Regular CC Billing for Small Company

[ekal]

Our small company has evolved from the point where we need to bill a few clients every month (just around a dozen or so).

Up until now we have done this by sending out a check.

We'd rather professionalise this process and ask the clients to sign up and get the amoung deducted automatically from their credit card.

Which companies have posters used to do this and which one would you recommend?

Thanks in advance

[jtara]

Who are your clients? And what are you selling? (Goods or services?)

If they are business clients, requiring payment by credit card is not "professionalizing". It's the opposite. Most businesses expect invoices, 30-day terms, and payment by check.

Certainly it makes sense to have this payment option avaiable, and it probably makes sense to encourage it (a bird in hand...) But depending on your business, REQUIRING CC payment might be a very bad idea.

[percentages]

In my experience in the USA small/medium sized businesses (1 - 200 people) like to pay by credit card.

Companies with 200+ employees usually have a decent Accounts Department and will choose payment by check.

As for a mechant services account providers, I've been with Total Merchant Services since early 2000, and don't plan on switching anytime soon! Anyone who provides a gateway to Authorize.net is probably okay, you just need to look at fees and customer service levels :)

[Jack_Hughes]

worldpay can do this too, though cheap they are not.

[inbound]

Invoices are a pain when they are for small amounts, we bill quarterly in advance for many clients. This actually suits some clients as they are not worried about the amounts and it means less processing costs/time for them.

Although it may be too late to change current arrangements, why not consider quarterly or yearly billing depending on the invoice amount. Billing departments tend to dislike dealing with small invoices more than paying up front and avoiding 11 additional invoices.

If you are dealing with businesses that do not have a dedicated billing department (even some bigger ones) then you may be looking at companies that also don't have a company credit card (I'm talking about the UK here), may companies have to use a founder's/employee's credit card.

This is very common, so much so that one of our LSE listed clients, who make profits in the multi-million pound territory, use a marketing manager's credit card to pay their AdWords!

[Decius]

PayPal subscriptions are fine. Both of you receive an invoice, their credit cards stay on file, etc. Professionalism is defined by your approach to the customer, not necessarily the technology you use. PayPal is safe and easy.

[Hiredguns]

I disagree. Invoices are like business cards, the more professional it looks, the more quality it instills to the buyer. 1st impressions make a big difference, and any bit helps.

Having said that, i had the same problem recently, but i found a service called freshbooks which specializes in professional looking invoicing for businesses like web designing / consulting. I tried the demo out and it looks good so far. You can attach it to paypal or a payment gateway of your choice and bill straight from them, including recurring billing.

They have a nice admin panel, and even options to snail mail awesome looking invoices.

It's the best solution i found without using the lame invoicing feature in paypal.

Another one is blinksale but that uses paypal only, however it's a big step up from the internal features on paypal.

[edited by: Hiredguns at 4:21 am (utc) on Dec. 8, 2006]

[Corey Bryant]

Are you using a merchant account right now? You might check out Bookkeeper 2007 - it is compatible with Linkpoint gateway

-Corey