The holiday season separates businesses into two groups: those, especially retailers, that make most of their sales during this one jam-packed season and those for whom this is quiet time.

If Christmas shoppers are the lifeblood of your business, you want to bring in as much trade as possible while keeping costs down and cashflow up. It may not be the time to switch to a new billing system, but it's certainly the time to pay attention to the effects of your old system on your business.

Studies in the EU, where there is a movement to mandate paperless invoicing for the sake of the environment, suggest that businesses can save literally millions of dollars by switching to electronic billing. A recent European study of supermarkets, for example, found that 40-70% of their operating costs were supply-chain related, and that a chain of grocery stores could process 1.5 million paper invoices a year. The back-office savings for such a company when they shift to electronic invoice management can be enough to completely change their profit margin.

Most of us don't spend millions on invoicing in the first place. Our holiday season invoicing headaches are things like being too busy on the sales floor to get the paper invoices out, mislaying important financial papers, and the holiday slowdown in payments from people who are too busy on their sales floors to pay us.

A recent conversation among small business owners reflected these concerns. Here were the issues they shared:

• A cookware retailer had mislaid hundreds of dollars worth of checks that should have been deposited, but were set aside when things got too busy. She was looking for the time to track down the checks, or to approach customers to ask for replacements. She was also coping with the fear that the checks might have been stolen rather than lost.
•  A printer admitted that he hasn't had time to invoice people for several months. He does all his own paperwork -- and it is in fact paperwork, since he sends out physical bills. He knows that customers won't be happy to get bills in the new year with dates from this year, so he's hoping things will slow down enough after Christmas to let him do a blitzkreig of billing before New Year's.
• A graphic artist was happy about the amount of work she's been doing for her clients in the lead-up to the holidays, but hasn't seen payments on over half her accounts. "I'm not sure who owes me what at this point," she lamented. She's thinking about paying for temporary accounting help to sort out statements.

All these problems can be fixed with electronic billing. EIPP solutions like SmartPay allow quick data retrieval, automatic bills and reminders, hassle-free deposits, and easy electronic payments for customers who may be busy or cash-strapped at this time of year. If you're in the holiday rush, take a moment now to make a note on your calendar to sign up for e-billing when things slow down -- or call to get the process started, and rest secure in the knowledge that this is the last year you'll have worries like these in the holidays.

If this is your slow time, go ahead and make the switch. Otherwise, you'll be like the old man who couldn't fix his roof  while it was raining -- but didn't fix it when it wasn't raining, because then it didn't leak.