Good news makes a change for small companies

Britain’s latest stamp price hikes spell more doom for hard-pressed small businesses.

After weeks of rumours, the price increases were announced by the Royal Mail. A first-class stamp will rise in price from 46p to 60p from April 30, while a second-class stamp will go up from 36p to 50p, according to the BBC.

Many small firms continue to send their invoices by post. And even if they use the second-class service, the costs can be significant. For example, a small company sending 40 invoices a month, will now pay £240 in a year in stamps.

This isn’t a huge figure. But it’s significant when money is tight. And it comes at a time when small businesses are struggling to get bank funding despite government’s efforts and there are predictions that a quarter of small businesses will fold by 2014.

But buying organisations with best-in-class, purchase-to-pay (P2P) systems are able to share some good news with their smaller suppliers – if they offer them the chance to submit their invoices electronically.

The benefits can help ease some of the pain points experienced by small firms in these ways:

Saving them money: A good e-invoicing solution will be free, so there’s an immediate cost saving on those pricey stamps, plus paper and envelopes.

Saving them time: E-invoicing should be easy and intuitive for any small supplier, whether they submit invoices in a few clicks from their PC, or simply flip a purchase order into an invoice on a Blackberry. There’s no time wasted walking to the post box either.

Saving them stress: When cash is tight, anxiety mounts. But a good e-invoicing system can give suppliers a portal where they can make sure the invoice didn’t get lost – and track the progress of their payment.

Improving their cashflow: With e-invoicing, there’s no delay at the start. Suppliers’ bills are received instantly and entered into a highly-automated approval and payment process. The bottom line is that it’s easier to for buying organisations to pay their suppliers on time.

In the current economic climate, it’s understandable if small businesses dread change – because the news always seems to be bad. But e-invoicing is a genuinely good-news story.