Your government organization operates in the public sphere and you’ve likely felt the pressure from your community to move into the digital age. Traditional paper methods have become archaic, and offices or departments that cling to them often struggle with streamlining processes.
Billing is one arena that tends to be stuck in the past. Even when you’ve moved your other operational processes to digital software, your invoicing and payment processing system may still rely on outdated methods.
Electronic billing systems, also called e-billing systems, have been on the scene for many years now and there’s a reason they’ve taken over paper methods. Their automated processes and systems:
- Expedite time to revenue
- Are a better use of resources
- Allow for better visibility
- Increase security
Still wondering what an electronic billing system is and why it’s past time your office adopts such payment methods? Learn the answers to these questions and more in our guide to e-billing.
What Is E-Billing (Electronic Billing)?
E-billing involves sending and paying bills electronically. It allows citizens to receive and pay bills through a variety of channels, including:
- Text messages
- Online portals
- Machine-readable data formats (such as XML)
What online bill payment offers is a more convenient, secure, and flexible way for payers to settle their invoices on time.
What Is an E-Bill?
An e-bill (or an electronic bill) is simply a digital version of a traditional paper bill.
E-bills can just replicate a traditional bill or they can leverage online capabilities, like a direct link to pay, answers to frequently asked questions, and additional resources recipients find useful.
What Is E-Pay?
E-pay can either refer either to the process of paying a bill electronically or to the payment processing system used for sending out e-bills.
Paying bills digitally can open up a world of convenience that simplifies and encourages the transition from paper to virtual billing.
The Top 3 Benefits of an E-Billing Platform
The process of integrating an electronic billing system into your business is seamless and convenient. You’ll immediately see the advantages of consistency and flexibility.
Here are the top three benefits of using an e-billing platform.
1. Increased Visibility
Monitoring cash flow is critical for your community and a centralized, secure platform provides complete insights. Many e-billing platforms can generate reports, track customer payments, display historical data, and offer payment-related resources.
Implementing an e-billing system makes it easier for your constituents to pay on time and avoid fees when leveraging features like automatic reminders and auto/recurring payments.
2. Faster Payments
Being unable to collect overdue payments because of outdated systems can lead to budgetary roadblocks and operational interruptions. An electronic billing solution makes the process much simpler and more efficient.
E-billing decreases the time between when the bill is sent and when the customer receives it. Additionally, paying an e-bill is faster and more convenient than paying a paper one. It also entices recipients to pay on time through auto-pay.
3. Enhanced Accuracy
Accuracy in a billing department is essential in any entity. When you process billing manually, the risk of errors in data entry calculations increases significantly. Manual billing can also leave you vulnerable to fraud and theft. E-billing is secure and reliable.
When there are billing errors, payment problems, or a failure in security trust between your government agency and its constituents is compromised—trust you can’t afford to lose.
Streamline Your Billing Process with CORE
When you’re ready to make your billing process more efficient than ever, we can help you with the switch. CORE’s Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment Services (EBPP) make it easy for any organization to transition from paper to digital billing.
To keep up with the rapidly evolving expectations of consumers across a wide range of demographics, we offer the following payment solutions:
- Text-2-Pay
- Online
- Over the counter
- Kiosk
- eBilling
- Automatic/recurring
- IVR
Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for your agency.
