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December 6, 2019

Square For Nonprofits: Everything You Need To Know About Seamlessly Accepting Donations, Running Events, & Selling Merch With Squareâs Platform

If you are looking to expand fundraising possibilities for your charity and are considering Square to process payments for your nonprofit, you may have a lot of questions. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place; this post covers all the information you’ll need to make an educated decision. We’ll look at the costs, fees, and all of the features that wait for you behind the curtain of Square’s processing. Square constantly updates what they offer, so there’s a good chance that within the next year, Square will offer even more features for nonprofits. That’s not to say that Square isn’t already a viable option for charities to take paymentsâyou’ll find that from setting up a free online shop to engaging your donors throughout the year, Square provides all the tools you need to get going, with options to integrate or add features as you need them. Let’s get started!

How Do Nonprofits Benefit From Using Square?

One of the biggest reasons I have a sweet spot for Square is that they have competitively-priced processing rates, and your nonprofit organization won’t face any surprise fees or markups on the backend. In addition to a straightforward fee structure, Square offers a considerable amount of free software.

Not only that, Square is so easy to set up that you can get your account up and running to start taking donations, sell merchandise, and even set up your website all on the same day.

While Square for nonprofits offers a plethora of benefits, it’s not without some potential hiccups, however. In the world of payment processing, one merchant’s dream is another’s frustration, so let’s take a look at what Square has to offer and discover if this solution is right for you.

The Limitations Of Using Square for Nonprofits

It’s important to understand that Square isn’t a traditional merchant account provider. As a third-party processor, Square offers greater accessibility to a wider amount of businesses, but there’s inherently a bit more risk involved as far as account stability with this model. When a business or charity raises a red flag, sometimes it’s hard to make things right again.

One of the most important ways to avoid issues is to accurately disclose your type of business and ensure that you don’t sell anything on Square’s prohibited goods and services list that would throw you into the high-risk merchant category.

While representing a very small fraction of all Square’s accounts, the largest complaints against Square involve account freezes and terminations. No matter what processor you go with, you’re going to have this risk, however. That’s why we encourage all of our readers to learn how to reduce their risk of termination or funding freezes.Â

Beyond this, Square offers a lot of useful tools for a very low price, but it’s certainly not all-inclusive. When it comes to SaaS (Software as a Service) for a charity, you can find other options that cover the basics for next to nothing — and there are also more complex solutions that go as high as $15K for mid-sized charitable organizations and above. It really depends on what your organization needs in ancillary tools.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what to expect with Square, and then look at how your charity can make the most of this low-cost option.

What Are Square’s Fees For Nonprofits?

As I mentioned before, what you see is what you get as far as payment processing costs. You won’t have any other additional monthly fees: no authorization fees, statement fees, refund fees or PCI compliance fees. You’ll also pay the same fee no matter what type of card your customer uses.

Be aware that accepting in-person payments versus web or invoice payments varies slightly, however.

Here are the Square fees for nonprofits:

2.6% + $0.10 for any tapped, dipped or swiped cards you take in person
Â 3.5% + $0.15 when you enter in a credit card number manually from the SquarePOS app, take payment in your Square Virtual Terminal, and process card-on-file transactions, including recurring invoices.
2.9% + $0.30Â for Square Invoices and eCommerce donations as these are both web-based transactions

You can also learn a bit more about Square’s Pricing in our article, How Much Does Square Charge?

Note that Square’s fees for nonprofit organizations are exactly the same fees that small businesses pay, and they’re designed for organizations that process less than $250,000 per year. Does your charity have higher projected donations coming in? Square may design a custom pricing package for charities and small businesses that process more than $250,000 per year in sales, but they consider that on a case-by-case basis rather than offering any sort of standard pricing for nonprofits.

Now that we’ve got the fees out of the way, let’s see what free goodies and other options await with Square for charities.

8 Ways Your Nonprofit Organization Can Make The Most Out Of Square

Square offers more than just payment processing for the nonprofit organization. Let’s take a look at the free tools Square offers that could support your charity in several ways.

1. Accept Donations Online

You have quite a few options to accept donations online with Square. The easiest option is to create a free Square site with ready-made templates that make it easy to build a simple web storefront. You can create a space that explains your mission and lets your donors contribute to the cause, or make a fully functional eCommerce store that allows you to sell things like t-shirts and other merchandise to support your organization and mission.

To start accepting donations, simply click Donations from your online dashboard and add the details. You can also allow custom donation amounts to let your donors give the amount of their choice, up to $1,000.

If you have multiple focuses for your nonprofit, you can create more than one campaign on your site. Just repeat the process in your dashboard from the donations area. That way if you want a focused fundraiser, you can do so while still maintaining the ability to accept general donations.

Below is an example of a storefront using Square’s free site template. You have a range of colors, but customization is limited. Also, take note that you do not have a custom domain with Square’s free site.

You can also upgrade the free site to a premium option through Weebly â it’s all easy to navigate and choose through your Square dashboard. This way you’ll get a custom domain and other bells and whistles that help you create a site you want for your cause.

If you already have a site, you can choose from one of the plugin integrations for Square at your Dashboard for a pretty easy setup.

If you’ve got some expertise when it comes to code (or have a developer on staff) you can build a branded checkout flow with Square Transactions API that allows you to accept digital wallets, too. Check out How To Accept Online Payments With Square for a full, in-depth explanation of each of these possibilities, and a few more (like in-app purchases).

2. Accept Donations In Person

Hoping people have cash on hand or the even more archaic option â a check â can really limit you. When you set up your Square account, you’ll get the free magstripe reader, but we strongly suggest that you opt for the Square Reader for contactless and chip. Square’s chip reader is the best way to protect yourself from chargebacks and give people more options (and convenience) to donate. That’s because chip readers better meet current security standards. The chip reader is competitively priced under $50.00. This little reader is an important tool to keep your costs down in the long run.

You have even more options in hardware, however. Whether you need something mobile or you need something a little sturdier for a kiosk or desk setup or both, you can find what you need to accept payments in person.

Want even more information on Square’s hardware options? Check out The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Choosing Square POS Credit Card Readers And Cash Register Bundles.

3. Take Donations And Orders Over The Phone

Like most point-of-sale software, Square comes with a virtual terminal right on your dashboard that allows you to take a payment over the phone or manually key in credit card data. What’s important to understand here is that a virtual terminal is really the only way to safely process credit card data. That’s because when you receive credit card information, security has to be considered during transmission and storage.

Jotting credit card information down a piece of paper or worse â keeping this information on a spreadsheet â is a big no-no. You’d be surprised to find out how many organizations store credit card data this way, but in the event of a breach, your business will face expensive fines (not to mention a huge PR issue).

Taking donations for your charity over the phone is really easy with Square. You simply enter in the credit card data on the form. Since the full credit card number isn’t visible once you key it in, you never have to worry about this information being vulnerable.

4. Recurring Donations

As a charity, there is probably nothing that feels better than an ongoing commitment from your supporters. These folks help you keep up your daily operations and allow you to plan for future growth.

Square makes setting up recurring donations super easy for your charity. Whether you’re on your mobile device or at your full Square dashboard on your PC, you can create what you need.

I’ve included the screenshot below so that you can how easy it is to set up and schedule your invoice for delivery on whatever recurring plan you want.

If you desire more consistent branding for your charity, you have some options. Check out the full post How To Use Square For Recurring Payments and Invoices for information on integrations or a pre-built workflow.

