A simple question, I hope. Do any of you use a PayPal payment system on your websites, or do you ask for cheques for payment? I'm not sure which to advertise on my website.
Any thoughts, please
Kind regards
Drusilla

I use PayPal invoicing. I send an invoice through my business PayPal account to my clients. Clients get the emailed invoice, click on a link, and pay the invoice. (They do not even need to have a PayPal account.)

https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-b...line_invoicing

This is the only method of payment I accept. I do not accept checks from clients; it takes too long to get paid and it is a risky payment method.

Note: I only send a summary invoice through PayPal. (One line: "March 2011 Virtual Assistant Services" with a total for the invoice.) I email my clients a detailed invoice under separate cover. I use my project mgt software (my Intervals) to produce the detailed invoices.

PayPal's email invoicing programs could also be combined with a payment link on your website to offer an additional method for your clients to pay their invoices.

Best of Luck

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Julie | Virtual Resource Services, Inc (VRSI)
http://www.vrsioffice.com

I accept payments through paypal only, the protection it provides myself and my clients is much worth their service fees, besides they are a write off anyway.

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Amanda Mock
My Virtual Little Helper

99% of my payment are received via PayPal, I also have a merchant account set up through Paypal as well which simply allows me to accept credit cards over the phone (then I manually input the data through the virtual terminal in PayPal).

I have my Paypal account linked to my Freshbooks (affiliate link) account which I use for time tracking as well and then I invoice using Freshbooks and they are given the option to either use Paypal or pay by VISA or Mastercard whichever they prefer.

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Renee Shupe, Become a Techie Virtual Assistant
eMail Marketing & Aweber Training Starts May 15! - Save 50% using VAFAweber

I accept both. One current client and several past ones are traditional companies that ONLY pay vendors by check. I get the impression that lots of larger organizations have similar policies. Very small companies, partnerships, and solopreneurs, on the other hand, like PayPal for all the same reasons we do: the built-in protections, the immediacy, the reasonable fees, the stored info that's handy when we have to double-check our books, etc.

If you have a client that wants to pay by check, just be sure to stress that your work does NOT begin until you have a deposit in your hot little hand. It slows down the process, yes, but it's necessary to protect yourself.

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AnnaLisa Michalski, Sunny Words Writing Services

I also use PayPal pretty much exclusively, although I do accept checks -- just never have had any client pay me by check.

One thing I found with PayPal's invoicing is that it isn't very personal, and for me, not detailed enough. I created an Excel workbook, which serves as a time tracker as well, and I like to send this out prior to invoicing with PayPal.

I'm not sure you'll find it useful, but it will calculate your total time, etc. I think it's pretty cool . Please feel free to check it out and use it, comment on it's good/bad points. I'm always up for improvement!

I tried to upload my workbook, but it looks as though Excel is not a valid format . Is there a way around this? I'd love to share!

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Patty

All of my payments are via bank transfer (so client has bank details and pays them straight into my account) although I have paypal available for clients outside the UK / Australia.

I received a cheque a couple of weeks ago (from a large company) and was amazed that they're still being used... seems incredibly inefficient! They cancelled it and did a bank transfer as I don't accept cheques.

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Bridie's Typing Services - specialising in transcription services
The professional's choice

Thank you all so much for your very useful information. I have printed this off and will use all your suggestions.
What a splendid bunch of ladies you are
Regards
Drusilla

I am sending my first PayPal e-mail for payment today. I will be sending an e-mail with my Excel invoice attached and then have a PayPal link in the body of the e-mail. I really like the fact that clients do not need to have a PayPal account to pay this way. It also allows me to offer payment by credit card through PayPal. I've done test runs on it and it worked great for that!

All my other clients pay by check (they're all fairly large companies).

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Pam Deyerle - Transcriptionist in the Richmond, Virginia area
The Perfect Word Transcription Services

Thank you, Pam, and I'm waving back ...
Kind regards
Drusilla