Issuing invoices, monitoring their repayment, and reminding debtors, but also preparing documents for tax returns – according to the IPSOS survey for Air Bank in the Czech Republic, entrepreneurs rate these tasks as some of the most annoying. Ideally, they would welcome an invoicing system linked directly to a Bank account, which can automatically fill in the required data, enable a quick overview of the status of all invoices, and simultaneously provide all functions free of charge. This is exactly the kind of solution that Air Bank now provides directly in its mobile banking. In this way, the administration associated with invoicing will be facilitated not only for clients from among experienced entrepreneurs but especially for those starting, which according to data from the ARES register over the last ten years, always increases the most at the beginning of the year and then during September.
“Almost half of the interviewed entrepreneurs still issue invoices in Word or Excel. They have to fill out each invoice themselves from start to finish, save it in a fixed format for sending to the customer, track its repayment in the payment overview, and, if necessary, prepare a reminder for the debtor after the due date has passed. Some services on the market can solve some of these tasks, but many of the mentioned functionalities are paid for in these services. Our customers will be able to use this service directly in our application for free, and at the same time they will solve most common needs here, such as pairing with payment or overdue invoice notifications, which are usually paid,” – says Jiří Suchý, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Air Bank.
According to the results of the current IPSOS survey for Air Bank, entrepreneurs are most bothered by the preparation of documents for filing tax returns (in 58% of cases), which consists of recording all payments that arrive on the entrepreneur’s account. In the same way, it provides a complete overview of the status of all invoices and warns about the expiry of due dates, which 42% of the entrepreneurs bother to monitor. Almost a third of respondents (32%) are also bothered by just issuing and sending invoices. Invoicing in the My Air app therefore allows the business owner to fill out invoices as easily as regular payment orders and prepare them in PDF format directly to be sent to the customer in a way that the entrepreneur is used to, i.e. by e-mail.
“When it comes to administration related to invoicing, several aspects emerged from the comments of the respondents of our survey that are very annoying to entrepreneurs. One of the most frequently mentioned is the time it takes them to invoice. Either because of manually issuing invoices, printing and recording them, or monitoring their reimbursement, which is often solved by daily checking of your account and receiving payments in online banking. Another stressful factor for some entrepreneurs is the complex legal requirements associated with invoicing. 60% of entrepreneurs are not sure what should be included on the invoice. Some are thus afraid of errors and subsequent problems when issuing invoices manually and their later adjustments. Some entrepreneurs are therefore looking for options and programs that would make their work with invoices easier, but they are bothered by the costs associated with their acquisition,” – says Petr Šmíd, Head of Market Research at Air Bank.
Through simple invoicing linked to their mobile banking account, Air Bank will provide its customers with all the functionalities that, according to the current survey, they expect from an ideal invoicing system. According to the results of the survey, the most important thing for the respondents is the automatic filling of their data, the generation of invoices in a fixed PDF format, or the quick and simple filling in of the customer’s data on the invoice being prepared. For entrepreneurs, the following ten are the most important in terms of invoicing:
- Automatic filling in own data (69%);
- An invoice generation in PDF (67%);
- Quick and easy filling in customer data (65%);
- A possibility of sending the invoice in the usual way (59%);
- An overview of the status of all invoices with the possibility of filtering (57%);
- All functions related to online invoicing are for free (55%);
- An automatic generation of a QR code on the invoice (55%);
- A possibility to choose the method of payment of the invoice (52%);
- An easy customer selection from billing history (51%);
- Easy monitoring of payment transactions (46%).
The survey for Air Bank was carried out in September 2023 by the IPSOS research agency through an online survey of a representative sample of 525 entrepreneurs.
Source: the Bank press release dated September 11, 2023
