Invoice template or invoicing software, what suits your business?

When starting a business, it is natural to begin simply, an invoice template in Word or Excel costs nothing and requires no learning curve. But the question everyone eventually asks is: when is it time to move to real invoicing software?

The advantages of a template

An invoice template is free, requires no account, and gives you full control over the look from day one. For someone sending the occasional invoice per year, for example for a small side income, a template can be entirely sufficient.

The downsides grow with volume

The problem with a template is that everything is handled manually, you have to keep track of the next available invoice number yourself, calculate VAT by hand or with formulas you built yourself, keep track of which invoices are paid, and send reminders manually. The more customers and invoices you have, the higher the risk of mistakes, like a duplicate invoice number or a miscalculated VAT total, which can become a real problem in an audit.

What invoicing software solves

Invoicing software handles the numbering series automatically so it is always unique and sequential, calculates VAT correctly per line, keeps track of which invoices have been paid and which are overdue, and makes it easy to send reminders or create credit notes without touching the original invoice. You no longer need to build and maintain your own Excel formulas, and the risk of human error drops significantly.

When is it time to switch?

A good rule of thumb: if you start losing track of which invoices are paid, if you have ever sent two invoices with the same number, or if you spend more time maintaining the template than doing the actual work, that is a sign it is time to move to invoicing software.

FakturaKlar lets you start completely free with five invoices, no commitment or credit card required, so you can try the move from template to software risk-free before deciding.