Billing System Optimization

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#21
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just got off the phone w QBO. They confirmed what you said about restricting customers to a method of payment, say ACH.

But the deal killer for me, was her saying that trying to attach the invoice i create in another app, e.g. Timeslips, to the QBO invoice is not going to work well. And there's no way to just send my own email with my Timeslips invoice and include a link to QB for payment.

The other payment processors I think, allow creation of a payment link.

Are you using QBO for the only invoice or are you sending an invoice created by your non Intuit time/billing app and separately sending a QBO payment request?
 

#22
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I think you are trying to make this overly complicated. First, Quickbooks--both Online and Desktop--include pretty decent time tracking. Why not utilize it and transfer it to invoices so you are using your accounting system to its max potential?

T-Sheets is really what Quickbooks can integrate with as a third-party time tracker. I do not use it but I have heard great things about it.

Other than Bill.com and Bill & Pay, I do not utilize much outside of what Quickbooks has to offer. I like time tracking, invoicing, payments, etc., being in one system that is pretty refined, at this point.

Using QBO o QBD for invoicing, when their payment merchant services is attached to your account, sends a nice little e-mail with access to the PDF (includnig if the client opened it), and a payment link at the bottom. When client pays, QBO fully automates it and QBD automates 95% of it (the 5% if is you accessing the Merchant Payment Services module under the Banking menu). It works. It works smoothly. I have only encountered a few unique scenarios where a problem popped up and I was able to work around them. They're so unique I do not feel a need to mention them. I have been using this setup for 10+ years with numerous companies and while I am not necessarily the biggest fan of Intuit at times, this system simply works well and I do not mind the small cost to have virtually zero collection matters to address.
 

#23
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For sure if I used QBO to invoice or I switched to their T-Sheets from Sage Timeslips, I'd save myself much more time than just using a E payment provider.

Timeslips is a dinosaur. I don't see any easy way to link QBO and Timeslips. But for my situation with relatively few clients, with high invoice amounts with lots of detail that I edit, and many separate tasks during the year, and only independent contractors no employees, it's ok except pita for remote staff independent contractors.

Correct me on this but QBO invoicing and T-Sheets don't look like they would give the invoicing editing control I want. There also doesn't seem to be a historical data conversion from Timeslips to T-Sheets)
 

#24
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I have not actually used T-Sheets. I use QBD for my own firm and it is very easy to modify invoices despite the time entries through QBD's own time tracking, which also flows into payroll module for hourly people.
 

#25
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Just read the smaller print (30 inch high res monitor) on the CPACharge.com price schedule. ACH/echecks above 5,000 to a max of 30k only if you pay a 1% fee and a higher monthly fee. Below 5k per transaction, it's no % and a flat $2 per transaction for ACH. Clearance time same 5 biz days as QB Merchant Services for ACH: 5 biz days. That appears to be imposed by the processors to protect themselves from bounced ACH and Echecks. And CPACharge. requires the higher monthly fee if you want to suppress your clients' choice to pay by cc. All that was a deal killer for me because I send out relatively few invoices, with bulk of the dollars from invoices over 5K. Those clients don't even want to pay by cc.

Bottom of the line: I activated Intuit Merchant Services. Don't like paying 1% fee for a 5 day clearance wait, and their cc fees not the best either, but they cap the 1% ACH fee at $10.

Would think Intuit Merchant Services integrates much better with QBO than any 3rd party. And it does let one disable cc or ach choice.

Intuit dollar limit entirely based on the accountant's credit rating. Mine was higher than the 30k limit of CPAcharge.com

Main downside of Intuit with QBO is that the email sent to client will always include the QBO invoice pdf. Since I usually want client to get my Timeslip invoice, clients will get two pdfs every time. And Intuit does not allow you to simply provide a link in your own email for client to click on to pay.
Last edited by lenraphael on 19-Dec-2020 12:23am, edited 1 time in total.
 

#26
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I guess I'm still not grasping why you want to continue sending Timeslip Invoices instead of utilizing the built-in time tracking that very easily converts to an invoice within QBO. If you are generating the invoice in QBO, then why the need to include the Timeslip?
 

#27
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not generating the invoice from within QBO. Use Timeslips for that.

So I'll have to attach the Timeslips generated bill to every QBO Merchant Services bill. Confusing to clients.

Switching to Timesolv effective Jan 1. They say they integrate w QBO but not why I'm switching.
 

#28
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So far QBO Merchant Services invoicing for payment not so great.

My test client is an Uber software engineer who uses a Yahoo mail account. The QBO invoice email is not reaching his mailbox even though QBO says he has viewed it three times. QBO tech support remoted to my machine and compared the client's email address to one of his emails to me and agreed it was correctly entered.

Thinking Yahoo mail is blocking QBO invoices. Hard to believe.

But the part that does bug me is that QBO invoicinhg requires me to input a due date for each invoice. Can't leave it blank.

If you select "due on receipt" the invoice shows invoice date.

Most of my clients and all of my bigger ones pay promptly without me ever giving a payment due date. Intuit puts a five day hold on all ACH payments. So just by using QBO to bill, I'm slowing down collections. If I put say a "Net 10 days" I'm just inviting clients to pay slower than before.
 

#29
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QBO techs, even the Market Services ones, not fully aware of the options of the electronic billing.

A copy of the bill is put in an Intuit cloud and you can use your own email to send the link to client.

But so far, have figured out how to totally suppress a due date on the bill.
 

#30
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Abandoning QBO invoicing and Intuit Merchant Services.