If you’re wondering about any additional cost regarding invoice scheduling for charitable donations, I have some good news: Setting up recurring donations for your charity doesn’t cost anything extra beyond the processing charge (3.5% + $0.15).

5. Sell Merchandise

Ready to sell merch at your event or want to offer online sales? As mentioned earlier, you have some options when it comes to setting up an online store via Square’s free store or upgrading for more space or design freedom.

Selling in person couldn’t be easier, either. Square’s free Point of Sale app works as a cash register or mobile app, so you can run a gift shop or merch table at a fundraiser. You can even accept payments for charity auction items right then and there (or send an invoice for payment after the event).

Whether you sell merch at an event, through your online store, or you take a phone order through your virtual terminal, Square syncs the sale at your dashboard so everything stays up to date. All your inventory is tracked across all your sales channels. When it’s time for a sale, you simply select the item from your inventory and you’re all set to make a sale. You’re also free to just enter in any amount and charge a card that way as well. After entering their email, your customer receives a digital receipt, and you now have their info.

You can also set up alerts at your dashboard to stay on top of dwindling t-shirts or other fundraising merchandise you offer. That way you can re-order supplies before stock drops to zero!

6. Manage Events And Registration

Planning an event for your charity can help you connect with both your supporters and those who become one. That’s why I’m glad to see that through Square, you can also find what you need to sell tickets for any event you have in the works. You’ll do this through your online store. You can set up your tickets for electronic delivery or you can print for shipping or in-person pickup options. Square gives step-by-step information on how to sell event tickets through their help center.

Square also has a partnership with Eventbrite so it’s that much easier to organize, manage your event, and sell your tickets.

The great thing about selling with Square is that your sales for tickets, merch, and donations all seamlessly sync to improve your record keeping. Whether you take a ticket at the door with your POS or sell a ticket online, everything stays up to date.

And that brings me to my next point: Square’s donation and sales tracking can improve your bookkeeping.

7. Track Your Income And Improve Your Bookkeeping

Square offers simple income tracking. You can download sales history, view deposits, and view everything that’s happening over a set period of time.

View income by categories like merchandise sales, donations, or ticket sales. You can also compare new givers with long-time supporters, as well as average donation size. While you’re not going to see more advanced reporting features with Square Analytics, we feel it delivers more than expected considering these features are completely free.

Need something more? One thing to note is that Square integrates with Quickbooks so you can sync sales data here and get the sales or expense reports you need all in one place. QuickBooks has some specialized accounting features for nonprofits, which can make it a must-have piece of software.

8. Collect Donor Information And Engage

You can export a list of your donations or the details about your donors from your online store at any time. All of this is accessed under Order Management right from your online dashboard.

As you collect donations, you can also manually enter any notes about your supporters. Because electronic receipts are delivered when your customer shares their email, you can also build a robust email list for future marketing.

Square has a few customer engagement features that are completely free. The emails that you collect during transactions are yours to add to a separate email campaign service, of course. You can also create, import, and manage all of your customer profiles within your Customer Directory, which you can then use to get more insights into your donors and plan future giving campaigns based on that information.

You don’t need to find a solution outside of Square for email marketing tools, however. Square Marketing gives you some pre-designed email templates with campaign suggestions and scheduling tools that help you create and manage your email list and marketing campaign. Square Marketing Starts at $15 / month. In the screenshot below, this particular campaign provides those on your list with a special offer. To the right, you can see that you have a selection of templates and themes to create something in line with your branding. Though it’s not fully customizable, you can add your logo, business name, and other images where desired.

Email remains one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics, so it’s nice to see that Square makes it easy to collect emails or opt for this relatively low-cost email marketing tool.

Is Square Right For Your Nonprofit?

Square remains a strong option for most nonprofits. You can start taking donations — and even have access to a few ways to grow — without having to spend any extra money right off the bat. However, for advanced reporting features, marketing, and other integrations you may need, you’re going to pay more each month. And in my mind, that’s okay. Square provides basic reporting features so you can gain insight into patterns of giving as well as set up multiple ways to give on your site and more ways to connect, and that’s all free.

While Square does not offer any special discounts for charities, the processing fees are competitive. And with all of the freebies, it’s a bit remarkable for a processor overall. Be aware that account stability issues exist, however, but they aren’t unique to other processors by any means. Be sure to review each section or check out our full Square Review so that you understand how to make the most of this option.

Not sure if Square is right for you (or already sure it isn’t)? Read Become A Hero & Save Your Charity Money With Discounted Credit Card Processing For Nonprofits or check out the Top 7 Square Alternatives.

Want to get started with Square and open an account? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to set up an account, navigate your dashboard, start accepting donations or selling merchandise. Have any questions? We’d love to hear from you.

The post Square For Nonprofits: Everything You Need To Know About Seamlessly Accepting Donations, Running Events, & Selling Merch With Squareâs Platform appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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October 8, 2019

The Truth About Third-Party Payment Processing

So, youâre all set to launch your new business and make your fortune (well, hopefully). You realize that it would be nice if your customers could pay you using their credit and debit cards. Okay, âniceâ isnât nearly a strong enough word to describe how desirable this option is. In todayâs increasingly cashless society, itâs flat-out essential for most businesses to be able to accept credit cards. Without that ability, retail companies will lose out on sales, and eCommerce businesses will have a hard time making any sales at all.

You realize that youâre going to need a merchant account to process your credit and debit card transactions. But where do you find one? Every provider you talk to wants a ton of information about your business, tells you that they have the lowest rates (without mentioning what they are), and tries to pressure you into signing a lengthy contract before youâve even had a chance to read it. Then you hear about Square (see our review). No lengthy contracts. No endless forms to fill out. No monthly fees. Rates that are published right on their website. What kind of black magic is this? It all seems too good to be true.

Square â and other companies like it â are what are known as third-party processors. Rather than giving you your own merchant account, they oversee a giant merchant account thatâs shared by all their users. In this article, weâll explain how third-party processors work and how they differ from traditional merchant account providers. Weâll also explain the advantages and disadvantages of using a third-party processor rather than signing up for a full-service merchant account. Finally, weâll give you some examples of popular third-party processors that are helping businesses just like yours every day.

How Third-Party Payment Processing Works

First, letâs discuss nomenclature for a moment. The credit card processing industry is notorious for using different, non-standardized terminology to describe the various entities youâll encounter when you set up a merchant account for your business. While there often isnât a single, âcorrectâ term that must be used, youâll find certain terms are more commonly used than others.

The most broadly-defined term you need to know is merchant services provider. This is any business entity that can help you process credit or debit card transactions â regardless of how they do it. Breaking this down a little more, there are two types of merchant services providers:

Merchant Account Providers (MAPs):Â These companies will set you up with a traditional, full-service merchant account. Your account will include a unique merchant identification number that identifies your business to the payment processing networks. There are dozens â if not hundreds â of merchant account providers on the market, many of whom are resellers for a small group of very large direct processors. Examples include Payment Depot and Fattmerchant.

Payment Depot

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Payment Service Providers (PSPs):Â These companies provide you with the ability to accept credit and debit card payments, but donât offer a true merchant account with a unique merchant identification number. Instead, your account will be aggregated with that of other businesses using their service. Although there are relatively few PSPs in the industry, theyâve garnered a large share of the processing market in recent years by offering a low-cost solution to small business owners. Examples include Square, PayPal, and Stripe Payments.

