risk of error from manual copy-pasting. The numbering sequence is also respected.

The flexibility of automated invoicing software

You can naturally step in and adjust your settings, letting you fine-tune your invoice whenever your service differs from one billing period to the next.

Tracking unpaid invoices

Every invoice is added to your accounting history. With recurring invoicing software, you can check payment status in just a few clicks, allowing you to follow up with clients who haven’t paid their invoice within the allotted time.

You can set up automatic payment reminders to let your clients know their invoice due date has passed. This saves you even more time managing your bookkeeping.

A comprehensive view of your revenue and cash flow

By letting your software handle automatic invoicing, your incoming payments are scheduled and your cash flow is better managed. By working with the various data exports and sorting options, you can estimate your future revenue and build a forecast of the funds available in your account. This lets you schedule payments to your suppliers and subcontractors, as well as settling your expenses and taxes, while making sure you never end up overdrawn.

Recurring invoicing software helps you create reports that let you assess how much subscriptions contribute to your revenue. It can also support you in shaping your business strategy if you want to grow this type of contract, which provides you with recurring income.

A professional approach that works in your favor

The software guarantees a regular invoice issued on a fixed date, with a clear layout, no risk of error, and nothing forgotten. All these details, which might seem minor, actually work in your favor. They establish you as a genuine, trustworthy professional.

Your clients aren’t always aware of it, but this favorable image helps build their loyalty.