Customer Service 101: Make the Process Easy

Invoices are Accurate and Efficient

Arguably one of Horsebills.com best client-focused features is also its most basic premise: correct invoices. Invoices are an extraordinarily important part of running any successful business. They are your path to getting paid, so making them as customer friendly as possible is in your best interest.

If your invoices are inaccurate, messy, incomplete, or otherwise unprofessional, not only are you frustrating your owners, but you are delaying payment to yourself. Your clients are also running a business, and they require an accurate invoice before they pay. Since the process to correct one invoice can take weeks, sometimes months, getting it right the first time is invaluable customer service that benefits everyone.

Invoices are your path to getting paid, so making them as customer friendly as possible is in your best interest.

Invoices created and sent through Horsebills.com are always accurate if your ownership percentages are maintained and up to date. (See our last blog post for more info on this.) However, in the event your clients have a question about their bill, they can ask directly through the site, right on the invoice in question (shown in the image below). This feature is super useful in keeping billing questions separate from more operational queries, and if you use a bookkeeper, it ensures the question is going to best person to get the best answer.

Owners Can Process Payments Efficiently

Once your invoices have been sent, your owners will receive an email directing them to their account dashboard where all their outstanding bills will show in one place. From here, they can pay each bill individually, or multiple bills to one sender. The image below shows the dashboard and how easy it is to view and pay each bill.

If they decide to pay multiple bills from the same sender, they will be brought to the next screen where a drop-down menu allows them to choose which sender’s bills they are paying.

They then can select the bills for which they would like to process payment at one time. Horsebills.com automatically tallies the amount due as each bill is selected and allows your client the option to choose how they would like to pay. They can also “View” each bill from this page if desired. The image below shows multiple bills selected, tallied, and the ability to select the preferred payment type.

Additionally, if you have clients who do not possess an email address, you can easily note this when adding them to your roster and the program will remind you to print and mail these invoices as needed. These payments will have to be added manually once they come through, but you will have provided your client with a means to pay that suits their needs best.

One-Time Payment Account Set Up

Have you ever shopped online and entered the payment screen only to have to begrudgingly get up to find your payment information? We can all admit to occasionally abandoning the purchase because we are simply too tired to get our wallet. With horsebills.com, we have removed this roadblock for your clients because their payment information is stored (safely and securely) for use each time a bill is due. Your owners can use ACH/eCheck payments by connecting their bank account directly to Horsebills.com, or they can use a credit card and rack up those points.

We can all admit to occasionally abandoning the purchase because we are simply too tired to get our wallet. With horsebills.com, we have removed this roadblock.

In the image below, we can see a user’s payment accounts that have been stored once they have used it to process payment. They can manage and delete their payment accounts at any time from this page.

Paying via eCheck/ACH and/or credit card are great options, but they are not the only options. Your clients can continue to pay by check, cash, or online transfer if it continues to be their preferred method. You (or your bookkeeper) will just have to manually enter these payments after they are received through whatever means.

Other Features that Benefit Everyone

As mentioned earlier, your owners are also running a business. To help them (and you!) more seamlessly keep track of their expenses and revenues, Horsebills.com offers a built in Profit & Loss Statement. The P&L can be created for any range of dates, can be for a specific horse or horses, or for transactions not tied to any horse at all. By subscribing to Horsebills.com, you provide this service to your owners for FREE. An example of an actual Profit & Loss Statement is shown below (click the thumbnails to expand, names have been altered).

Our Clients Are Our Family

Now that we have discussed how Horsebills.com sets you up to serve your clients, let us move on to how we serve you.

We Meet You Where You Are

At Horsebills.com, we are all horse owners, and we understand and love all aspects of the horse world. Not only that, but we have a deep knowledge of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies that come along with a horse-oriented business. Because of this, when you use our site and have a question, we will be able to answer it in a way that is specific to your business model. Other bookkeeping and accounting programs simply cannot say the same.

We have a deep knowledge of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies that come along with a horse-oriented business.

To provide you with the answers to your questions, we have gone out of our way to be available to you (and your clients) in the capacity that best suits YOU.

We are available via email, phone, text, webinar, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and our Live Chat feature on every page of the website.

We Act on Your Suggestions

Horsebills.com has been an evolving program since its creation, and we do not intend to change that anytime soon. We are constantly adding new features and updating existing ones, and these changes are born from two avenues. Our own use of the site while fulfilling our duties as full-service bookkeepers, and suggestions that come in from users.

Since we utilize the software every single day throughout the course of business, we regularly come up with ways that we can improve the functionality further. We know that if these changes benefit us, they will also benefit you.

Likewise, as you utilize the software as you go about your billing every cycle you may come across possible upgrade ideas. We always welcome these suggestions and love to implement them whenever its feasible.

We hope it is easy to see from this post that we pride ourselves on our customer service, so if you have any questions or require assistance, we are truly available to any extent necessary. Just email, call, or utilize the chat function located on every page of the site.