Square

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While the term merchant account provider is very commonly used, things get a little fuzzy when it comes to payment service providers (PSPs). Although both Visa and Mastercard officially use the term payment service provider, youâll also commonly hear them called third-party processors, aggregators, and even payment facilitators. You just need to understand that all these terms refer to the same thing: a company that can allow you to process credit and debit card transactions without the need for a full-service merchant account. For a more in-depth look at payment service providers and how they operate, check out our article, What Is A Payment Service Provider?.

Third-Party Processors VS Merchant Accounts

Before you decide that a third-party processor is a good choice for your business, you need to understand how they differ from traditional merchant account providers. Hereâs a rundown of the main differences youâll encounter between these two types of business entities:

Simplified Underwriting: Traditional merchant account providers need to collect an extensive amount of information about your business before they can approve you for an account. This process can take several days â or even weeks. Third-party processors already have an aggregated merchant account that you can be added to, so they donât need nearly as much information upfront. They can usually approve you in fewer than 24 hours, and in many cases, the application process can be completed entirely online. For this reason, third-party processors are often a great choice for new businesses that donât have an established processing history yet.
Account Stability:Â The downside to quick and easy approval is that itâs just as easy for your account to be shut down. Square, in particular, has a bad reputation when it comes to account stability. Account holds, freezes, and terminations can happen unexpectedly for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most common cause is when a business attempts to process a single transaction thatâs much larger than what theyâve averaged previously. Similarly, Square will shut you down quickly if they determine that youâre a high-risk merchant.
No Long-Term Contracts: While your relationship with your processor will always be governed by a contract of some type, Square and other third-party processors don’t require you to keep your account open for a specified length of time. Merchant account providers, in contrast, frequently require you to accept a long-term contract (typically for three years) with an automatic renewal clause that extends your contract for one-year periods and an early termination fee (ETF) that youâll have to pay if you break your contract by closing your account early. While these provisions are more or less the industry standard, theyâre very unpopular with merchants. As a result, there is a growing number of merchant account providers who have ditched the long-term contracts and allow you to maintain your account on a month-to-month basis.
Pay-As-You-Go Billing:Â Unlike merchant account providers, who typically charge a number of monthly and annual fees in addition to your processing charges, third-party providers usually only charge you for the cost of processing your transactions. You usually wonât have to pay a monthly account fee, an annual fee, PCI compliance fees, or gateway fees. The tradeoff is that your processing rates will usually be significantly higher overall than what youâd pay under an interchange-plus pricing plan offered by a traditional merchant account provider.
Simplified Processing Rates: Most third-party processors offer simplified,Â flat-rate pricing for processing your transactions. Everyone pays the same rates, and theyâre published right on the providerâs website. This makes it much easier to know in advance what your overall costs will be so that you wonât get hit with any sudden surprises on your monthly billing statement. However, you should be aware that flat-rate pricing rates are notably higher than most interchange-plus rates, particularly for PIN debit transactions. At higher monthly processing volumes, this can actually make using a third-party processor more expensive than a traditional merchant account.
Customer Service Options:Â Third-party processors arenât known for offering a full range of ways to contact customer service. Instead, youâll often find yourself rummaging through an FAQ on their website or trying to contact them via email. This situation is gradually getting better, with some third-party processors now offering telephone-based customer support where you can talk to an actual human being.

As weâve noted previously, both third-party processors (or payment service providers) and traditional merchant account providers fall under the term âmerchant services providers,â as theyâre both able to process your transactions and deliver the funds from those transactions to you. However, itâs essential to consider the differences between these two types of entities and to understand how those differences could affect your particular business.

Can I Really Accept Credit Card Payments Without A Merchant Account?

The upshot of the above discussion is that, yes, you can take credit and debit cards without having to sign up for a full-service merchant account. Third-party processors such as Square or PayPal give you the ability to process these types of transactions without the expense and paperwork of setting up a merchant account. For a new business thatâs just getting off the ground, this can be a great option. Youâll save money on fees, and youâll be able to start taking credit card payments much quicker than if you had to go through the full underwriting process that getting a merchant account requires.

However â and we canât emphasize this point enough â third-party processors are not the best choice for every business. Both third-party processors and full-service merchant accounts have their good and bad points, and you need to understand them and determine how they affect your business before deciding on which type of payment processor to use. Below, weâll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of third-party processors, and how you can evaluate which kind of processor is right for your business.

Advantages of Third-Party Payment Processing

Hereâs a look at the benefits of using a third-party processor for your business:

Quick Setup:Â Square and other third-party processors allow you to sign up for an account online, and youâll usually be approved in little or no time. Just download the Square app and log in, and you can start accepting cards instantly. (Note that youâll need to wait for your card reader to arrive in the mail before you can accept card-present transactions.) This feature is in marked contrast to the underwriting procedure that a merchant account requires, which can take days or even weeks to complete. The flip side is that your account wonât be as stable as a true merchant account, and youâll have to be very careful to avoid any account holds, freezes, or terminations.
Technology-Driven Platforms: In our experience, there is a fundamental cultural rift between third-party processors and traditional merchant account providers. Third-party processors tend to be established and run by people with computer science degrees and deep tech backgrounds. Merchant account providers, however, are usually run by bankers with business degrees who arenât really experts in modern computer technology. While they offer most of the same software products (such as payment gateways, virtual terminals, etc.) as third-party processors, they often rely on outside contractors to develop them, as they donât have the same level of in-house expertise that youâd find with a third-party processor. This rift is slowly closing, but for now, youâll still find that third-party processors offer products that are more automated, more integrated into cloud-based platforms, and more feature-rich than what most merchant account providers can give you.
Low (Or No) Initial Setup Costs:Â If you just need a payment gateway or a magstripe-only card reader for your smartphone, account setup with Square is essentially free. Although we highly encourage you to part with a few dollars and purchase the companyâs EMV card reader, this cost is still a fraction of what youâll pay to get started with a full-service merchant account. Application fees, account setup fees, and paying for a credit card terminal can all add up to hundreds of dollars, depending on the provider. Fortunately, competition from third-party processors is forcing merchant account providers to lower (or even eliminate) many of the costs associated with establishing a merchant account.
No Monthly Fees:Â Perhaps the most attractive feature of third-party processors to small business owners is that they (usually) donât charge any monthly fees to maintain your account. Monthly account fees, statement fees, PCI compliance fees, and annual fees are all eliminated. You also wonât have a monthly minimum hanging over your head every month. This makes third-party processors particularly affordable to very small businesses that donât have a high monthly processing volume. Also, seasonal companies wonât have to worry about being charged during the months when theyâre not operating at all.
Predictable Flat-Rate Pricing:Â Itâs nice to know in advance what it will cost you to process a transaction, and third-party processors make this easy to do with their simple flat-rate pricing plans. With this type of pricing, you can also more accurately estimate your monthly processing costs, meaning that you shouldnât have any unpleasant surprises waiting for you on your monthly processing statement.
No Long-Term Contracts:Â Third-party processors only charge you for actually using your account, and you wonât be locked into a lengthy contract. You also wonât have to worry about getting hit with an early termination fee if you close your account. Note that an increasing number of traditional merchant account providers are now beginning to offer this feature as well, so you donât necessarily have to sign up with a third-party processor to avoid getting locked into a long-term contract anymore.
Free Hardware: When Square first launched in 2009, one of its most attractive features was that each account came with a free magstripe card reader that plugged into your smartphone or tablet. Together with the Square app (also free), you could log in and start accepting credit card payments right away. In contrast, most merchant account providers at the time would either sell you a credit card terminal for a few hundred dollars or sign you up for an expensive terminal lease that would ultimately cost you even more. While Squareâs magstripe reader is still free, itâs also obsolete. We highly recommend purchasing the companyâs EMV-capable reader, which costs far less than a standalone terminal.

