Credit Card, PayPal, Venmo Vs Zelle

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#21
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Don't use what is really a consumer or start-up processing system such as PayPal, Venmo, Square, Stripe, etc. It looks very unprofessional.

I prepare all invoices in QBO and they sync to Bill & Pay, which is how all electronic payments handled. I can accept the big four credit cards or do an ACH, clients can set their account to just automatically pay on due date, or in some cases, payment plans. For example, I just signed a $12k consulting agreement and the payments are automatically initiated on the 1st of each month. I never have to think about it except when reconciling my bank accounts.

Biller Genie is another option but I prefer Bill & Pay. CPACharge, too, but I do not really care for their system. Another option is Bill.com but I did not care for how they could not directly import a PDF from QBO--in other words, I lost all branding on my invoices and it just became yet another generic invoice. Branding is a big deal to me, so that ruled out Bill.com for anything but AP.
 

#22
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Cornerstone, your first paragraph is interesting. I’m pretty sure you’re at least a generation younger than me (I’m holding on, barely, to “mid-fifties”). So could Zelle etc become like the transition from “collar, tie and don’t forget to wear a jacket when meeting a client?”

This was a topic at our EA chapter meeting last week. One colleague has numerous clients out of state, a good few of them at retirement age, and she does brisk business with Zelle. She did not do Venmo because they want access to your email contacts.

I checked with my bank. They do not allow Zelle to be attached to a business account. They may be wrong, of course, but they also expressed the view that most banks wouldn’t because most banks also sell credit card processing. They thought that maybe Wells Fargo would allow it because they had a tie-up with Zelle very early on.
 

#23
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Whatever you choose, you'll want to confirm that what you're doing with it...e.g. accepting payments from customers/clients in the ordinary course of your business...is okay.

A lot of those cash apps and money transfer services that don't charge a fee are supposed to be for personal use only. A good indicator it's okay for business is asking whether the platform will issue you a 1099-K if you hit thresholds.
 

#24
Frankly  
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SumwunLost wrote:I checked with my bank. They do not allow Zelle to be attached to a business account.
That's been my experience as well. The bank shut down my Zelle feature because it is intended for personal use only.
 

#25
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SumwunLost wrote:Cornerstone, your first paragraph is interesting. I’m pretty sure you’re at least a generation younger than me (I’m holding on, barely, to “mid-fifties”). So could Zelle etc become like the transition from “collar, tie and don’t forget to wear a jacket when meeting a client?”


I just turned 36, haha, and even I refuse to use Venmo, PayPal, and the countless other payment apps for ANYTHING. It annoys me when people say "I'll just Venmo it to you." Uhh, I refuse to use it--you'll pay me how I feel comfortable being paid.

Collar, tie, and jacket? I believe the last time I wore that was when I had to chaperone my wife's school prom (she's a teacher and on faculty student council team). I am extremely casual in most cases and routinely visit the few clients I still see in person while wearing a hat. If it is a more formal meeting, I am only in jeans, a nice shirt, and my hair is actually styled. Perhaps I'll wear a dress shirt and sports coat, but I avoid suits and ties at all costs (yet I have quite a nice collection of ties, mostly unworn!). Even when I had a week of meetings of initial discussions for acquiring another practice, I was in jeans, a dress shirt, and a sports coat. Of course, I was happy to see the selling CPA also in jeans at one of the meetings. I freely market myself as one of the most casual CPAs one will ever meet and one of my mission statement bullet points is along the lines of "Relate, do not intimidate." No one is paying me to dress formally; they're paying for my brain to process topics and keep them compliant with things they cannot do on their own.

For personal use, I use Zelle for ONE monthly payment, and occasionally Apple Pay if I am buying something online. Otherwise, I stick to dedicated platforms for business use. I think I am on the "old" side for most people that insist on using Venmo or the countless other payment apps.
 

#26
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Cornerstone, I am old enough to remember the strict dress code rules we had when I started in the profession. In the UK air conditioning is very rare so if you had to meet a client in an interior office during the occasional heatwave, it definitely encouraged swift despatch of business. One wet day, I walked into the office with a practical anorak. My senior manager came out of his office and said “I hope you have a suit jacket under there.” Of course I did. It took me a week to learn the rules.

