Barclays Offers Small Firms Mobile eInvoicing Tool

Barclays is rolling out an electronic invoicing solution for its U.K. small business customers.

Reports in Verdict on Thursday (Nov. 8) said Barclays now allows small and medium-sized businesses to access a mobile eInvoicing tool, including invoice generation and submission. The solution is available within the Barclays mobile business banking app for both Android and iOS devices.

The solution also provides invoice management features, including visibility into when invoice payments are due and submitted, with automated reconciliation capabilities.

“We’re proud to be the first high street bank to launch free mobile invoicing for our small business clients within our app,” said Barclays Business Banking CEO Ian Rand in a statement. “We know how many business owners aren’t confined to an office. With long hours spent out and about seeing clients, they often find themselves sorting invoices manually when returning home in the evenings or at the weekend.”

Barclays announced the new tool while also releasing data from Opinium Research, which found that manual invoicing costs businesses an average of $2,600 every year, with nearly one-third of small business owners reporting they have had to work over the weekend to address a backlog of paperwork related to invoicing processes.

The report also found that about one-third of SMBs continue to issue paper invoices, and one-quarter mail theirs out via the post. On average, businesses spend 92 minutes a week on invoicing, amounting to 10 working days a year, reports said.

“By introducing invoicing within their regular banking app, our clients can keep track of everything in one place,” Rand said. “We’re helping to save them time and speed up the payment cycle, with just a few simple taps on their phone.”

Earlier this year, Barclays made an investment in small business invoice financing platform MarketInvoice, which allows small businesses to upload their unpaid invoices to be financed.