Disadvantages of Third-Party Payment Processing

Okay, if third-party processors are so great, why isnât everyone using them? Why are full-service merchant account providers still in business? The answer, of course, is that third-party processors also come with some significant limitations that make them a poor choice for a lot of businesses. Before you rush out to sign up for your âfreeâ third-party account, consider some of the following disadvantages:

Account Stability Issues:Â Not having to go through the complete underwriting process makes it quicker and easier to get up and running, but it also means that your account isnât as secure as an individual merchant account. While having a full-service merchant account doesnât provide complete protection from account holds, freezes, and terminations, it does make them much less likely. Consider the potential impact of an account freeze on your business before you sign up with a third-party processor. In our experience, these unfortunate incidents usually occur because either (1) the merchant attempted to process a much larger transaction than their average ticket size, or (2) the processor discovered that the merchant was selling something thatâs expressly prohibited by their user agreement. This includes most high-risk businesses, including CBD merchants.
No Specified Processing Limits:Â With a full-service merchant account provider, youâll be required to stay within maximum monthly processing limits and maximum transaction sizes. Third-party processors, unfortunately, tend not to specify what these limits are in advance. Youâll only find out that youâve gone over a limit when you actually exceed it and suddenly have your account shut down. While the majority of merchants using third-party processors never experience this problem, itâs still important to consider it before you sign up.
Limited Acceptance For Specialized Cards:Â Third-party processors generally donât allow you to accept specialized cards such as SNAP/EBT cards or government-issued credit cards. Debit cards are generally accepted, but youâll pay much higher processing rates than you would under an interchange-plus pricing plan offered by a traditional merchant account provider.
Limited Hardware/Software Options:Â With so many credit card terminals, POS systems, payment gateways, and online shopping carts on the market, traditional merchant account providers go to great lengths to ensure that their accounts are compatible with as many of these products as possible. With a third-party processor, youâll usually be limited to using just the hardware and software products that your processor offers â and these are often pretty generic. This might not be much of an issue for a small business owner, but as your business grows, youâll eventually want to add many of the bells and whistles that are available with a full-service merchant account provider.
Expensive Flat-Rate Pricing:Â Wait a minute. Didnât we just say that third-party processors were less costly than full-service merchant accounts? Well, thatâs only true in some circumstances. For a very small business owner, youâll usually save money with a third-party processor because you wonât have to pay all the extra monthly and annual fees that come with a full-service merchant account. However, flat-rate pricing is significantly more expensive than interchange-plus pricing, at least on a per-transaction basis. Debit card transactions, in particular, are dirt cheap under interchange-plus pricing. With a flat-rate pricing plan, however, youâll pay the same high rates for debit cards as you will for credit cards. Youâll want to carefully analyze your overall costs under each type of pricing before deciding which option is best for your business.
Limited Customer Service Options: Square â like many other third-party processors â is notorious for offering limited options for customer support. For a long time, Square didnât even have a phone number that you could call for help! Customer support was often limited to email, which was slow and required a lot of back-and-forth messages to resolve an issue. Merchant account providers, however, usually offer 24/7 telephone support. Unfortunately, the quality of that support can vary widely from one provider to another.

Is Third-Party Payment Processing Right For Me?

By now, it should be quite clear that the choice between a third-party processor and a traditional merchant account will depend on the nature and size of your business. There isnât a single provider on the market that offers a true âone size fits allâ service thatâs suitable for every business. Third-party processors are usually a great choice for very small or seasonal businesses that donât process a lot of credit card transactions, donât have a high monthly processing volume, and donât need any of the fancier bells and whistles that are available with a merchant account.

Ultimately, your overall processing costs will determine whether you should sign up with a third-party processor or go all-in with your own merchant account. Whichever option meets your needs for the lowest cost will, naturally, be the best choice. Unfortunately, it isnât always easy to accurately determine which option will save you the most money. As a very general rule, we usually recommend third-party processors to small businesses and merchants who are just starting out. In contrast, larger, more established businesses will usually save money with a traditional merchant account.

Typically, the single most important factor in making this determination is your monthly processing volume. Unfortunately, there are so many variables involved that we canât provide a specific amount where it makes sense to upgrade to a full-service merchant account. Weâve seen figures from vendors ranging from as low as $1,500 per month to as high as $10,000 per month. The important thing to understand is that this number is highly variable and unique to your business. Youâll have to compare quotes from several merchant account providers and compare them against what youâre currently paying to figure out whoâs offering the best deal. To make this process as simple and accurate as possible, we recommend our Merchant Account Cost Analysis Workbook, which includes spreadsheets to help you automatically compare rate quotes.

Lastly, choosing between a third-party processor and a merchant account isnât entirely a matter of dollars and cents. Sometimes, itâs worth paying a little extra for things like better customer support or more fully featured software. While costs are always going to be important, we recommend that you consider the overall value you receive in choosing a provider. Good luck!

The post The Truth About Third-Party Payment Processing appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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October 4, 2019

The Best Free Credit Card Readers For Small Businesses

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

People like to say that, but if you get a literal lunch for listening to a sales pitch on something you’ve already decided to buy, then that lunch is free. The mobile processing industry, though, typically doesn’t offer free lunches. Instead, they offer free credit card readers. These readers are usually simple swipe card readers or maybe EMV readers if you’re lucky.

Card readers used in mobile processing are typically inexpensive to make, so they are perfect candidates for free giveaways to entice new merchants to sign up. For a small business just getting started, anything free is usually good, especially after looking at the retail price of some of the high-end readers in the market (or even a conventional credit card machine). However, mobile processing isn’t just about the reader. It’s about the suite of services and credit card processing.

So if you are looking for a mobile credit card processing app, don’t make your decision based just on a free reader. Take a look at the app and the extra services provided as well as any upgraded card readers offered by the processor. Compare pricing and features to see if everything truly fits your needs. Even if you do not need any additional services right now, you might need them in the future, so make a plan if you can. Only after you’ve looked at the software and extra features should you take the free card reader into account and make your final decision.

Below, we give an introduction to how these mobile readers work and then talk about some commonly offered free readers. Hopefully, the information will help you make an informed decision for your business.

What Does A Swipe Card Reader Do?

Most people have used magnetic stripe, or magstripe, card readers before. They’re the readers with a slot that you move a card quickly through. This movement allows the device to read the data from the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.

With mobile processing, quite a few of the free readers are magstripe only readers. You may already have seen some around — little white squares attached to phones, popularized by the third-party processor Square, who gives them out for free. To read payment card information, the reader gets inserted into a headphone jack or a Lightning port of a phone or tablet.

There are some disadvantages to using only a magstripe reader. To understand why lets first look at the technology of magstripe readers.