The Horsebills.com software has been shown to reduce billing time by up to 90% and there are several features that contribute to this time-savings; we will be highlighting each in this blog series. Today, we will be discussing ownership percentages and bulk invoicing.

Primary Vendors (Trainers)

With Horsebills.com, ownership for each horse is assigned once when the horse is added, and it is stored going forward. In the image shown below you can see the horse Everett has two owners who each own 50%.

There is no limit to how many owners a horse might have (and vice versa), and percentages can be in any increment. Additionally, an owner can be added without any assigned horses. This is useful for syndicates or agents who may need to collect capital prior to the purchase of a horse, or for riding stables with clients who do not own a horse but are billed for lessons.

Once ownership is added and verified, billing is a matter of applying the appropriate charges to each horse. Our last blog post provided detailed information on how to automate monthly charges such as day rates and board, as well as add additional line item charges.

Standard Vendors (Farriers, chiropractors, vets, et al)

Further, Horsebills.com stores the ownership information for each horse input by their Primary Vendor, and this information can then be accessed (with permission) by any vendor seeking to bill the ownership group for the individual horse. A farrier, for example, would only need to reach out to the trainer of horses he serviced in the barn once to gain permission and find out who to bill. Once permission is granted, he/she can simply access the information through Horsebills.com and create invoices quickly without waiting on a response.

In the image below, we see a search for a horse by name (which must be entered exactly) in order to add to a Standard Vendor’s roster for billing purposes.

Once selected, the horse can be added to the account of the Standard Vendor, where all the ownership info will remain up to date with any changes made by the Primary Vendor.

Primary Vendors can also provide permanent approval to Standard Vendors who work regularly with their barn.

Syndicates

For syndicate managers, the storing of owner/partner percentages is an especially useful function. While your syndicate may only own a portion of the horse, multiple partners will each own a percentage of that portion. Horsebills.com is set up to manage these complicated details flawlessly.

In the image below, you can see the syndicate Summit Racing owns 80% of the horse Father Kyle. The three partners on the horse are listed, with their individual percentages adding up to the full 80%.

If the trainer or another vendor of Father Kyle utilizes Horsebills.com for his/her billing, the remaining 20% ownership in Father Kyle would then be assigned to the owner/s responsible for that portion. When he/she does the billing each month, the invoice will be split accurately between all owners automatically.

Additionally, any bill paid by the syndicate can be copied over as a line item owed by the partners with one click. The image below shows the check box when entering a bill manually.

This can also be done with one click if the bill is created and sent directly through Horsebills.com. The image below shows how simple this is.

And here you see the line item we added manually automatically added to be billed out to each partner. It is important to note that the Horsebills.com system automatically accounts for 100% of the bill and has added on the 20% not owed by the syndicate. The syndicate and its partners will still only pay the 80% share of this bill.

Creating Bulk Invoices

Once all owners have been added and line items have been created, invoicing is a breeze. Simply click the Create an Invoice button on the Billing tab or directly from the Line Items page (seen below).

Then add the date range for which you are billing. This can be monthly, quarterly, or at any increment desired. For this example, we are billing for the month of February.

Once we set the date and click “Convert all New Line Items to Draft Invoices” we are taken to the Invoices/Accounts Receivable page where we can review the invoices for each horse and/or owner. At this point, we can click the “Preview/Edit” button in order to confirm all of the details are accurate.

In the image below, we have clicked the “Preview/Edit” option and can see the details of the invoice for Father Kyle and can confirm their accuracy. One incredible feature unique to Horsebills.com is that input errors can be edited right here, instead of having to restart the entire billing process. Additionally, if an owner has credits on file, you can select whether they will be utilizing that credit to pay this invoice.

Once you have confirmed the accuracy of the invoice, you can either select “Send Invoice” directly from this page or go back and click “Send all Invoices in Draft Status” from the Billing/Invoices (Accounts Receivable) page to send all invoices at once.

That’s it, you’re done!

At Horsebills, we pride ourselves on our customer service, so if you any questions or require assistance, we are available to any extent necessary. Just email, call, or utilize the chat function located on every page of the site.

Line Item Templates

We know a lot goes on every day at the barn, and while no day is the same, there is some predictability. Throughout the billing cycle, billable events take place as a part of the regular workings of your barn. These line items, such as hauling, ponying, shoeing, worming, etc., can be saved as line item templates for quick input onto the correct horse’s account.

The image below shows the creation of a line item template for a hauling charge. Line item templates are completely customizable to fit your unique business, and there is no limit to how many can be created.

In the example above, the Type, Description, Rate and Qty/Days are saved as part of the template, but this doesn’t mean you can’t make edits as you bill for the month. If one of your horses requires special circumstance when they haul, you can make any adjustments to these items when you add the line item.

Billing Packages

In addition to the predictable events covered by line item templates, every month you will bill for some charges on a constant schedule, such as day rates, supplements, etc. Horsebills.com makes it incredibly easy to organize and automate these charges.

