Regardless of what experience you have organizing your personal finances, it’s important to have a straightforward system to help. Take a look at these great tips to organize your bills and personal finances.

1. Take paper out of the equation.

Today, almost every bill you have can be paid online which means everything can be handled digitally. It may seem like a bit of a challenge at first, but it makes managing your personal finances a lot easier to do down the line.

The concept of going paperless may be a bit confusing. All it really means is instead of getting your bills through the mail you’ll go to the websites of your service providers and set up online accounts. Once you do, you will be given the option of going completely paper free, which means your service providers will stop sending you paper statements, bills and promotional offers that you’re used to seeing in your mailbox. You’ll receive email alerts when your bill is due and can pay your bill on their website instead of writing a check and mailing it in. When it comes to your household and financial accounts, you’ll never have to lick a stamp or seal an envelope again.

The two major reasons to pay your bills online and go paperless are:

A. You’ll help protect the environment by reducing your use of paper.
B. You can reduce the clutter of paper in your house and help save your sanity.

Not only does getting rid of the stacks of paper they send each month going to relieve a lot of stress but it helps to save the environment as well.

2. Pick an organizational system that fits your needs.

When it comes to organizing your personal finances, one size does not fit all. Even though many believe that paying your bills online is the only way to go, that’s only the first part of this four-step process. Even though you have all of your accounts set up electronically, you’ll still have to find a way to make sure they’re all in one place. Otherwise, you will have to go from site to site, and with that many usernames and passwords, you are bound to forget a few.

There are two different ways to go about doing this. First, you can purchase bill-organizing software, such as Moneydance and Family Finance Planner. These packages give you the ability to manage bills and organize your personal finances from one program. You can pay your bills, view important account documents, and receive alerts when important due dates are approaching. Many packages available will also give you the ability to create a budget and will help you to stay within it by letting you know if you’re exceeding it or if you’ve got funds left.

If purchasing financial software doesn’t appeal to you, you can do what many do and create a financial spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. It’s a bit more complicated, as it requires more manual labor, but like with most tasks that’s been mentioned here, it will pay off in the long run. There is no law that says financial spreadsheets have to be the same, so create one that represents your financial life. Note which bills you have to pay, how much they are for and when they are due. Subtract your monthly finances from your monthly income so you know how much money you have to spend each month. Once the bill is paid, mark it paid in the spreadsheet so you’ll have the peace of mind that it’s been taken care of until next month.

3. Think about the future.

Planning for your financial future plays a big part in organizing your personal finances now. Unfortunately, life isn’t predictable and putting together a financial plan for the future so you can handle anything that can happen which means it’s important to set financial goals for your future.

Setting up a savings account for emergencies is a great start. Putting back six to nine months of living expenses gives you money to use should something happen. This money should be used for emergencies only, hence the name “emergency savings account,” such as paying for rent and utilities after losing your job.

Setting up a retirement savings account is another great way to plan for your future. Your employer may offer access to a 401(k) which is a good example of a retirement account. Every time you get a paycheck, you can contribute a portion of it to this fund. These accounts are designed for your employer to match your whole contribution or at least a part of it.

Retirement funds like these can give you the future you want, whether it’s sailing a way to Bora-Bora or simply being able to do the basic things we enjoy like going to the movies and taking yearly vacations after you retire.

4. Don’t stress.

The old quote “There ain’t no stress like money stress, but you can only worry so much.”, basically means, don’t go crazy worrying about your finances. Worry enough, and then let it go. Using these steps, create a budget and implementing the financial bill organizer that works for you. Then, just enjoy your life!

The obvious fact that the U.S. is in a recession is going to have people cutting costs in all places. Industries that are not essential, like perfume and other beauty products, will most likely see a drop in sales. Some fragrance companies have already been through several recessions and know how to get through another one. Other, more amateur perfume companies, may take a hit at this time. Which companies are likely to survive, and which ones are at risk during this recession?