How Swipe Card Readers Work

Not everyone is hungry to learn the science behind every technology. For instance, you the merchant probably don’t care that the magnetic stripe on a payment card has millions of tiny magnets in it. Or that each magnet is affixed in a north or south pole direction so that they can correspond to a zero or a one to make up a binary code to store data. You probably have no desire to learn that there are three strips of information stored in every magstripe. But so you know, the first and second strips store cardholder data, such as the primary card number, country code, cardholder’s name, and expiration date. The third strip stores an encrypted PIN, the country code, currency unit, and the amount authorized.

What you care about is whether the card reader is connected to your mobile device correctly so that the card information gets sent to your card processor. It doesn’t matter to you that a magstripe reader reads information off a credit card much like an old cassette player reads information from a cassette tape. (That’s about how long we’ve been swiping credit cards if it’s any indication.)

You might care, though, that this means that the credit card information on the magstripe can be easily stolen. Under some circumstances, you might get stuck with the loss on purchases made with that stolen card.

Credit Card Swipers Don’t Protect You From Fraud

Back in 2015, to get merchants to adopt the more secure EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) technology (i.e., chip on the card), the credit card companies decided to shift some fraud liability onto those merchants who hadn’t adopted the technology.

As of October 1, 2015, if a merchant only has a magstripe reader and a customer presents a stolen or fraudulent card with both a magstripe and a chip, the merchant would be responsible for the loss on the purchase. To shift the liability back to the credit card companies, the merchant need only have an EMV card reader.

Admittedly, if you’re just starting your business and do not expect to take a high volume in credit card sales or if you only sell smaller ticket items, assuming liability for taking a fraudulent card might be a risk you’re willing to take. That’s fine, but we at Merchant Maverick do encourage you to upgrade to an EMV reader sometime in the future for your protection. There’s little reason to delay upgrading because some free card readers in this article are combination EMV and magstripe readers, so you can eliminate the risk at no cost to you.

How Do You Get A Free Credit Card Reader?

A free credit card reader is not very difficult to find. Both merchant account providers and third-party processors will sometimes offer a free card reader to entice you to sign up for their mobile processing service.

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A lot of third-party processors are also mobile processors. Their primary offering is usually the mobile app and card reader. Sometimes, they make money not only on processing cards but also on other value-added services related to running a business in general, services such as invoicing and payroll processing. (Yeah, we’re looking at you, Square.) Once a merchant signs up, the processor will try to upsell and cross-sell these services to the merchant. It makes sense for some merchants — the centralized management of their business is an advantage.

Since an expensive reader can discourage signup, third-party processors often offer readers for free. They make it very obvious on their website that you can get a free reader. However, keep in mind that these services are designed for small businesses — they don’t expect you to need a lot of equipment. Your first reader might be free, but you will typically have to pay for any additional readers.

As to merchant account providers, they typically work with more established businesses that can afford (sometimes expensive) countertop registers and credit card terminals. It’s pretty rare to see credit card terminals given away for free. When they are, it’s usually only a “rental,” and you’ll have to return the equipment when you leave the processor. However, as mobile processing becomes more and more popular, many merchant account providers are starting to offer mobile processing services as a convenience to their existing customers. With these mobile processing services, the merchant account providers do tend to give away free mobile credit card readers. Sometimes the information is clearly advertised but not always. You might need to contact your payment processor and ask if you’re interested in adding on a mobile POS and card reader.

Let’s be clear: Just because you’ll get something for free doesn’t mean that you should immediately sign up with a particular processor. There are some negative issues you might wish to consider.

Why You Should Be Wary Of Free Credit Card Reader Offers

As already alluded to earlier, free card readers are generally provided as loss leaders — something provided for free or at a drastically reduced cost to bring in a new long-term customer. Often, this means that the reader will be a lower-cost magstripe reader, with no EMV capability. If that is the case, then you might not be able to recover losses from purchases made with cards using stolen credit card numbers. At this late date, there is very little reason to settle for a reader that doesn’t support chip cards, and doing so can make your business look a bit antiquated.

If you are getting a free mobile card reader (or a “free” device of any kind) from a merchant account provider, be aware that there could be a tradeoff. Of course, a top-rated merchant account provider such as Payment Depot will deal with their customers honestly and fairly and will give a free reader under their usual no-contract deal. Other merchant account providers, however, might require you to sign a contract to tie yourself to them for a more extended period. Read your contract carefully, so you understand which services you’ve signed up for and for how long. You should also understand how to get out of the contract if you’re not happy with the provider.

Despite the negatives and our caveats, all of these free readers will be serviceable. If you need one of these devices to get your business off the ground or for occasional off-premises use (e.g., trade shows), then these free readers should fit the bill.

How To Find The Best Free Credit Card Reader

Below, we will highlight four free readers currently available in the market. But, before we delve into the specifics of each, we want to point out a few benchmarks you should think about when considering any free reader.

Reader Type: Typically, these readers will read magstripe and potentially EMV cards. It’s unusual to get a contactless (i.e., NFC) reader for free. Keep in mind that a magstripe reader could create a liability issue for you under some circumstances, so it is better to have a reader that can take both magstripe and EMV.
Connection: There are two types of connections — physical connection or Bluetooth. The physical connectors can break off if you’re not careful, and a reader that uses a Bluetooth connection still needs to be periodically charged. We typically recommend a Bluetooth connection over a physical one since smartphones and tablets seem to be phasing out the headphone jack. For example, all the recent iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 do not have headphone jacks.
Software: A card reader is just a piece of hardware. Without its supporting software, the reader is useless. Each business is different, however, so its software needs are different. Some businesses will prefer a no-nonsense basic mobile processing app. Others might want additional functionalities, such as inventory tracking. Be sure to think through your software needs before you decide on a free reader.
Battery Life: Battery life applies to Bluetooth and/or EMV readers. Ideally, you want something that can last you at least one day, so you can process credit card charges without interruption.
Peripherals: A basic, pocketable magstripe reader that plugs into a headphone jack or Lightning connector won’t have any peripherals, but Bluetooth and/or EMV readers need cables to charge them up. Other nice-to-have items include carrying cases, docks, clips, and even lanyards that allow the user to carry the reader without losing or damaging it.

Now, let’s look at four simple readers that are available for free. For ease of reference, we’ve put the card reader comparison information into a table:

	Payment Depot Swift B200	Square Magstripe Reader	Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader	PayPal Chip & Swipe Reader
Reader Type	EMV, Magstripe	Magstripe	EMV, Magstripe	EMV, Magstripe
Connection Type	Bluetooth	Headphone jack (for Android) or Lighting connector (for Apple devices)	Bluetooth	Bluetooth
Processing Software	SimpleSwipe	Square Point of Sale	Shopify Lite or Shopify POS	PayPal Here
Battery Life	420 transactions	Not applicable	400 chip or 700 swipe transactions	“all day”
Peripherals	Micro USB charging cable; mounting sticker	None	Stand, micro USB charging cable, mounting sticker, travel case	Device clip, micro USB charging cable

There are plusses and minuses to any free card reader. Ultimately, the “best reader” is the one that fits with the specific needs of your business.

Swift B200 From SwipeSimple

The Swift B200 from SwipeSimple is a Bluetooth magstripe and EMV reader. The parent company, CardFlight, makes two models of readers: the B200 and the B250 (which we review here). The B200 is the less expensive of the two readers, and it lacks the NFC card reader function in the B250.

