How to Simplify Shipping Bills and Billing Processes in Excel

If you are struggling with tracking lost revenue or overdue bills in your growing company,  it is probably time to take a hard look at your processes and figure out ways to optimize them. Manual billing processes can quickly get inefficient and even cause losses if not diligently monitored.

 

Even if you are not ready to make your billing processes more AI-powered, leveraging Excel for managing them is a crucial step to consider. But what makes simplifying shipping bills so important, and why should you consider going about it sooner rather than later? That’s what we will explore first, before delving deeper into creating a simple billing process using Excel.

4 Crucial Benefits of Simplifying Shipping Bills

While there are no setbacks to simplifying your shipping bills anyway, it bodes well to keep the process as simple as possible. That said, some of the primary benefits of simplifying shipping bills include:

#1 Fewer Errors

Creating shipping bills entails considering several factors and costs, and gathering all this data manually can be an error-prone process. By simplifying and automating the creation of shipping bills, you can prevent the generation of incorrect bills and prevent most invoice disputes that arise in the process.

#2 Improved Transparency and Trust

Fewer errors means fewer issues in the billing process, which means increased credibility and trust among customers. By generating clear and accurate invoices, you can significantly minimize client confusion and complaints. As a result, you can build a reputation for being a more reliable and trustworthy company and vendor among clients.

#3 Better Cash Flow

By generating accurate and timely bills, you can speed up your billing approval and payment cycles. With shorter billing cycles, you can improve operational efficiency and cash flow by eliminating any factors that slow down the process.

#4 Increased Time Savings

If you are manually managing your invoices and bills, there is a good chance you are spending way too much time navigating the process. Automating and simplifying your shipping bill calculations and generation in Excel can help you free up resources for tasks and work of higher value.

How to Simplify Your Shipping Bills and Billing Processes?

Since we have now explored the merits of simplifying your shipping bills and billing processes, let us look at the key steps that make up the process:

1. Create a Shipping Bill Template

Creating invoices from scratch for every billing cycle or client is time-consuming and wastes precious efforts that you can otherwise redirect towards important tasks. Instead, utilize an invoice template for Excel that you can easily edit every time, simplifying and standardizing your invoice generation process.

 

Settling on a good template can boost the consistency, accuracy, and efficiency of your billing processes. If you are preparing your own template instead of picking a readymade one, ensure that you include fields such as date of shipment, item description, sender and receiver information, shipping method, and even carrier information.

1. Automate Cost Calculations

Organizations that implement automated billing can cut late payment cycles by 60%, making automation an important factor to consider when increasing the efficiency of your billing and payment processes. This makes sense because manually calculating all your costs each time you want to create an invoice is just time that can be utilized better.

 

Instead, have Excel and its myriad formulas take care of all the math for you so that you can save time and eliminate errors. For example, you can use the VLOOKUP formula to retrieve the carrier rates and shipping fees for a specific region accurately.

 

Automated cost calculations can make it easier for you to adapt to varying shipping rates, regardless of whether you deal with domestic deliveries or international air freight consignments that involve more complexity.

1. Add Dropdowns for Shipping Options

Add dropdown menus for data validation when sorting out your shipping data in Excel, as it will help minimize data entry mistakes. Adding dropdown menus is particularly effective when selecting data for fields like Carrier, Shipping Type, or Service Level.

 

For example, you can add a dropdown on the “Shipping Mode” column so you can toggle between the various freight shipping options, so that you can avoid any errors that may be caused by manually typing into the field.

 

As a result, users can select only predefined, standardized fields, eliminating room for any inconsistencies or errors.

1. Highlight Delays or Unpaid Bills With Conditional Formatting

If you are using Excel for your billing processes, but aren’t using conditional formatting in any form, you are not utilizing the application fully. You can easily identify any outstanding or delayed shipments and invoices, and get complete visibility into your billing process and operations.

 

For example, you can easily spot any overdue bills to date at a glance by selecting the cell range for “Payment Due” and setting a rule that formats the cells to display an “Overdue” message or red fill.

 

You can add similar rules and manage formatting for delayed shipments or bills with pending actions to streamline your follow-ups and overall billing processes.

