Electronic billing
- Closing balance now due
- $2,000
- Balance plus invoices, before payments
- $5,000
- Change in the balance this period
- $400
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. ReceivableLedger publishes no tax rate, no payment term, no late fee and no benchmark: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
Electronic billing, for the small business that sells on account, means three things: the proforma, the invoice and the statement go to the customer as documents they can open and pay from rather than paper in the post, the payment comes back by a link on the document rather than a check, and the record of both sits in one place. The phrase is also sold to hospitals and utilities as claims and meter-to-bill systems, and this guide is not about those. What electronic billing has to do for a small business is small and exact: produce the document with the arithmetic right, send it, take the payment against it and mark it paid, and show the customer a statement that agrees with what they received. This guide is about that, and the free billing statement on this site works the balance with no account.
Try the free proforma invoice Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
The document first, sent as itself
Electronic billing starts with a document whose arithmetic is right, because an emailed error travels faster than a posted one. The statement on this site carries the opening balance, the period's invoices, the payments and the credits to the closing balance; the paid plan sends that statement to the customer under your name, with the invoices behind it.
The payment taken on the document
A pay link on the statement or the invoice, to your own Stripe account, turns electronic billing from a PDF into money: the customer pays from the document and the invoice is marked paid without anyone matching a bank line. The paid plan connects your own account and puts the link on every document; you are the merchant of record.
The reminder, and the record that agrees
An invoice past its due date gets a reminder, sent on a schedule you set, and a statement that shows the same balance the reminder quotes. Sent from one record, they agree; sent from a template and a spreadsheet, they eventually do not. The paid plan sends both from the invoices it keeps.
Electronic billing: common questions
What is electronic billing for a small business?
Issuing the proforma, the invoice and the statement as documents the customer receives and pays from online, taking the payment against the document, and keeping the record of both together. Hospital claims and utility billing use the same phrase for different systems; ReceivableLedger is the small business version.
Can customers pay from an electronic statement?
With ReceivableLedger Pro, yes: connect your own Stripe account and every statement and invoice carries a pay link straight to it, and the invoice is marked paid when the customer pays. The free statement on this site works the balance and prints as it stands; the link is part of the record the paid plan keeps.
Do I still need to send a paper statement?
Only if your customer asks for one. The statement on this site prints from the browser, so the paper copy is the same document as the emailed one. What matters is that the balance is right and the record it came from is kept, which is what the paid plan does whichever way the customer receives it.
ReceivableLedger Pro
Keeping what you make
The tools are free forever. Pro turns them into the ledger: every customer's invoices and statements kept and dated, the statement and the reminder sent for you, a pay link on every document, your name and logo on the paperwork, no watermark, and an export when the accountant asks.
- Download as PDF
- No ReceivableLedger watermark
- Save every proforma and statement and reopen it later
- Your business name and logo on the document
- Export every invoice and statement in one go
- Statement-issued and payment-overdue reminders emailed to your customers
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$50per month, whole office
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Will it do what you need for Electronic billing?
Tell us what your billing needs and we will tell you straight whether ReceivableLedger Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with something else. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
On the worked example, a $1,600 opening balance and $3,400 of invoices is $5,000 on the account, and $2,900 of payments with a $100 credit note bring the closing balance to $2,000, up $400 on the period with 58% of the account settled.
Billing statement (Closing balance now due): $2,000, ReceivableLedger, worked example.
Cite as: "Electronic billing, ReceivableLedger", updated 2026-09-03, https://receivableledger.com/electronic-billing/.