The $0 Invoice Conversation
While I was working with a consulting client today when the $0 invoice conversation came up. It’s been a while since I have had a chance to explain this concept, so I thought I’d write this quick article about it. First off, what is the $0 invoice? The obvious part is the total at the bottom of the invoice. It’s zero. Such a thing usually exists because we have delivered some valuable service that is not being paid for directly, and we want the client to see our efforts.
A Noble Cause
A Managed Service Provider (MSP) typically gets paid a flat fee each month for services. So let’s pick a tiny client that pays $1000/mo. Fast forward a year, and you might hear such words as, “I’ve paid you guys $12,000 in the last year, and what have I gotten for it?” Chances are you have done a lot of work for your client that they have not seen or have seen and forgotten. The $0 invoice can be sent monthly to help reinforce your value each month, remind the client you are active, and even “dazzle them by the pound” (of paper).
The $0 Invoice is Outdated
I used to believe in the $0 invoice wholeheartedly. But that was ten years ago, and I now have quite different beliefs. It’s not that I changed my mind due to emotion or whim; our industry has found more efficient and more effective ways to show value. This impact has become exponential as more firms have mastered the art of building value around the incidents they prevent and the security they provide, instead of hours of labor rendered.
How Do You Show Value?
As a mature MSP, hopefully, you are also delivering and proving value in many other ways, such as:
- A periodic Strategic Business Review
- Positioning yourself in prevention instead of reaction
- Client Portals so they can see and track work
- Great communication plans in projects, onboardings, tickets, and newsletters
- Add to the above list of opportunities these facts:
- Your clients are bombarded with emails (and we are delivering invoices by email, right?)
- Invoices don’t always go to the decision-makers, especially $0 ones
- Your team has to sort through, create, and track these $0 invoices
Between your other value opportunities and the disadvantaged nature of emailing $0 invoices, the return for the effort is approaching zero.
From leadership, finance, service delivery, project management and so much more, Eureka Process partners with MSPs. Our consultants work with your teams at all stages from business strategy with members of leadership to the minutiae of daily processes used by your frontline techs. Book a call today to speak with me about Strategy Consulting.
Decision Time
The choice is still yours. If you are still sending $0 invoices, I encourage you to review the list above and challenge your beliefs. You were not and are not incorrect in your decision to send $0 invoices. However, you have new information to consider, and it may be time to make a new decision.
Maybe you need to start creating those value opportunities if you are not there yet, and perhaps you just need to stop sending the $0 invoice now. Nonetheless, any step in that direction is a victory for everyone involved. Better client interaction and less administrative effort is a winning combination!
How to Resolve the $0 Invoice in ConnectWise Manage
P.S. I don’t usually go into tech detail, but I happen to have ConnectWise Manage up in front of me right now. If you are looking for how to stop generating $0 invoices for labor covered by agreements in ConnectWise Manage, here are the general steps:
- Navigate to Finance > Agreements
- Open the agreement that needs to be fixed
- In the Invoicing pod, under the heading “Show covered items on Standard Invoice:” uncheck the Time option
- If covered by Agreements, you can consider the same for Products and Expenses.
- To default future agreements from having this option, check your Agreement Types for the same under Setup Tables > Agreement Types.
