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Being able to email an estimate or invoice should be a basic feature that every invoice management system offers. Moreover, email tracking and notifications should also be included so that companies know when an estimate or invoice was sent, the last time it was viewed and when the estimate was accepted or the invoice paid. Invoice management systems such as InfoFlo Pay, already offer these features and all other systems that don’t offer this should include it as a basic feature.

The only issue remaining is that even though email has become the staple for business communication, no invoice management systems can guarantee that these emails will not show up in SPAM. For this reason, SMS should be added as another form of communication so that estimates and invoices can be sent through SMS.

So how can this be done? Systems such as InfoFlo Pay have integrated with Twillio, the same system used by Uber to send SMS messages to customers and drivers. In InfoFlo Pay, this integration works just like emails. When sending a new estimate or invoice, users can decide to both email and SMS. Similar to emails, InfoFlo Pay includes a log showing when the SMS was sent. With this type of seamless integration, users of invoice management software solutions, can now be guaranteed that their estimates and invoices reach their customers. Also, unlike other solutions, InfoFlo Pay also includes digital forms and allows for digital forms to be sent by email and SMS.

• Globally, 33 percent more people have access to mobile phones than to toilets! In 2013 that was 6 billion with access to mobile phones (and thus to SMS).
• While the dramatic rise of new communication apps has overtaken SMS, an average of 20 billion text messages are being sent daily this year, translating to 7.3 trillion annually! That’s more than 5.5 million per second!
• Email open rates are great at 20-30 percent. But according to a Dynmark report, SMS blows that away at 98 percent open rate! In fact, 90 percent are read within 3 seconds. Just think how long it takes between your phone chiming for an incoming text and your hand moving to it.

So essentially, SMS will increase the chance of estimates being accepted and invoices getting paid!

So hopefully this article has served its purpose in describing the importance of SMS integration in an invoice management software. If your current solution doesn’t include this feature then you could be losing customers, decreasing customer satisfaction and not getting estimates converted and invoice paid. Why would you want this for your business? For this reason you should use a system, such as InfoFlo Pay, which includes SMS integration.