In a business that succeeds only if your customers succeed, it’s important to regularly check-in and learn directly from your customers. At PayPal, we invite merchants to speak openly with our employees, and hold online hangout sessions to learn more about their business dreams and challenges.
In one of our most recent series of customer conversations, we hear continuing emphasis that the biggest challenges that small business owners face are in managing cash flow, complying with changing industry regulations, and in time management. As we dig in on “time management,” small business owners believe they could have saved themselves massive amounts of time if they had known more about accounting and bookkeeping before starting their business.
In fact, one of the most time consuming bookkeeping activities for small businesses owners and accountants is clearing invoice payments. Many businesses today still rely on manual invoice-to-pay processes instead of cloud-based services, despite the inefficiencies and costs. One of the greatest frustrations that comes about in manual invoicing settlement is the slow speed of payment. 64% of small businesses have unpaid invoices that are at least 60 days old, according to the National Federation of Independent Business[1]. Many small business owners say they're seeing payments from larger customers stretch from 30 days to 60 and even 90 days after an invoice is issued[2]. For a small business struggling with cash flow, this can be painful.
There are new online solutions in the market today that can help a small business streamline their bookkeeping, including
PayPal Invoicing. PayPal also partners with industry leading accounting software companies such as Intuit to make it easier for small businesses and accountants to send professional invoices and get paid.
This is why we’re excited to announce that Intuit QuickBooks Online is enabling PayPal on eInvoicing. Coming very soon, QuickBooks Online users will see PayPal Express Checkout as an option within the eInvoicing product. Together, we are committed to helping small businesses and accountants around the world get paid faster.
For QuickBooks users this will mean they no longer have to wait the average of 21.85 days to create an eInvoice and get paid. With PayPal enabled eInvoices, you get paid two times faster - in just a few clicks[3].
An easy and convenient way to get paid as soon as the job is done. Merchants and accountants can also securely sync PayPal transactions including fees, taxes, discounts etc. into QuickBooks.
Additional small business benefits include:
- Sales receipts are automatically created
- Expenses and bank transfers are downloaded
- Sync your customer information from PayPal into QuickBooks
Small businesses and accountants will also be able to make better business decisions day-to-day by uncovering trends through cash flow insights. And, all transactions are reconciled in QuickBooks to help you stay organized.
This update may be one small step for QuickBooks and PayPal, but it’s one giant leap for small businesses and accountants everywhere. Click
here to read more from Intuit’s blog on the eInvoicing product update.
[1]The future of getting paid https://www.b2becommerceworld.com/commentary/2016/09/12/future-getting-paid
[2] Small Firms' Big Customers Are Slow to Pay http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303296604577450561434496668
[3] Based on PayPal and Intuit eInvoicing data conducted with thousands of merchants in Australia