Switching to Timesolv for time and billing. They have a hookup with LexCharge for credit cards and ACH that is a fixed 2 dollars or so per any ACH, and supposedly about a two business day clearance time.

Was told originally I could limit specific clients to either CC or ACH, but so far haven't succeeded at that. Awaiting tech support answer.

I tested out with one techie client today.

He checked out Timesolv on "crunchbase" site and decided that he didn't want to trust a small biz with his bank info for ACH. He chose CC.

My reaction (after spending three days locking down every online account with MFA and 15 digit unique pw's after my Microsoft Store account got hacked day before Christmas) is that the same Federal protection of credit card transactions applies to ACH. Except if you get ACH fraud, you might have to week months before your bank refunds your stolen money.

Still, I don't see the risk of using ACH by my client as any higher than using a paper check.

Your thoughts?
 

#31
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The risk of ACH fraud is no higher than ability to commit same fraud by someone getting their hands on someone's paper check. Problem is too many people do not realize it is the SAME EXACT INFORMATION exposed with either method of payment, especially the older crowd (55+). I actually recently dealt with ACH fraud initiated by a criminal stealing a paper check from a mailbox, and it is not the first time. Or, they create fake check stock and cash checks.

I give most clients the option of paying by ACH or credit card. It is probably equally split in what clients choose, but I am not afraid of paying merchant fees when my cash flow is DRAMATICALLY improved by it and with significantly reduced float time. I'm at the point with Intuit where I can get instant deposits to my account if I wish to pay an extra 1%...on a $3k payment, for example, I may very well be willing to pay an additional $30 for instant deposit (as in within 30 minutes). Other times I am willing to wait the standard 1-3 days. if I accept $150k in electronic payments, I am paying, at most, $4,500. Well worth the cost, IMO, but everyone has different feelings on the subject.

And don't get me started on merchants that refuse to accept AMEX. :evil:
 

#32
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in the final decision, it wasn't Intuits fees (which were excellent for ACH and acceptable for cc's) or the float time. It was that I had to attach their invoice every time. Don't recall whether I could disable "net due" which I'd have wanted to.

When my Microsoft Store account (not MFA and an old simple pw) and Facebook (MFA and complex pw) accounts got hacked between Christmas and New Years, AMEX immediately covered me for the 2,800 of Xbox "gift cards". Facebook was just a clusterfk. Wierd thing is the hacker managed to change the cell phone number and FB was about to allow the hacker to change my pw if I hadn't noticed it. When I tried to change the cell phone back to mine, I was prompted to input my authenticator code. Unpleasantly for me and totally coincidentally I had changed iphones a week beafore. Authenticator backup didn't work. Emergency codes were out of date :(

If it hadn't been for a friend of my son's who worked at FB, I'd still be locked out because I needed to have MFA disabled. FB security staff probably overwhelmed now.

Also had $50 Amazon gift card charged to my MFA protected Amazon account. Most likely it wasn't Amazon that was hacked but a vendor of Amazons who resells Amazon gift cards and I had sometime in past bought something from them. Sheesh.

Re the safety of credit cards vs ACH, the BOA fraud guy said BOA doesn't automatically reverse fraudulent ACH transactions until they've investigated. But if cc, BOA doesn't make you pay them until investigation finished. What's the experience of others out there?
 

#33
SF CPA  
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Intuit just increased their ACH fees from $0.50 per transaction to 1% ($10 max). This is a 20x increase in fees and I am now looking around for alternatives to Intuit to accept ACH payments. Does anyone use another ACH provider that is cheaper? I'm starting to hate Intuit.
 

#34
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I have been hating intuit for a while.

I use bill.com now as a solution to the op and it works pretty well, with a few glitches here and there. 4 out of 5 stars.
 

#35
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SF, check out https://portal.lexcharge.com and the more expensive cpacharge.com

these processors make their money off credit cards not ach. ach is riskier for them.

using anyone other than a big outfit like intuit, clients might balk at providing their banking info. never understood that reluctance but it's there.
 

#36
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lenraphael wrote:using anyone other than a big outfit like intuit, clients might balk at providing their banking info. never understood that reluctance but it's there.


Interesting. I've never had anyone balk at paying online through the QBO invoicing system.

Although I am flexible and also offer the option to mail in a physical check to my PO box.
 

#37
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i'd think there's probably some risk that between the time a processor collects your fee and remits to you, they could go belly up. On a large bill, I'd ask for a paper check if the processor weren't one of the big ones.
 

#38
smtcpa  
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I cannot imagine a more efficient method than QuickBooks online at Intuit Merchant Services. Everything is automated once the bill goes out, even invoice reminders for past due invoices.
 

#39
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That's just it. I don't love paying $10 for each echeck payment, but what's the alternative? QBO invoicing is convenient, highly automated, and I already have the system well ironed out and in place.
 

#40
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Just like to share my secret. Chase ACH service. I started using ACH to collect from business clients on a monthly or quarterly basis since 2017. Chase costs $25 per month for up to 25 transactions and it's 0.25 for each additional. If you google Chase ACH, you would be lead to ACH payement service page. But they have a ACH collection service as well. In order to set this up, a rep from Chase would have to review your business to make sure it's legit. It's kinda tedious, they asked for financial, tax returns, etc. But once you finish with the process, it's well worth it.

I only use ACH for biz clients. Although I have used this service on couple habitually late paying individual clients.

With Chase, you don't go thru a third party, you get the account number and routing # which you probably already have and just set up everything up on your own. You can set up repeat collection so if you put client on a monthly retainer fee, you just need to do it once.
 

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