The B200 can pair with both iOS and Android devices. It uses a rechargeable battery that lasts about 420 transactions. There’s a battery indicator LED light on the device, and the box includes a USB cable. You also get a lanyard and a carrying case.

SwipeSimple’s mobile processing app is available through several providers, but we recommend Payment Depot. Payment Depot is one of our top-rated providers because of its great customer service and fair, transparent pricing. The company also offers a mobile processing plan exclusive to Merchant Maverick readers, which includes the B200 reader for free (you can upgrade to the B250 for $25). You’ll pay $10/month plus 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction with no monthly minimums or additional fees.

We like the SwipeSimple app, and you can find more details about the app in our review. The app takes care of all your credit card processing needs without the clutter of too many extra features. If you’re a no-nonsense kind of person, this might be the app for you.

SwipeSimple Swift B200 Fast Facts

Reader Cost: Free (when you sign up through Payment Depot)
Payment Types Supported: magstripe, EMV
Companion Software: SwipeSimple
Connection: Bluetooth

Square Magstripe Reader

The Square Magstripe Reader is, as its name says, just a magstripe reader. This reader has been Square’s trusty free reader for many years, and it hasn’t evolved much. Of course, when Apple stopped providing headphone jacks on its phones, Square had to adapt to come up with the Lightning connector for its reader. (Soon, it will have to adapt again for Android phones, as Samsung seems to be phasing out headphone jacks too.)

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The Square Magstripe Reader does not need charging, and it’s small enough to fit in your pocket to be carried around. There’s a certain elegance in that sort of simplicity, even though it’s only a magstripe reader that can open the merchant up to liability from fraudulent cards.

Square does offer a tradeoff for that liability, and, for some, the risk might be worth it. The Square magstripe reader works with the very robust (and free) Point of Sale app as well as opening up the rest of Square’s highly-rated (and value-added) services to you. In addition to processing cards at 2.75% per transactions, the Point of Sale app can also track inventory, manage employee hours, keep track of appointments, and do much more. So before you rule Square out based solely on its magstripe reader, we encourage you to think about your company’s future needs and see if Square might be a fit for you after all. Here are our full Square review and our Point of Sale app review to help you make a better-informed decision.

If you decide you want to upgrade to one of Square’s other devices later, Square offers financing for all hardware purchases starting at $49 — conveniently, the price of its Contactless + Chip card reader.

Square Magstripe Reader Fast Facts

Reader Cost: Free (additional readers $10)
Payment Types Supported: magstripe
Companion Software: Square Point of Sale
Connection: headphone jack or Lightning connector

Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader

Shopify is better known as an online shopping cart and eCommerce platform. With its free POS software and credit card reader, though, it appears to be branching into stores with physical locations. The Shopify reader is of a proprietary design. It’s a magstripe and EMV reader that comes with a charging cradle. Packaged in a neat little carrying case, you’ll also find a micro USB charging cable, mounting hardware, and everything else you need.

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Shopify’s Chip & Swipe Reader connects to a mobile device through Bluetooth. The reader can process 400 chip transactions or 700 swipe transactions on one charge. It works with Shopify POS, which runs on both iOS and Android devices. If you subscribe to any of Shopify’s eCommerce plans, the POS app and hardware are included as part of your service. However, if you’re just interested in the mobile app and some tangential eCommerce features, you can opt for the Shopify Lite plan, which goes for $9/month and 2.7% per transaction. It doesn’t include access to all of the advanced features, but as a mobile offering, it’s quite serviceable.

Be sure to check out our detailed review of the Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader. We have reviewed Shopify’s eCommerce plansÂ as well as its Shopify Lite plan and Shopify POS software. Take a quick look at the reviews and see if Shopify is a good fit for you.

Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader Fast Facts

Reader Cost: Free
Payment Types Supported: magstripe, EMV
Companion Software: Shopify POS (with eCommerce plan or Shopify Lite)
Connection: Bluetooth

PayPal Chip & Swipe Reader

PayPal first made its name as an online payments processor. These days it’s more of an all-in-one solution for businesses, including its free mobile software, PayPal Here, and the free card reader that comes with it. Like most other free readers in this article, the PayPal Chip & Swipe Reader is a magstripe and EMV reader that connects to a mobile device via Bluetooth. The reader comes with a micro USB charger and a clip for attaching the reader to the mobile device.

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According to PayPal, the reader has enough battery to last all day. However, a little digging in the comments section of reviews and tech support messages suggests that some people have issues with the battery life. So you might want to proceed with caution if long battery life is important to you.

PayPal, like its closest competitor, Square, used to offer a free basic card reader. However, it discontinued that offer and implemented account restrictions on merchants who use the basic magstripe reader (see our PayPal Here review for more information on that). The free Chip & Swipe reader is a nice alternative to this policy. The mobile app is free to use, with transactions processing at 2.7%.

Signing up with PayPal gives you access to all its payment-related services. Make sure you understand the full scope of PayPal’s business as you consider whether or not to get the PayPal Chip & Swipe Reader. And if you do want a mobile card reader with contactless support, check out the PayPal Chip & Tap reader.

PayPal Chip & Swipe Reader Fast Facts

Reader Cost: Free
Payment Types Supported: magstripe, EMV
Companion Software: PayPal Here
Connection: Bluetooth

As you look through the reviews, don’t forget to look at the upgraded readers available from each provider. You might wish to take these readers into account, so you’ll know how much more it might cost you in the future to upgrade.

Don’t Be Fooled By The Promise Of A Free Card Reader

Mobile card readers are usually loss leaders used to entice merchants to sign up with a particular card processor. The free readers tend to be a simple piece of hardware without a lot of extras, and they tend not to be able to read NFC signals, so customers won’t be able to tap to pay. For the card processors, free readers are merely a way to introduce you to their other services.

Before you sign up, it’s important to research the processing company to make sure the mobile software and other features are worthwhile and that the pricing works for you. Otherwise, while you might get your free card reader, you will suffer the administrative headaches or reduced profits that come with choosing the wrong credit card processing company.

Lastly, don’t forget to read our article, The Best Credit Card Readers For Your Small Business,Â for a truly comprehensive discussion on the best card readers in the marketplace today.

Have you used any of these free readers? If so, what’s your experience with them?

The post The Best Free Credit Card Readers For Small Businesses appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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September 17, 2019

Everything You Need To Know About eCommerce Payments

It’s hard to beat the convenience of selling products over the internet.Â Not only do you not have to worry about paying the overhead costs of a brick and mortar store (unless you want to), but you can sell to customers that live far from your local market.

If your experience taking electronic payments has been limited to swapping cash with friends via Venmo, you’ve probably got a lot of questions about how to get started. In truth, it’s probably both more and less complicated than you think.

So let’s dive in and try to teach you everything you need to know about eCommerce payments.

1. There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

First, some disappointing news. There isn’t one single “correct” way to handle eCommerce. The right payment processing solution will depend upon a number of factors. Take a business website, for example. Do you currently have one that you’d like to start selling products through? Or are you content to use a premade shopping cart template? If you’re a relatively technical person, you can integrate solutions into your site with software APIs or plugins. If you’re not, you’ll probably want to consider a service that provides that functionality upfront. While you can potentially save money doing it yourself, you’ll need to make sure that you’re keeping your customer’s information secure and reducing your own liability.

You’ll also want to consider the nature of the payments you’ll be accepting. Are your customers just buying a product one-off, or are they subscribing to a service that will require recurring monthly payments?

