If Invoicera is on your shortlist, you are probably comparing dedicated invoicing software against the alternatives and need a fair way to choose. This article gives you that: a checklist of what to test, in order of importance, for a firm of 10 to 250 staff, and how to run the same test on the levelpartner.ai platform. We make no claims about Invoicera or any other product's features, prices or limits. Run every check yourself, with your own invoices, during a trial.
Start with the job, not the feature list
Invoicing software pages all list the same features: templates, recurring billing, reminders, online payment. Ticking those boxes tells you nothing about whether the tool fits your firm. The right question is what has to happen between agreeing work and having the money in the bank, and who does each part.
For most service firms that chain is: a deal is agreed, an invoice is raised, the client pays, the books are updated, and delivery starts. The best tool is the one that breaks that chain in the fewest places.
The checklist, in order of importance
- Shared visibility. Can sales, delivery and finance all see the same invoice and its status on the client's record, alongside emails and calls?
- Payment on the invoice. Does every invoice carry a pay button for card and other methods your clients use, with no extra step?
- Automatic follow-up. Do reminders run on a schedule you set, and stop the moment the client pays?
- Connection to the deal. Does a paid invoice update the sales pipeline or start onboarding without anyone typing?
- Recurring billing. Can retainers and subscriptions bill on schedule and collect from a stored payment method with consent?
- Your books. Can finance get every invoice and payment out, by connector or export, in a form your accountant accepts?
- Permissions. Can you control who may send invoices, and up to what value?
- Exit. Can you export all your clients, invoices and payment history if you leave?
Weight the top four most heavily. A tool that wins on templates but loses on shared visibility will cost you more in a year than it saves.
Before you start the comparison
- A list of ten real invoices from last month covering your common cases: one-off, recurring, deposit, part-paid.
- Two or three colleagues from sales, delivery and finance who will each test the tool.
- A trial account for each tool on your shortlist.
- A score sheet with the eight checks above and a column per tool.
How to run the test on the platform
- Go to Payments, then Integrations, and click Connect next to your processor.
- Save your five most common services in Payments, then Products.
- Import the ten clients from your sample invoices with Import Contacts in Contacts.
- Recreate each sample invoice on the platform and send it to an internal email address.
- Pay two of them with a card to confirm the money flow and the receipt.
- Ask a colleague in another role to find each invoice from the client's record and read its status.
- Switch on a reminder in the invoice Settings under Reminder Settings and let it run on one unpaid test invoice.
- In Payments, then Transactions, click the download icon and give finance the file from the emailed link to check against your books.
- Score each check on your sheet and repeat the same steps in every other tool.
What the test usually shows
Standalone invoicing tools tend to score well on templates, tax handling and accounting features, because invoicing is all they do. They often score lower on shared visibility and connection to the deal, because the client record and the pipeline live in another system.
A CRM with built-in invoicing tends to score the other way round: very strong on visibility, follow-up and pipeline connection, adequate on invoice design, and dependent on export or a connector for the books. Neither is wrong. Your score sheet tells you which weaknesses you can live with.
Suppose the agency scores three options on the eight checks, weighting the first four double for a maximum of 36: a standalone invoicing tool, its accounting software's invoicing and a CRM with invoicing. Say the scores come out at 21, 24 and 30, with the CRM losing points only on invoice design flexibility. On that result the agency would choose the CRM and keep the accounting software for the books. The scores are invented to show the method.
Time it takes
Running the checklist on three tools takes a working day spread across a week, including a colleague from each role. That is a small cost against living with the wrong tool for several years.
The mistake most people make
Letting one person choose. Finance picks a tool that suits month end and sales never uses it, so invoices go back to email requests. Sales picks a tool that is quick to send from and finance spends hours exporting. Put both in the test and make them agree on the weights before they see any tool.
When a dedicated invoicing tool is the right answer
If invoicing is genuinely separate from selling in your firm, for example a central billing team that bills from contracts with no link to the CRM, a dedicated tool may suit you better. The same applies if you need advanced accounting features such as multi-entity consolidation inside the invoicing tool itself. Use the checklist anyway; it will confirm the choice.
Troubleshooting the comparison
Scores are too close to call. Your weights are too even. Ask which single failure would hurt most and double that check.
A colleague cannot complete the test. The tool needs too much training for their role. Count that as a fail on visibility.
Finance rejects the export. Ask what columns they need and check whether the tool can produce them. If not, score the books check low.
Clients in the trial get confused. Use internal addresses only until you have chosen.
Related guides
For what each invoice should contain once you have chosen, read the minimum fields on a simple invoice. To set up invoicing for the whole team, see easy invoicing for small business teams. If you invoice from a phone today, the article on moving off a phone invoicing app covers the switch.
Frequently asked questions
Is a CRM with invoicing as good as dedicated invoicing software?
For sending, collecting and following up, often better, because it sits next to the client record. For accounting depth, dedicated tools usually go further. Decide which matters more for your firm using the checklist.
How long should a trial last?
Long enough to send, remind and collect on a real cycle, ideally two to four weeks. A trial that ends before a reminder fires has not tested the part that matters.
Should we migrate old invoices?
Migrate open invoices so payments and reminders run from one place. Keep closed invoices as an export or archive rather than recreating them.
Who should sign off the choice?
The finance lead and the head of sales together. If either one will not use it, the choice fails in practice.