(Image credit: Getty Images)
Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, e-mailed invoices became common, and business leaders, CPAs with calculators and company owners rubbed their hands together with glee.
“Just think of all the postage we are going to save. Time to break out the bonuses,” said one recent MBA graduate.
“Not so fast,” said his father. “I foresee real problems.”
Article continues below
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more – straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice – straight to your e-mail.
And, as is so often true, Father knew best.
‘Before email billing, we never had a problem’
“Mr. Beaver, my wife and I are retired university journalism professors who moved about 100 miles away from the college town where we taught, but remain ‘news junkies’ and subscribe to several newspapers and magazines that are delivered by a third-party delivery service.
“This worked out very well for years — until just a few weeks ago, when we got a rather sarcastic-sounding phone call from a collections office, asking when we planned on paying the many-months-old bill for newspapers,” the email from “Nick” began.
When he called them back, he said he asked, “‘What are you talking about?’ Implying that we are thieves, Miss Friendly said that we had not paid the newspaper delivery service for all of 2026.
“Let me research this, and I will call you right back,” I told her, but she’d already hung up. “We looked for the invoices and could find none for 2026. I called the company, and they said they’d gone to an email-only billing system, though they did not notify customers. We looked in our spam folder, but we saw no bills there.
“I had them mail those bills, which we immediately paid. In talking with neighbors, we learned they also use that delivery service, and several had had the same experience.
“We still receive our utility, credit card, health insurance, life insurance and most other monthly bills the old-fashioned way — by the U.S. Postal Service. Can you explain why so many other merchants and vendors seem to be too cheap to pay for postage and are willing to subject their customers to accusations of trying to avoid paying their bills?
“What can the average person do to prevent this embarrassment and waste of time?”
When did email invoicing become common?
Over the past 15 to 20 years, email has become the way many businesses send customers their bills. This shift began in the mid-2000s as companies moved away from fax machines and snail mail. By the 2010s, most industries relied on emailed PDFs as their primary billing method.
While email invoicing is fast and inexpensive, it also introduces risks that some consumers and small businesses do not fully understand. And to the thousands of folks who are ripped off by invoice scams, this is the very definition of “penny wise and pound foolish.”
Several stages leading to trouble
There were several stages as email became mainstream for many business communications, including billing.
Stage 1 (late 1990s to early 2000s). As PDFs became a universal format, many companies, most commonly tech or cost-conscious businesses, began attaching invoices to emails instead of mailing or faxing them.
Stage 2 (the mid 2000s). Emailing invoices became the norm for many small and midsize businesses. Cloud accounting platforms (QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Xero) even made “email invoice” a default selection.
Stage 3 (the 2010s). Most industries had shifted to email invoicing as the standard.
Stage 4 (the 2020s). Many countries now require electronic billing for tax compliance, fraud mitigation, transparency and the reduction of paper use.
Common problems caused by email invoicing
Emailing invoices has, from what I have seen, created far more problems — and ripped off more people — than using the U.S. Post Office ever has. When was the last time that, when opening your email, you did not find a fake bill for something you never ordered?
These are a few of the more common problems caused by emailing invoices:
Spam filtering and lost emails. Invoices often land in folders for spam, promotions or junk mail. Also, some firewalls block attachments entirely, resulting in customers never seeing the bills to begin with.
No proof of delivery or confirmation that the email was opened. Most inboxes provide no proof that the recipient opened or received the invoice. Optional “read receipts” are often disabled. This can create “we sent it” vs “never got it!” payment disputes.
Also, if duplicate invoices are sent, customers could pay the bill twice.
Fraud, spoofing and phishing. Email is a major source of invoice fraud. Customers receive emails that look like they’re from someone they do business with, but if they click on the attachment, their private data can be compromised.
Security and privacy risks. Email is not inherently secure, and sensitive financial data may be exposed if emails are forwarded improperly.
You want the bill mailed? You have that right
Businesses generally have no legal right to insist on emailing your bills unless you previously agreed to electronic-only communication — for example, by signing a service agreement that specifies e-billing.
The billing method is a customer preference, not a legal requirement. You can choose how you want to receive a bill.
Paper billing is still a standard practice for plumbing, HVAC and electrical work.
I must underscore that many automatic e-billing systems have a “deselect e-mail and use the U.S. Postal Service” feature. You just have to look for it.
I would also recommend sending a short, polite request that says something like, “Please send invoices by the U.S. Postal Service only. Do not email billing documents. Also, please update my customer record to reflect this preference and confirm that future billing will be sent by mail only.”
Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield, Calif., and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. And be sure to visit dennisbeaver.com.