And of course, you’ll need to take stock of your budget and figure out how much you’re willing and able to spend on payment processing and any additional software services.

2. You Need A Payment Processor And A Gateway

A common point of confusion for people new to eCommerce is that there are actually two components to taking payments online. You need both a payment processor and a gateway. These services may be offered together as a package (PayPal, Square, and Stripe, for example) or separately. If you do end up going with a payment processor that doesn’t include gateway access, you’ll need to get it from a separate service like Authorize.net.

A payment processor provides an account that allows your business to accept credit cards and receive credit card payments. It’s also used to deduct fees and processing charges associated with the transaction. After the payment gateway successfully processes a transaction, your payment processor receives the information.
AÂ payment gatewayÂ stands in for what would be your point of sale (POS) interface in a brick-and-mortar transaction. It allows you to securely process payments online by relaying the transaction information from your site to the processor, which then requests the payment from the customer’s bank before releasing funds to you. A payment gateway is also responsible for most of the security features associated with online payments as well as offering services like recurring payments and a credit card vault.

Types Of Payment Processors

Because nothing is ever simple in the world of payment processing, you won’t just need to think about getting a payment processor, but what type of payment processor you need.

The safest option is to go with the tried-and-true merchant account. Think of your merchant account as a holding area where all the busy work of receiving a credit card payment happens. Unlike, say, a business checking account, you don’t have direct access to your merchant account or the ability to directly make deposits and withdrawals to it. Instead, it automatically transfers payments to your business bank account, typically a day or two after receiving the transaction.

Merchant accounts are generally stable and you’re unlike to encounter holds, freezes, or terminations unless you have a sudden spike in chargebacks. Because of the underwriting process, merchant accounts are somewhat slow to establish–you’re probably looking at three days or so to get it up and running, though if you are negotiating or your business is particularly complex, it could take longer. The biggest drawback is that they often have minimum credit card transaction thresholds you have to meet; $5,000/month is typical but some expect you to handle at least $10,000/month in credit card sales. Pricing models with merchant accounts vary, and not all of them are great. We recommend interchange-plus pricing because it’s the most transparent and easiest to compare.

So what do you do if your new business isn’t doing that kind of sales volume?

You can turn to a third-party processor (aka payment services provider). Instead of having your own, unique merchant account, a third-party processor puts you in a pooled account with other merchants, from which fees are deducted in a similar manner to the merchant account. Signing up for a third-party processor is typically faster and easier than for a merchant account (you can start accepting payments the same day), but puts you at greater risk of account holds and terminations. Still, they provide an entry point for new businesses, or established ones that want more predictable pricing. Most third-party processors use a flat-rate pricing model where you’ll pay the same fee regardless of the card type; for eCommerce, that rate is commonly 2.9% + $0.30.

3. You Can Accept More Than Just Credit Card Payments

While credit and debit cards will probably make up the bulk of your eCommerce transactions, they aren’t the only way to make payments online.

It seems like every few years a new tech company rolls out their own digitalÂ wallet. We’re talking about services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App that allow you to link one or more payment sources to a single app account. In person, mobile wallets (a type of digital wallet that lives on your phone) allow you to make near field communication (NFC) purchases at terminals that allow tap-to-pay. In most cases, mobile wallets directly debit a linked credit or debit card while other digital wallets tend to store a balance, which can be used to make payments or be deposited into a bank account.

Many of these services can be used to make payments online as well. If your payment gateway doesn’t support mobile payments out of the box, it probably won’t be that big a deal since the customer can still just pay with the card attached to their mobile wallet. But if you want to go ahead and support mobile payments, you may have to add some code to your store.

The other type of payment you may want to think about isn’t cutting edge. In fact, it’s been around since the 70s: the automated clearing house (ACH). ACH transactions cut out the credit card company middleman and instead establish direct transfers between bank accounts. ACH payments can be one-time transactions, but if you’re using them in a retail context, you’re probably more interested in using them for recurring payments.

ACH is a bit more laborious to use at the point of sale than credit/debit cards, but it is a much less expensive way to process transactions and less prone to fraud and chargebacks. Most payment processors don’t offer ACH support by default, but a number do offer it as an add-on. Failing that, you may need a supplemental service.

Do You Want To Sell Globally? Prepare To Pay More

The internet is a miracle of the modern age, connecting people together and granting you easy access to markets abroad! Right?

While it’s true that you canÂ theoretically sell anywhere in the world, it introduces some additional complexities. For starters, there’s the matter of different currencies. Someone’s got to turn those euros into dollars! Some service providers, like Stripe, will handle currency conversions for you. Keep in mind that this service will usually come at a premium; in the case of Stripe, you’re looking at an additional 2% charge on your transaction.

And of course, you might want to convey the price of your goods to customers in their local currency. This feature usually goes hand-in-hand with automatic currency conversion, but you might need to enable this feature if you want to attract global buyers.

You’ll also need to take local taxes, customs, and duties into account, which means familiarizing yourself with foreign concepts like the value-added tax (VAT), which is used in Europe, Canada, South America, and Africa, as well as China and India. Here again, there are services that can take care of most of this complexity for you, but be prepared to pay for the privilege.

4. You Need To Be PCI Compliant

If you’re doing eCommerce, you’re going to be handling people’s money, and that means security concerns. And yes, yet another acronym.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) has established a set of guidelines called the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) designed to minimize the risk of data being compromised by bad actors. So far so good, but PCI compliance is complicated by the fact that it’s actually a set of four different standards. The standard that applies to you is based on the number of debit and credit card transactions you process annually. Risk level four is considered the lowest risk, while risk level one is considered the highest. The fewer transactions you process, the lower risk you are unless there’s a data breach, at which point you’ll probably be considered risk level one regardless of your volume.

It gets a bit complicated, but what this means in practical terms for you is that you want to make sure your payment processor is PCI compliant and that you’re following the guidelines laid out by your PCI-compliant payment processor.

Payment Security Is Important

It can be a headache, but payment security will ultimately help protect your business and save you from costly chargebacks and account freezes. EMV chips have helped to reduce in-person credit card fraud, but unfortunately, that means online transactions are the new low-hanging fruit for fraud.

In addition to maintaining PCI compliance, security features like AVS (Address Verification Service) and CVV (Card Verification Value, that short number you’re asked for sometimes) provide extra layers of verification would-be fraudsters have to work through. Programs like Visa’s 3D Secure are also constantly evolving to make the changing payment security landscape.

How To Find An eCommerce Payment Provider

Got all that? eCommerce payment processing has a lot of moving parts that can confound even the tech-savvy. Having a sense of the functionality you need in advance will make it much easier to select a payment processor and gateway that can handle the transactions your business depends on. But you should also keep in mind how much of a budget you have for the monthly services required to keep your eCommerce setup running, what you can expect to pay for payment processing, and whether you’re going to need some technical assistance in building out your system.

If you’re ready to get started, we recommend checking out our list of the best online credit card processors. This will give you the rundown on some of the best options in the industry. If you want to learn a bit more about online payments before you get started, our article How To Choose An eCommerce Merchant Account is another great resource.

