I just wanted to know how some of you handle the payment portion of the deal. Do you have a shopping cart that handles it for you on your web site? Do you take credit payments over the phone or email. Do you just give the client your bank information? If you take checks do you wait for the check to clear before starting the work? What about deposits? Or asking for the full amount up front. What about refunds? How do you deal with that if the client is not happy with the work. If you are working with a long distance client do you use email or something like skydrive to present the work to him/her. Wow reading back on this, I should really write this stuff down lol...now I am just second guessing myself...Thanks for the much needed help all!

I am currently using freshbooks to send my invoices out. Granted it is only one so far, but she payed using paypal through that site. She is a local cient so my previous payment was a chq and we meet in person to get it.
I would get paypal as I know that you can send invoices through there as well to clients. If you are in Canada, you can do a email money transfer online through your online banking. I would only take a chq if it is someone that you know is a good payer. I think a deposit for a first time customer would be a good idea, i plan on taking around 40% of what I think it will cost. I hope that this helps a bit.

__________________
Christina Keogh
www.ckvirtualassistant.com

Thanks alot for the paypal information! I have never used it so I will look into that.

I use paypal and Square (www.squareup.com)., which is a free application with a free credit card reader. The card reader, which plugs into the audio jack on your phone, has a slot that lets you swipe a card. It's base on the transaction, rather than a monthly service fee, so saves me a ton!

For hourly clients, (billed in 15 minute increments) I get an up-front, non-refundable deposit from new clients that is applied to their first month's bill. i get the full month up front for the occasional monthly 'chunk o' time' client.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Haha too funny!...I literally just read about you using square in another post and commented that I will be checking it out. Thanks again for the input!

Glad to help! I first started using it for a garage sale I held.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Square is not available to me. It would do me no good to get it as I am Canadian. If someone knows of another site like this that is Canadian, that would be great! Until then...well I will figure something out lol

Well, folks can pay through paypal using credit cards... I just like the option of them paying me directly through a card...

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Yes, Paypal is a common way to accept payments. Its what I use, for the longest time I was using Freshbooks and LOVED it, but since I've changed my service offerings and no longer work on an hour by hour basis only projects I simply use Paypal to invoice my clients and save myself the Freshbooks monthly fee. My clients can pay either using a credit card (I have the business account with a merchant account set up) or paypal directly their choice.

I always get a deposit for any projects, at least 50% and if it's a small project $200 or less then I ask for the fee upfront before I start anything.

I

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

Thanks for the information and the try Office Goddess, I appreciated the information that I got...I am going to look for that type of payment option here in Canada.

I have not tried freshbooks or looked into that yet Renee, but thanks for that. I will! As for deposits, I think that is going to be my policy. Do you have any thoughts on refund policies that I might pick from you?

Thanks again guys!