There have been several recessions in the U.S. in the last century, causing consumers to cut down on items that are not crucial, like expensive perfume. But some perfume companies have lasted through these times and are now strong enough to stand another recession. These brands are “tried and true.” People are not afraid to make a purchase when buying them for a gift or for themselves, because it’s a brand that has been around for at least 20 years and they can count on it being a good gain. Some companies that are likely to do well in the recession are common household names like Chanel, Calvin Klein and Elizabeth Arden. Even if somebody wants to buy a perfume as a gift that they have never tried, they would rather buy a perfume from these brands than something that just came out recently.

Celebrity perfumes, for example, are likely to be at risk during times of a recession. Unless they’ve already tried it and like it, people are less likely to spend on a celebrity endorsed perfume at this time. Just because a perfume has a picture of Justin Beiber on it is not going to be enough to sell during this time. Consumers tend to look at these items as frivolous especially during a recession. Also, most celebrity perfumes like Britney Spears and Mariah Carey are targeted towards teenagers, who will have less money themselves and whose parents will not be buying them extra things like perfume.

History shows that the perfume industry is one of the first to get his during times of a recession. This doesn’t mean you have to give up some of your favorite fragrances. During these times you will see lots of perfume brands having huge sales. Stores like Sephora, Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s, which have large perfume sections, will have perfume sale specials. This is your time to get great deals on perfumes which would otherwise be unaffordable.

According to several leading research companies who look at international billing and payment issues on an ongoing basis, (including perhaps the leader in the field of billing research -Billentis) they say, that on average, the overall cost of sending out a bill or invoice and then collecting payment from the customer, is anywhere from £4 to £17 per invoice. Unfortunately, apart from the fact that this is a pretty big range, it tends to create an unnecessary defensiveness in organisations (and often in the finance department in particular) who understandably become very keen to point out that they spend nowhere near that kind of money on such a mundane and clerical activity (although they will often fail to include many of the indirect and hidden costs of the process). Another recently published general statistic, however, could be much more useful and may make a few divisional heads and even CEO’s sit up and think about the efficiency and effectiveness of their billing and payments practices for the first time. This is the statement that on average, an organisation spends 5% of its revenue on issuing its invoices and in collecting payments from customers. In this article, we will explore this claim and see if it reflects reality for both small and large organisations. To do this we will look at the figures based on two real UK businesses.

First and foremost let’s deal with the “on average” part of the 5% of revenue claim. What is being done here is to look at many organisations of many sizes and types and simply working out the median or middle value in a range of numbers. In this case the median cost of billing and collecting payment in proportion to total revenues is 5%. Of course, this means that they are some companies that may be higher or lower than this but statistically, we can say that around two-thirds of all companies would fall into this average of 4%.

The Small Company

The first company (let’s call them Alpha) employs 26 people, has a turnover of £5 million in total revenues per annum. This is earned by selling goods and services at an average of £500 on average each time. Hence their total bills in a year are 12,000 or 1,000 per month. There are two broad cost categories that we now need to look at -staff and transaction costs.

On the staff side, Alpha have one accountant (on a salary of £45,000 per annum, three clerical admin people (at a salary of £21,000 each) and two people answering the phones (at a salary of £17,500 each). Hence, the all up payroll for this group of people is £143,000. The three clerical admin people devote all of their time to billing and payments but the accountant and customer service people devote only 50% of their time to this activity. Hence, we can say the cost of the people’s time which is devoted to billing and payments is £103,000. However, the company has staff overhead costs of 40% (cost of offices, equipment, training etc) which brings this cost up to a total of £144,200.

On the transaction cost side, 40% of the 12,000 bills are paid by cheque, 10% by BACS, 30% by phone (half by debit card and half by credit card), and 20% by cash. For cheques the bank charge fees of £1,200 (£0.25 pence times 4,800 cheques). For BACS, a charge is made of 15 pence per transaction (so £0.15*12000*0.1 or £180). For cash handling the bank charges a flat annual fee of £500 for all cash deposits of this size. For cost of transactions by phone, on the debit side the company pays £0.35 pence per transaction or £630 and on the credit side 2.5% of each transaction value (£500*0.025*1800 transactions or £22,500). Finally, we have to worry about how long it takes to get paid (and the cost of borrowing money to operate and allow for possibly late payments). Given that this small company has average invoice days outstanding of forty, they have to cover this £500 for 40 days or just under 11% of the year. As Alpha is paying interest at 5%, this means the cost to fund the necessary float is £26,027.

