Courier Software to run your business

You will need a pc, laptop, notebook, or iPad to run your courier business, with a broadband connection at home or in the office, obviously.

We suggest that you do not rush into investing in a “system” or special software to run your courier business. Most of what you need to do in the early days can be done perfectly well on the standard Microsoft Office programs that come with a pc. Letters can be done on Word. Invoices can be done on Excel using the Excel invoice templates. Lists of couriers, customers, and sales prospects can be kept on Outlook.

When the time comes, and if you really feel you want to invest some money, there are various systems on offer. We recommend using an on-line invoicing system, rather than buying a whole system of your own. It’s cheaper and easier.

Most people who use your business will accept one invoice per week. These invoices are referred to by the month in which they were raised and are often regarded as one single invoice.

The options which you should make available to your customer are:

-One invoice per job, for customers with various departments and authorisation, but with little usage.
-One invoice per week: this should be the default setting for new accounts. You should invoice weekly and chase the money very promptly until you get the results of your credit check.

You’ll need a list of invoices, usually called a sales day book.

You may need a simple ledger system, once you have more than a handful of customers, to keep track of who has paid, and so you can put a system in place to chase them for payment…

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