1. Export, Print, or Email Bills Directly from Excel

Leveraged only by individuals and users who utilize the spreadsheet software extensively, Excel offers easily accessible features that let you print or export specific portions of a spreadsheet. You can also use the email integration provided by Excel, powered by Outlook, to send any bills or invoices you generate using the software directly to the respective recipients.

1. Leverage Macros and Charts for Billing Analytics

If you are already familiar with the basics, you can start working with the more advanced features and capabilities offered by Excel. Consider streamlining and automating your billing workflows even further using macros.

 

Macros are perfect for billing-related tasks and workflows, as there are many repetitive tasks to be carried out in the process. Macros primarily refer to a set of instructions that you can give Excel, letting you easily automate redundant tasks and boost efficiency.

 

For instance, using Macros to automate repetitive tasks such as saving or emailing invoices can help you chop off a few minutes from the process every time.

 

When generating reports to understand the trends and insights associated with your billing processes, visualize the data in the form of charts and graphs for easy understanding and decision-making.

6 Essential Excel Features for Shipping Bills

If you want to make the most of Excel for your invoicing and billing processes, but don’t know how to go about it, aside from inputting data into cells, here are some of the most basic features that can get a lot done for you:

 

• Formulas: Formulas like SUM, IF, IFERROR, and VLOOKUP are quite basic and straightforward to apply to your data, but when used right, they can simplify and automate cost calculations.

• Data Validation: Defining the format for specific columns and using dropdown menus can help you validate your data entries and even standardize them.

• Conditional Formatting: Flag any specific scenarios and types of entries easily by automating highlights or adding a custom message to be displayed using conditional formatting.

• Templates: Get unlimited access to hundreds of Excel templates that you can choose and start editing right away for invoices, shipping bills, and other commercial bills.

• Macros: Automate and streamline the most repetitive billing actions in your workflow by recording macros.

• Pivot Tables & Charts: Create visual summaries and representations of your billing data using Pivot Tables, and use charts for accessing your billing analytics more easily.

• Import/Export: Import your billing data by integrating Excel with your preferred accounting or payment software, and once ready, you can use the Export feature to download an uneditable version of your invoices.

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Preparing Shipping Bills in Excel

We have now covered everything from the reasons that make it important to simplify your billing processes to the process to be followed and the Excel features you can utilize in the process. While you can start building a stronger billing process right away with these insights, here are some common mistakes you should avoid at all costs:

#1 Over-complicating Templates

Even if you create a dedicated billing file, not managing or structuring it properly can quickly make it highly inefficient. Adding too many fields, formulas, or even tabs to your billing file can quickly add up to make a large file, and make it overwhelming to navigate. Such files are also more prone to errors and ambiguity.

 

To work around this, you must only focus on adding essential fields in your spreadsheet and keep the layout as simple and intuitive as possible. Instead of overcomplicating your chosen template with too many custom fields, pilot it with real-life examples, and ask your team members to collaborate on it.

#2 Ignoring Formula Errors

Making formula errors is a pretty rare situation, because Excel’s interface ensures that such instances are immediately flagged and remain that way till they are resolved. Even then, if an error slips through the cracks and reaches your client, they can paint your accounting accuracy in a bad light.

 

You can prevent this mistake by double-checking your template before finalizing it and utilizing the “Trace Error” feature in Excel.

#3 Inadequate Backups for Billing Files

While a single Excel file can get a lot of things done for your billing process, relying on and working with a single copy of that file can be quite disastrous. By not taking backups,  you will end up losing data if your file is corrupted or if your computer unexpectedly crashes.

 

To avoid this situation, take regular backups of the file on a trusted cloud-based application such as OneDrive or Google Drive. You can also save multiple versions of the same file with clear names and locations for better version control.

Concluding Remarks

For any organization dealing with an extensive billing process and complicated billing cycles every month, automation and optimization are not optional. By keeping the generation of your shipping bills simple and strengthening your billing cycle using Excel and its myriad features, you can increase the overall operational efficiency and improve cash flow. Follow the aforementioned process to streamline your billing processes and manage your shipping bills more effectively than ever.

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