There are also a few direct invoicing costs for Alpha to bear including printing invoices, paper, envelopes, stamps and even marketing material (to also design and print). This adds up to a total of £0.90 per invoice (the stamp alone being half of this). We therefore have a total annual cost of £10,800. This makes the grand total on the transactional side of things £61,837. If we total all of the above, we now have a grand total billing and collection cost of £206,037. As a % of the £5 million in revenues this is 4.12% (or what would be £17.17 per invoice).

The Large Company

The second company (lets call them Beta), employs 525 people, has a turnover of £90 million in total revenues per annum. This is earned by selling goods and services at an average of £58 each time. Hence, their total bills in a year are 1,551,725 or 129,310 per month on average. Once again, there are two broad cost categories that we now need to look at -staff and transaction costs.

On the staff side, Beta have a team of eight accountants (on an average salary of £48,000 per annum each, thirty-two clerical admin people doing bookkeeping, settlement and reconciliation (at a salary of £23,500 each) and a call-centre with sixty people answering the phones (at a salary of £18,500 each on average). Hence, the all up payroll for this group of people is £2,214,000. The Beta company does not keep detailed records but estimates that billing and collecting payments occupies about 60% of the time of this whole team. Hence, the cost of the people’s time, which is devoted to billing and payments is £1,347,600. However, the company has staff overhead costs of 45% (cost of offices, equipment, training etc) which brings this cost up to a total of ££1,954,020.

On the transaction cost side, 20% of the 1,323,530 bills are paid by cheque, 20% by BACS, 50% by phone (half by debit card and half by credit card), 5% by cash and 5% via Beta’s Internet bank site portal. For cheques the bank charges fees of £52,941 (£0.20 pence times 264,706 cheques). For BACS, a charge is made of 12 pence per transaction (so £0.12*264,706 or £31,765). For cash handling the bank charges a flat annual fee of £15,000 for all cash deposits of this size. For cost of transactions by phone, on the debit side the company pays £0.30 pence per transaction or £99,265 and on the credit side 1.8% of each transaction value (£68*0.018*330,883). transactions or £405,000). Finally, we have to worry about how long it takes to get paid (and the cost of borrowing money to operate and allow for possibly late payments. This company has average invoice days outstanding of 45, they have to cover this £68 for each transaction for 45 days or 12.3% of the year. As the Beta company is paying interest at 5%, this means the cost to fund the necessary float is £553,500.

There are also a few direct invoicing costs for Beta to bear including sending invoices (which Beta does via email not paper unless it is requested by a customer), monthly mailed statements and accompanying marketing material (to also print and design). This is a total of £0.40 per invoice. We therefore have a total annual cost of £620,690. This makes the grand total on the transactional side of things £1,860,054.

If we total all of the above (all staff plus all transaction costs), we now have a grand total billing and collection cost of ££3,814,074. As a % of the £90 million in revenues this is 4.24%. (or £2.46 per invoice).

Summary

Although the data from these two very different sized companies cannot in any way constitute a statistically significant result, it is nonetheless quite remarkable that both costs of invoicing and collection are so close. At 4.12% and 4.24% respectively they are also only a little less than the 5% average claim made by the research companies. In fact, it is a reasonable assumption that a few more “hidden costs” still need to be added to both sides here (which may completely close the gap). For example, the small company Alpha added no costs for the senior managers (GM and CFO) who both spend some of their time in payment matters, nor for the extra bank charges for bounced cheques, debt collection and writing off-unpaid invoices (issues also not included for Beta). And, in the large company, there were some system and invoice storage costs that were excluded. This may well have made both % numbers even closer to the 5% figure and possibly slightly higher.

In the final analysis, this is just the data from two individual companies. However, they seem to provide a useful general justification to the claim and serve as a basis for calculating the actual figures for almost any business. This may be especially useful ahead of talking with online digital bill presentment and payment companies that often claim that they can reduce these costs by up to 50%-if this is true, what a great way to lift revenues by up to 2.5%!

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