The main difference is that if it is online then it is also SaaS which means “Software As A Service” which basically means that it’s accessible over the internet and usually means that it’s mobile friendly. This is important because nowadays in our digital age and you can access your information from anywhere at any time.

Whereas an On-Premise invoice management software means that you need to locally manage and support the system. This a really old way of managing information and actually more costly because you need a dedicated on site or remote IT staff to manage the system. With that said, it does have it’s advantages from a security point of view as your invoice is always secure. However, as will be explained below, without an online invoice management software, you wil lose about 90% of the features required to truly use an invoice management system.

So what do these include? Well, first and foremost you will not be able to take online payments as all of your information is stored locally. What good is an invoice management software if it doesn’t allow you to take online payments?

Secondly, you will not have an option for a customer portal. This is a critical feature as not only do you require your customer to be able to pay online, but also you would like them to be able to accept their own estimates, view paid invoices and more so that they don’t need to call you and ask for this information.

Thirdly, almost everyone has a mobile device these days. If your invoice management software isn’t online, then your system won’t be accessible over a mobile device. One important point here is that there are many online invoice management software solutions for small medium businesses that aren’t mobile friendly so be careful! Just because they are SaaS and offer a mobile version doesn’t mean it will work well on your mobile device.

Essentially an online invoice management software like InfoFlo Pay, which includes both payment processing and a customer portal, will you help get paid faster and increase customer retention. None of which are available with on-premise invoice management software solutions.