For most businesses, taking care of admin-related tasks like sending invoices and checks is simply a necessity.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that these elements can impact how the receiving businesses view your enterprise. Taking a professional approach to your invoice and check management is a way to score some easy points with your clients and vendors.
And what’s more, ensuring that your invoices and checks do your business justice is a lot more straightforward than you might think. By taking a few key steps, which we’ll outline below, you can ensure that the mail you send helps to create a favorable image.
Include Your Branding
Clients and vendors that receive any mail from your business should know who it’s from immediately, simply because they can see your branding on the front.
It’s also important to have consistent branding across both your checks and invoices. The best way to do this is to design your invoices and checks at the same time, since it’s usually the businesses that treat them as separate tasks that end up with mismatched branding.
Quality In-House Printing
Not all printers are created equal. Inkjet printers are fine for everyday printing, but they don’t quite deliver the same level of professionalism as laser printers. Laser printers provide consistent, crisp printing that can give your invoices, checks, and other correspondence a premium look and feel.
Plus, investing in a laser printer will allow you to save money on the costs of sending checks, since it’ll allow you to create your own checks using blank check stock and check-writing software. It’s true that laser printers are more expensive than inkjet printers, but they can help you save money in the long run, and they deliver significantly better results.
Use The Right Packaging
It’s what’s inside the envelope that matters the most, but the envelope itself also plays a supporting role when it comes to boosting the professionalism of your invoices and checks. For invoices and checks sent to clients and vendors, double window envelopes are the way to go. They provide space for both the recipient's and sender’s addresses to be shown through the envelope’s windows, which removes the need to handwrite or print the addresses on the front of the envelopes.
Prioritize Timing
No matter how professional your invoices and checks might look, they’ll count for little if they’re not sent on time. Vendors and clients not only expect these things to arrive in a timely manner; they need them to. Creating a replicable system that allows you to promptly send out invoices and checks will demonstrate to the recipient that you’re serious and value the relationship.
Keep a Record
Things happen. When they do, it’ll be your capacity to assist your clients and vendors that determines how professional they view your business. Keeping a well-organized record, such as by investing in good software, will make it easier to quickly pull up the information you need to re-issue a check or send an amended invoice.