E-Billing Saves More Than Trees

What's more, e-billing is actually more secure than paper billing, and that is something your customers may find reassuring. NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association, reports that 85% of identity-theft cases result from stolen paper statements, invoices or checkbooks.

To learn how switching to e-billing could reduce your company's environmental impact, check out Pay It Green's Financial Footprint Calculator. For a more advanced assessment of your environmental impact, download the Green Calculator for Businesses spreadsheet.

Here's how e-billing works: You select an e-billing vendor. (Consult the NACHA buyer's guide for names.) The vendor sets up a payment-processing system that accommodates your customers' billing preferences, whether they choose to receive bills via email, online or through fax or U.S. mail. While setup costs vary, a typical small business will pay a few thousand dollars to get started.

Once you've got your electronic-billing system established, you'll need to advertise the switch to your customers through billing inserts or e-mail notifications. You'll also have to convince them that electronic billing is easy, secure and better for the environment. Your vendor may be able to help. Billtrust, for example, provides customers with a new billing design and messages to promote electronic billing. For additional guidance, check out the Pay It Green Toolkit, which includes a few sample press releases and customer notification letters.

After the initial setup is completed, your vendor will charge you a per-document fee for ongoing service. Neither Billtrust nor CheckFree, another electronic billing service, will disclose the cost of transactions. Billtrust does claim, however, that customers save as much as 35% by using Billtrust to do their paper billing and more than 75% by using the company's e-billing services.