Invoicing and A/R are two inseparable business functions in the IT staffing business. Invoicing refers to the generation of invoices using relevant information to provide the customers.

Accounts Receivable is the action your accounts department takes to get the bills paid as fast as possible. It has to be fast; really fast because cash flow is a direct financial function of receipts. We don’t have to tell why cash flow is important, it is the most obvious measure of how much money you have to meet obligations without borrowing money.
It may not be overtly visible to all that in real-life situations, you will seldom get paid without some proactive initiatives from your end. Initiatives can be in the form of generating accurate invoices, dispatching it on time to reach the customer before the payment cycle starts and reminding customers about unpaid bills.
It should now be evident that a streamlined cash flow is at the core of success or failure of business; and cash flow is again related to how accurate your invoices are and what follow up actions you take until payment is received.
Why Combine QuickBooks and CONSULT?
QuickBooks online is a commonly used accounting automation tool across the US and is also true in the case of the IT staffing industry. QuickBooks is reputed to abound in features, but don’t forget either that it still lacks in features that are specific to the IT staffing business. It needs enhancement to make it a true invoicing and A/R automation tool. Here in comes CONSULT – an exclusive cloud-based application offered as SaaS that when combined with QuickBooks becomes the perfect automation combo for invoicing and A/R automation.
Here is why IT staffing businesses prefer the combo to bring down invoicing costs and improve cash flow.
- CONSULT was developed to give IT staffing company users the functionalities that are not available in QuickBooks. CONSULT users can use the combo to directly receive remote timesheet entries into the application. It can be assessed any time for generating invoices that are accurate.
- CONSULT can be preprogrammed to generate invoices as per compliance request of customers. Normally, your invoice can be made to include: timesheet submissions, hourly rate information, billing cycle, invoicing period (weekly or monthly) and any information as requested by the customer.
- CONSULT can be programmed to run a series of invoices for one or more customers based on a date as prescribed by you. The entire process is performed without human attention provided that essential inputs have already been preloaded. IT staffing companies that have large invoicing requirements can use this feature effectively and save accountants from being overloaded with work. You can also effectively distribute invoicing and A/R in a team evenly and avoid burdening a few invoice preparers.

How A/R Works with CONSULT?
In the previous few paragraphs we had discussed how the QuickBooks and CONSULT combo can provide critical advantage. It is now time to see how this is possible.
As we said earlier, QuickBooks online needs enhancements for optimal performance as it applies to the IT staffing business. It is the primary source for financial data. What happens during a billing operation is that: CONSULT exports the data available in its ecosystem and also imports data from QuickBooks to give a final invoice that is perfect.
As far as A/R is concerned, CONSULT extracts financial information from QuickBooks to see whether invoices have been paid and when to send reminders. It is a made for each other combo that every IT staffing company should have.