Note: While this blog post refers to day rates, this feature also applies to monthly board rates and can be set up for boarding stables just as easily.

When you set up your account, you will add your horses to your roster and assign them to a location. Some trainers may utilize multiple locations as part of their equine business, while others operate from one location but have different classifications or training packages. Horsebills.com is set up to work for every arrangement possible. In the image below, you can see 5 horses, their location, the date they arrived, and their classification if applicable. It is very important that this information is accurate in order for the billing package to run correctly.

This hypothetical trainer keeps horses at two racetracks and one farm, with each location having various pricing. One of the horses in the barn, Boogie, has a special day rate due to an agreement made with the owner/s. Another horse, Byrd, moved from the farm to the track on the 11^th of the month. The image below shows how these monthly line items are created once and saved for all future billing. Additionally, it shows a few saved line item templates as described in the section above.

When you click on the Edit button for the Churchill Downs line item, you can see that Boogie’s day rate is saved as a sub-template specifically for him. Sub-templates can be applied to any horse, owner, or syndicate.

As these line items are saved to your billing package, they are set for all future billing! Of course, they can be edited at any time should your business require it.

Starting The Billing Process – Creating Line Items

Once it is time to start your billing cycle, the billing package will do all the work for you. Now that all the setup work is complete, all you have to do is enter the date range for which the billing package should run. The example below shows the month of February.

Note: The billing package can be run for any date range; it does not have to be monthly.

The resulting line items are shown below. You can see that Byrd was billed for 10 days at the farm and 18 days at Churchill Downs, that Boogie was charged his special day rate, and these two horses received a daily supplement at $2/day while located at Churchill Downs.

After adding additional charges from the month of February, those line items will also appear on this screen. The image below is filtered by the horse Coltrane to show his billing package charge as well as additional line items billed for the month.

After all the appropriate charges are added as line items, you are ready to invoice! In our next blog post, we will discuss bulk invoice creation and sending, and how the software stores owner percentages and divvies up the invoices to each individual entity accurately and automatically.

At Horsebills, we pride ourselves on our customer service, so if you any questions or require assistance, we are available to any extent necessary. Just email, call, or utilize the chat function located on every page of the site.

When it comes to accounting software, QuickBooks is synonymous with small business accounting and many have utilized its key functions to keep their financials in order. But anyone who has used it for more than a few months knows that it falls short when it comes to what works for an equine-oriented business. Your racing stable, show barn, breeding farm, or lesson program is not the same as your neighbor’s tree trimming business, and the billing will likewise be vastly different. This is where Horsebills.com comes in.

Horsebills.com Reduces Human Error

QuickBooks has an array of reports that allow business owners to keep their business accounts in order, but reports are only valuable if the data and information within them are accurate. Horsebills.com drastically reduces the risk of human error when it comes to creating invoices, tracking expenses and revenues, and keeping your clients’ horses organized; once that data is synced into QuickBooks your reconciliation process is a cinch.

Of course, keeping your accounts reconciled and your data clean is extremely important for one very relevant reason. Taxes. Whether you do them quarterly or annually, accurate information is paramount to getting through the process without the anxiety and headaches that we all know and dread.

For the average small business, QuickBooks has become the essential tool to navigate tax season. Odds are good that your CPA uses it, and when it comes to tax season, having your CPA on the same page is vital. The best way to supplement your QuickBooks data is to use equine-oriented bookkeeping software that is compatible and capable of automating as many of your daily entries as possible. Invoicing and receiving payments can be very specific to an industry. The invoicing software used by an elementary school might not be the best fit for a horse trainer. Horsebills.com is tailored to your industry and compatible with a widely used tax software which makes preparing taxes seamless. 

Horsebills.com Stands Alone:

Do you have to use QuickBooks in conjunction with Horsebills.com? Not at all. For a smaller business, Horsebills.com is more than enough to keep your financials in order. Its reporting features provide everything you need to give to your CPA for tax purposes, and every page on the site is exportable into Excel for this reason. If you already use QuickBooks to maintain your business accounting, Horsebills.com is simply a must have for the day-to-day bookkeeping.

The Integration

If you are already a Horsebills.com user, syncing your two accounts is easy, but there are a few things to note:

1. The integration is only compatible with QuickBooks Plus ($35) or higher.
2. The data sync only flows from Horsebills.com into QuickBooks, and not vice versa. Make sure you make every update possible in your Horsebills.com account, not in QuickBooks.
3. The data sync will occur automatically twice a day.

In order to connect your accounts:

1. Sign into your Horsebills.com account.
2. In the Account drop down on the top right of the page, select QuickBooks.
3. Click “Connect to QuickBooks.”
4. Sign into your QuickBooks/Intuit account.
5. You are connected!

If you still have questions regarding the integration, or would like to learn more about Horsebills.com, please reach out to us at info@horsebills.com.