I still wear collar and tie and I still wear a suit jacket into my office, but the first thing I do is to take it off and it doesn’t go back on until the end of the day. Times change.
 

#27
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Certain areas obviously remain far more formal. My dress attire would never fly in places like New York City and I dare say much of Charlotte, for example, but I live and work on an island--very different environment, as are most small towns, and I only ever care to live in small towns. I have never met with a client that was dressed nicer than me, and that is quite something given how casually I still tend to dress. Though, one thing I routinely see that drives me nuts is wearing flip flops all the time or dress shoes or loafers with no socks.

Anyway, hijacked the post!
 

#28
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Cornerstone, I just signed up with CPACharge. Why do you not like their system?
I went on and signed up because they are waiving the $10/monthly fee until 2023. Also, I can have a flat 3% processing fee added in, which the client will pay, if they choose to pay by credit card.
 

#29
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It may have improved. I looked at it and I did not like lack of branding (perhaps that has been added). The fees are comparable to what I pay elsewhere, but I still prefer a system like Bill & Pay that can pull in actual PDFs of invoices from my accounting software, reflects my brand, and the e-mailed invoices also include my signature. I have the same opinion of Bill.com as I do with CPACharge concerning its invoicing functionality.
 

#30
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Thanks for the feedback. I do not plan on invoicing through it, so that won't bother me. I may occasionally send an email with a link, and wanted to be able to be paid through my website, so it should work for me I think.
 

#31
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It's odd to me that anyone would think Venmo, Paypal or Square is unprofessional. Professional means meeting the needs of your clients and my clients have requested I use those. If a client asks for another service and I can access it, I'll use that also.

Zelle isn't linked with business accounts at any of my current banks or I'd offer them also.

I don't use any of them to send invoices and probably 90% pay with check anyway.
 

#32
MWEA  
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CornerstoneCPA wrote:It may have improved. I looked at it and I did not like lack of branding (perhaps that has been added). The fees are comparable to what I pay elsewhere, but I still prefer a system like Bill & Pay that can pull in actual PDFs of invoices from my accounting software, reflects my brand, and the e-mailed invoices also include my signature. I have the same opinion of Bill.com as I do with CPACharge concerning its invoicing functionality.


I’ve been using QB Payments with QBO. The 1% ACH change sucks. Looking at Bill & Pay, just the difference on our ACH monthly subscriptions more than pays for the monthly fee. Thanks for the suggestion.

I may be missing something, but it seems QB Payments doesn’t allow repetitive ACH transactions to automatically pull, only credit cards. This will save me some time as well.
 

#33
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MWEA wrote:I’ve been using QB Payments with QBO. The 1% ACH change sucks. Looking at Bill & Pay, just the difference on our ACH monthly subscriptions more than pays for the monthly fee. Thanks for the suggestion.

I may be missing something, but it seems QB Payments doesn’t allow repetitive ACH transactions to automatically pull, only credit cards. This will save me some time as well.


Correct, QB Payments only allows for repetitive payments via credit card. I like that Bill & Pay has so many more features, including autopay, installments, etc., and the savings in fees do offset costs of the entire system. I am intrigued to try the payment-by-text feature Bill & Pay introduced earlier this year but I do not have a collection issue--most are paid same day or within a couple days of invoice being sent. I just wish I could get three remaining clients to pay electronically instead of by check...
 

#34
MWEA  
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MWEA wrote:
CornerstoneCPA wrote:It may have improved. I looked at it and I did not like lack of branding (perhaps that has been added). The fees are comparable to what I pay elsewhere, but I still prefer a system like Bill & Pay that can pull in actual PDFs of invoices from my accounting software, reflects my brand, and the e-mailed invoices also include my signature. I have the same opinion of Bill.com as I do with CPACharge concerning its invoicing functionality.


I’ve been using QB Payments with QBO. The 1% ACH change sucks. Looking at Bill & Pay, just the difference on our ACH monthly subscriptions more than pays for the monthly fee. Thanks for the suggestion.

I may be missing something, but it seems QB Payments doesn’t allow repetitive ACH transactions to automatically pull, only credit cards. This will save me some time as well.


As an update, it looks like the pricing structure on their website is only if you bring in a different processor. If you use them directly (which is what I think most here would do), the pricing structure is very similar to QBO with 1% of ACH transactions and 2.9% on credit cards.
 

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