Batch invoicing and expenses: Why and when group invoices improve billing

As the owner of a growing business, one thing you’re sorely lacking is time. Not only are you trying to secure new revenue and clients, but you’re managing much of your business operations in areas such as:

• Payroll
• Invoicing
• Expenses
• Accounts payable

QuickBooks Online Advanced provides business owners like you with tools that save more of your most precious commodity: time. Let’s look at three tools that batch actions to help you run your business more efficiently and get more time back in your day:

• Batch invoicing
• Batch expenses
• Batch checks

Batch invoicing (previously accelerated invoicing)

Batch expenses

Batch checks

Use QuickBooks Online Advanced to increase efficiency and boost profitability

Batch invoicing FAQ

Batch invoicing (previously accelerated invoicing)

Billing efficiency is essential for maintaining a healthy cash flow. Sending out invoices sooner means your business gets paid faster. Lower error rates leaves your employees with fewer headaches and more cleared accounts.

However, monthly billing can take copious amounts of precious time that could be better spent doing other, revenue-generating activities. This is why batch invoicing becomes your best strategic tool. 

What is batch invoicing?

Batch invoicing is a process that allows you to generate multiple invoices from a single-entry input, as opposed to manually entering information per individual invoice.

Examples of batch invoicing involve creating one invoice for multiple clients who are billed on a monthly basis for ongoing services. It could also work for businesses that offer a set list of goods and services. You can easily add these line items to invoices without having to re-input all the data every time.

Advantages of batch invoicing

Let’s look at some of the key advantages of batch invoicing:

• Saves time: The biggest advantage related to batch invoicing is the amount of time it saves. By working with a good invoicing software that allows you to pick and choose the information you want to include, you can quickly build an invoice with just a few clicks.
• Streamlines workflow and improves client experience: Batch invoicing helps cut down on errors, allows you to work on a set schedule for creating and sending invoices, and provides clients with a templated format that is easy to read and easy to pay.
• Provides valuable insights: By building invoices for a set list of items, your accounts receivable team can review this information and gain valuable insight regarding what type of work you’re doing the most, what work is generating the most revenue, and what types of work might be underperforming.

Disadvantages of batch invoicing

While batch invoicing comes with its benefits, it has its drawbacks as well, including:

• Limited flexibility: Batch invoicing works best for clients with similar billing needs. If your projects regularly involve unique pricing, custom service bundles, or frequent scope changes, it might not be the best fit.
• Batching invoicing isn’t foolproof: While batch invoicing aims to reduce errors, it doesn’t completely eliminate them. If a single error happens in the batch template, it can affect multiple invoices and lead to incorrect billing for multiple clients.
• Higher upfront learning curve: Setting up batch invoicing processes and templates may take time and training, especially for businesses new to invoicing software.
• Might overlook personal touches: Standardized invoices don’t always allow for those little extras that make clients feel valued, like personalized notes or tailored details.

Best scenarios for batch invoicing and billing

The best way to use batch invoicing is to make your life simpler by streamlining the billing process. Think about the invoices you generate every month. How many are there where you perform some version of this process:

• Open last month’s invoice.
• Save a copy.
• Change the invoice date.
• Save and rename the new invoice.
• Send the new invoice to the client, by finding last month’s email, changing the dates and attaching the new document.

If this sounds familiar and you’re doing this for more than a handful of clients, you’re wasting time. Batch invoicing can accomplish all of the steps above with one or two clicks. If you have multiple clients who receive the same goods or services every month, every quarter, bi-annually or annually, then your business is the perfect candidate for batch invoicing.

Other scenarios made for batch invoicing:

• Clients who are billed the same or similar amounts every month.
• Clients who are similar in size and scope of service.
• Customers who work on an established billing schedule or frequency.

Streamlining your accounts receivable function can increase efficiency and close the gap between quoting a client and actually getting paid. With QuickBooks Online Advanced’s batch invoicing, you can actually create invoices 37 percent faster.*

How batch invoicing works

Streamline invoice creation, editing, and uploading by grouping similar invoices together and processing them all at once. These batch invoices cut down the amount of manual labor you’ll need to do in order to make corrections or updates.

This means invoices will also get out of accounts receivable and into the hands of your clients faster, increasing the odds of quicker payments and steadier cash flow.

For instance, say you run a landscaping business with 50 clients who all receive weekly lawn care services at a flat rate of $100. Instead of creating 50 separate invoices each week, you can use batch invoicing software to create one template for the service. Here are the steps on how you would do this process:

1. Open your invoicing software and set up a template that includes the service details, pricing, and payment terms.
2. Choose the 50 clients who receive the same lawn care service each week.
3. The software will automatically populate client-specific information—e.g., names, addresses, and invoice numbers—using your saved records.
4. Double-check the batch to ensure all details, including amounts, due dates, and client information, are correct.
5. Submit all 50 invoices at once with a single click.

How batch invoicing can help cash flow

Cash flow keeps your business running, as it ensures you have the money to cover expenses, pay employees, and invest in growth. When you use a batch invoicing process, you have more control over your finances and can plan for future expenses with confidence.

Let's take our example from the previous section. Each month, you need to send invoices to 50 clients for their weekly lawn care services. If you manually create and send each invoice, it takes time and could lead to mistakes that delay payments. With batch invoicing, you can send all invoices at once, ensuring they’re on time and consistent. Ultimately, this can help lower late payments, improve cash flow, and give you more time to grow your business.

