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A lot of new and cool features coming out of our developers workshop lately, most recently the Inventory function and the Timeline function (a blog is being prepared right now). The next item on our users’ wish list and the one our developers chose to tackle this time are recurring invoices. What they are and how you can save yourself a lot of time by leveraging Billdu’s new functionality will be the topic of today’s blog.

Recurring Invoices

First thing’s first: what are recurring invoices? These are invoices, which you regularly issue to a client or customer (say, on a monthly or weekly basis) and which are the same every time. By this we mean, the same products or services that are being issued on all invoices to this particular subject and for the same price, come every new cycle. This happens way more often nowadays than you would probably guess – just think about all the subscriptions for digital services like Dropbox, Spotify, and even our own Billdu subscription packages. Every product or service that is being invoiced on a regular basis for the same price can be handled through recurring invoices. But why? Let’s take a closer look at the advantages.

The main advantage of recurring invoicing is, of course, the automatization of several processes. You only have to set up one particular recurring invoice for a client once. From that point onward, the person in question will receive an invoice every week/month/other in a way that saves you from having to issue the same invoice, with the same products and the same price over and over again, every time a new cycle comes around.

Recurring Invoices in Billdu

In Billdu online, you’ll find recurring invoices among all the other document types in your main menu and the creation process is practically the same as when you create any other document. You start by selecting a client from the client list (or adding a new one) and the items and prices that are being invoiced. Now comes the fun part – you choose the interval in which the given invoice should be issued and after saving, Billdu will take care of the rest.

Not only will the app create the invoice automatically each time it should, but you can also set up the automatic sending of these invoices. As a result, the client or customer will receive the invoice at every interval, without you having to move a finger. The invoice will be issued and sent, no questions asked. Additionally, you can set up the cycles field to let Billdu know for how LONG (how many cycles) this recurring invoice should be created and sent. Maybe the recurring invoice for this particular client is needed only for a couple of months, maybe more (if you’re lucky), either way, the app will take the hassle out for you.

At the moment, recurring invoices are only available at Billdu’s website, we will definitely let you know, once the mobile versions for iOS and Android are updated with this feature as well. In the meantime, we hope that the newest addition to Billdu’s suit of features will help you save a lot of time and as always, ask for your feedback and/or improvement ideas. Give us a shout-out in the comments below or contact our support team, they will be more than happy to forward your thoughts to our developers.

So, you managed to catch a few dependable, productive people under your employ, but this is not the time to rest! Valuable, skilled people are greedily sought after by every company big and small and there’s only so much money you can throw at someone to stay until you find out that you’re broke and they leave anyway. So what else can you do to ensure your high-quality employees don’t turn their back on your endeavor? Well, Billdu’s got some good advice for you.

Let’s start by reviewing the top reasons for employees to leave or to consider leaving their current jobs:

Now let’s look at what you can do to prevent the above from happening:

Help you employees grow and widen their horizons

Offer training programs, language or IT courses or night schools for various areas to widen the skill-set of your employees and give them a sense of personal growth thanks to YOUR company. If you don’t have the means to set up such training yourself, offer to refund your employees if they participate in selected courses elsewhere.

Hire from within first

Looking to fill a new position? Try to look within your company for potential candidates first. There’s a high probability that you’ll find someone who can take on an additional role and advance in the company ladder – this will keep him from searching for better positions elsewhere. If you don’t find anyone suitable for the opening, you can still go through the traditional hiring process from outside. Even if you just show your employees that you’re thinking about them first, when filling a new position, will make them appreciate you as a leader and the company as a place where they should definitely stay.

Organize contests and set up reward systems

Everybody likes a good contest, so why not organize regular contests, either in the traditional sense – like bingo or a raffle, or contests involving employee metrics. The rewards for such contests can vary depending on your budget and other options, ranging from a company-paid dinner or a paid day off to a full-on vacation for the top performer.

Open communication is everything

Gone are the days where employees had to keep their mouth shut and cover behind their desk, each time some higher-up walked by. Implement an open door policy and encourage your employees to speak out if they have any concerns regarding the company or better yet – improvement suggestions. They shouldn’t feel afraid to come to their management when they have something to discuss. This way, you can see signs for when an employee contemplates changing jobs, and hopefully, solve the issue before they decide to leave for good.

Conduct “stay interviews”

Exit interviews are common among larger companies, but why stop there? You can get a lot of valuable information from employees that have stayed with you for a considerable amount of time. Ask them WHY the remained at your company for all that time, what their main motivation is and if they would change anything if they could. Thanks to a simple 20-30 min. discussion, you can know exactly on which points of your employee management you should focus, which processes to retain and which to throw out and do better.

Now that you know what is expected of you as a leader and an employer, get out there and nail those employees down with the tips we just shared. Feel free to share the advice you yourselves might have on the topic of employee retention in the comments below.

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