PayPal Stories Archive

 

Getting paid is one of the most critical factors in keeping a business’ doors open. Unfortunately, the cash doesn’t always change hands in the agreed timeframe. In fact, based on Xero’s data, more than 60% of small business invoices are paid late*. Not only does chasing late payments hurt your business’ profitability, productivity takes a hit considering time spent collecting diverts your attention from other valuable aspects of running your business.

 

Utilizing the right payment terms and Xero and PayPal’s integration, you’ll potentially avoid unpleasant customer conversations and help keep cash coming in the door.

 

 

Thanks to online invoicing, many businesses are throwing traditional payment timeframes out the door. Forget 30 days, consider it your call as to when the payment deadline falls. The nature of your work could even dictate the terms; some businesses opt to take payment up front or at the time service. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to request payment within one or two weeks, it’s just a matter of setting the expectation before an agreement or purchase is made.

 

It’s important to not only communicate payment timeframes early on but cover all your bases. Outline accepted forms of payment, currency and any penalties for late payment. When it comes to the latter, many businesses are opting to offer early payment discounts to incentivize prompt payment.

 

 

Why discourage customers who want to pay on time? If you have difficult or technical payment processes, your customers may put it off longer. Utilize a cloud-based online invoicing program, like the one in Xero, to make it quick and easy to request payment from your customers. In Xero, you can create professional, customizable invoice templates, so you can invoice as soon as you’re ready from any device. Xero also offers automatic invoice payment reminders, potentially reducing further the work of chasing invoices.