Batch expenses

Similar to batch invoicing, batch expenses give you time back in your day by automating a time-consuming task. Expensing typically involves gathering your receipts, credit card statements, and travel information, and entering each expense individually as they occur.

This process quickly grows tedious if you entertain clients or travel with any type of frequency. And it’s easy to put off expensing, meaning that it could take you an inordinate amount of time to complete the task once you actually set aside the time to do it.

The process of entering line item after line item for a week’s worth of client dinners or holiday gifts is important for accounting and compliance purposes, but as a business owner you have much better things to do with your time.

With batch expenses, you can create an expense once and duplicate it, while changing some of the underlying details, like vendor or amount. This removes the time-sucking task of entering expenses one at a time, giving you a more efficient workflow.

What are batch expenses?

Batch expenses refer to a process where you can group similar expenses together and process them all at once instead of entering them one by one.

How to record batch expenses

Quickbooks makes it easy to record batch expenses. Follow the steps below to speed up your data entry:

1. Select “New.” Then, select “Batch transactions.”
2. Click on the “Select transaction type” drop-down menu, then select “Expenses.”
3. Enter the Payee, Date, Payment Account, Category, and Amount for the expense.
4. Move to the next row and repeat the entry process for each additional expense. Continue until all expenses are entered.
5. Double-check each entry for accuracy.
6. Click “Save” to record them.

For a visual guide, check out the video “How to record expenses in a batch.”

Advantages of batch expenses

Here are some of the advantages of using batch expenses:

• Time savings: Batch expenses help cut down on manual data entry. Instead of entering the same details over and over, you can use templates to quickly fill out reports with recurring information like vendor names, expense categories, and tax rates.
• Improved accuracy: Batch processing can help cut down on errors that can happen with manual data entry.
• Lower transaction costs: For businesses, many banks or payment systems charge per transaction. Batching expenses can reduce these fees by consolidating multiple payments into one.
• Enhanced reporting: Since all transactions are grouped together, batch processing can make it easier to reconcile accounts and generate comprehensive reports. 

Disadvantages of batch expenses

Batch expenses can be convenient, but there are some disadvantages to consider:

• Complex corrections: If an error is detected after a batch has been processed, correcting it can be challenging. You might have to void or edit multiple entries, which can take more time than fixing individual expenses.
• Need customization for unique expenses: Batch processing works great for recurring or similar expenses, but if you have one-off or unusual transactions, you’ll likely need to handle those manually, which can disrupt your workflow.

Batch checks

You know how important paying your vendors on time is, which is why you’ve stayed late at the office making sure every check got in the mail. But what if there was a way to pay all your vendors and get home in time for dinner?

Now you can batch checks by creating templates for those you write often. This makes it more efficient than ever to write checks (including all of the necessary details), without creating them one by one. Check templates give you full control over the vendor name, address and amount, while keeping other fields the same. It also helps reduce the opportunity for errors.

This new, efficient process enables you to maintain control of your company’s check writing, so you still know what’s going in and out, without sacrificing valuable time.

What are batch checks?

Batch checks refer to a process that allows you to issue multiple check payments at once instead of creating and printing each check individually.

How to write batch checks

In Quickbooks, the process of writing batch checks is similar to entering batch expenses. Follow these steps to quickly issue multiple check payments at once.

1. Select “New.” Then, select “Batch transactions.”
2. Click on the “Select transaction type” drop-down menu, then select “Checks.”
3. Enter the Payee, Date, Payment Account, Category, and Amount for the expense.
4. If you need to print the check, scroll over to the right and select “Print Later”
5. Move to the next row and repeat the entry process for each additional check. Continue until you enter all checks.
6. Double-check each entry for accuracy.
7. Click “Save” to complete the process.

For visual reference, watch the video “How to record expenses in a batch.”

Advantages of batch checks

Take a look at some of the advantages of batch checks:

• Saves time: This process allows you to create multiple checks in one go, cutting down the hours spent writing individual checks.
• Reduces errors: Standardized templates can help prevent mistakes in vendor details, amounts, or other critical information.
• Improved efficiency: Grouping payments into batches can simplify your workflow, eliminate repetitive tasks, and allow your team to focus on higher-priority projects.
• Streamlines recurring payments: If you pay the same vendors regularly—whether it’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly—batch checks make the process effortless. Once you’ve set up the templates, it’s a matter of selecting and processing them as needed.

Disadvantages of batch checks

Batch checks can come with a few disadvantages, including:

• Not always flexible: Just like with batch expenses, batch checks work great for routine or recurring payments, but they’re not ideal for one-time or unique transactions that require special handling. You might still need to process those manually.
• Errors can multiply: If there’s a mistake in your template, it could end up on every check. A quick review before hitting send is always a good idea.

Use QuickBooks Online Advanced to increase efficiency and boost profitability

The challenges you face as the owner of a growing business are the reason we continually create new features like batch expenses and batch checks.

Instead of employees being tied up with expense reports, they can be freed up to do the work they were meant to do. With fewer billing errors and more on-time payments, you’ll think less about accounts receivable and more about how to serve your customers.

For more details on how QuickBooks Online Advanced can work for you, take a look at this quick video.