The post Everything You Need To Know About eCommerce Payments appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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September 14, 2019

Modernize Your Business With A Good Restaurant Ordering System

What if there was a way to reduce wrong orders, increase customer trust, and make your restaurant feel trendy and modern? Well — lucky you — there is! The solution: rethink your restaurantâs ordering system. With a modern restaurant ordering system, you can have online orders sent directly to your kitchen display system, servers can send orders from the floor with handheld tablets, and dine-in customers can pay at their table without having to wait for the server to go run their credit card. And those are only a few of the many cool things you can do with a good restaurant ordering app.

What Is A Restaurant Ordering System?

A restaurant ordering system includes any and all features that allow you to accept orders in person, over the phone, or online. As such, there can be a lot of moving parts and several different ordering processes, depending on your setup. Ideally, your ordering system should be as streamlined as possible and linked through your point of sale system. Sometimes, online ordering is separate from the main POS, supported via a third-party app like DoorDash, Postmates, or Grubhub—though many restaurant POS systems offer seamless integration with these apps.

A key aspect of the POS in a modern restaurant ordering system is that it should be tablet-based. At the very least, the POS should work with tablets in addition to a traditional terminal. Why is that? Tablets mean mobility, and they put powerful technology at the disposal of your servers—and your customers. The optimal configuration varies according to the restaurant type; for example, a casual quick-service restaurant system might include self-ordering kiosks or even just a single tablet register equipped with a credit card processing app, while an upscale bar and restaurant setup might have servers use handheld tablets to take orders and payments.

12 Features That Take Your Restaurantâs Ordering System To The Next Level

Now that you’re considering a revamp of your ordering system, it’s time to decide which features are important to you.

The most basic tablet POS consists of a cloud-based POS app installed on an iPad/touchscreen register. But even with a lightweight, single-iPad setup, you might be surprised at all the features a cloud-based system can offer, from online menu management to targeted email marketing campaigns. Your system may also include other additional hardware and accompanying functionality, described in more detail below.

Keep in mind that even if all of these features are available, you only have to use whatâs relevant.

Kitchen Display System

A digital kitchen display system, or KDS, is a lot better than kitchen ticket printing. This allows servers to send orders directly from a tablet to the kitchen, with the ability to prioritize orders, check on cook times, and so much more. The result is a fast, accurate, streamlined ordering process. What are some more advantages of a kitchen display system? Read What Is A Kitchen Display System? for a more in-depth breakdown.

Online & Phone Ordering

With phone orders, the operator may manually key in payments, noting the type of order (call in for pickup vs. delivery) and other transaction details. A smartphone ordering system can save these details for easy re-ordering the next time the customer calls in.

With an online ordering and delivery system, online orders are sent into the queue with the rest of orders (again, this is where KDS comes in handy). Note that online ordering and delivery functionality can be a built-in function of your POS that integrates with your restaurant website, or your POS might support third-party online ordering apps like Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc.

Modifiers & Prompts

A POS system with a menu that allows for modifiers allows for easy order customization. Even better is a POS that prompts servers to ask for choices instead of assuming the customers want the default meal. A handheld tablet ordering system can prompt servers to upsell on the spot, and input the customers’ choices for sides, dressings, level of spice, etc. All of this information is relayed to the kitchen via a KDS or ticket, with no need to ask for a special order.

Seat & Table Management

Using a POS with seat and table management, you can easily assign orders, split items, reassign items to different people, and more. Table management can also include support for reservations, via an add-on or integration (more on reservation management below).

Menu Management

Menu management makes adjusting menu items easy and keeps your offerings up to date. Usually, you can do this with a back-office function online. You might also update your menu to include special time-sensitive offers and daily specials, or manage several different menus for different locations or days of the week. With integrated raw ingredient tracking, menu options stay in sync with ingredient availability.

Pay-At-Table Function

An emerging trend flips the traditional restaurant payment system on its head, bringing the POS to the customer at their table. Servers simply swipe/dip the card in front of the customer and voila! The customer can sign their receipt on-screen, or the POS may have a mobile receipt printer. The system can also prompt customers to leave an on-screen tip, with percentage suggestions.

Clover Flex and Square TerminalÂ are both examples of mobile POS devices that allow customer payments at the table. These nimble, cordless terminals include both a card reader and receipt printer.

Self-Service/Kiosk Mode

It can be a big investment, but some POS systems give you the option to place tablets at every single table. This lets customers enter their own orders, summon servers, and even split the check themselves. This is typically seen at casual dine-in setups. For example, Chili’s and several other casual restaurant franchises use self-ordering kiosks at tables. Some fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s, also offer self-service ordering, from touchscreens located at the front of the restaurant.

Customer Relationship Management

Have a takeout restaurant with regulars? A good CRM system keeps track of what they order so if they want to call in âthe usual,â you can plug it in without having to remember it. Customer data can also be used for targeted marketing—for example, sending emails about discounts, promotions or events. Additionally, CRM can include a loyalty program for in-person transactions, which rewards frequent customers with discounts, free entrees, etc.

Server & Customer Notifications

A POS system can include different types of notifications for both servers and customers. For example, some restaurant POS systems can alert servers when orders are ready with an in-app notification sent to their handheld device, or even with a text-message— SMS alerts are probably more effective if servers use a smartwatch to receive these notifications. Customers can also receive texts letting them know when their takeout order is ready, or alerting them that their table is ready. Again, the best way to use notifications all depends on your restaurant’s setup.

Mobile Payment Support

More and more restaurants accept contactless NFC (mobile) payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Mobile device payments require the customer to be present, so you usually see this at casual eateries where customers pay at the counter. However, a sit-down restaurant can also accept mobile payments, if you opt to bring the POS to the customer with pay-at-table functionality.

Email Receipts

Giving customers the option of email receipts for their orders is beneficial for both you and your customer. Customers can track expenses and past orders, and you can reduce receipt paper costs. Email receipts can also contain CTAs customers can click on, such as surveys or prompts to follow you on social media. Once you have a customer’s email address, you can additionally send them promotional offers in the future.

Depending on the POS system, you use, you might not even have to ask the customer for their email address. For example, Square lets you send automatic receipts to any customer who has already opted into receiving Square email receipts from another vendor.

Online Reservations & Waitlist

When your waitlist and reservations are automated, your staff is freed up to focus on the bread and butter of your restaurant: food orders! While not too many POS systems offer native support for reservations, many restaurant POS systems now integrate with a reservation or waitlist app, such as Waitlist.me or OpenTable, which also serves as a marketplace where new customers can find your restaurant online, similar to Yelp.

Yelp also now has an online waitlist app that, when integrated with your restaurant management system, lets customers hop on your waitlist before they even leave the house. Customers can view their approximate wait time, see how many parties are ahead of them in line, and receive a text when their table is ready.

4 Ways The Right Restaurant Software Will Improve Your Business

Okay, we’ve covered the features to look for in your POS—but we haven’t discussed why these assets to businesses. What are the high-level impacts and how will they change your business? Let’s delve in!

Tableside Ordering Means Fewer Errors

Back to modifiers and promptsâif servers enter orders at the table, they are less likely to forget or make a mistake. This improved accuracy results in less waste and fewer unhappy customers. Even if mistakes are made, they are quicker and easier to fix with a digitized system that allows for easy modifications and instant reordering.

Pay At Table Means Better Data Security

A card leaving a customerâs sight is a liability due to the possibility of credit card skimmers and identity theft. In some cases, you can reduce this risk with a pay-at-table feature and also with mobile payment acceptance. Additionally, the option to pay at the table means no waiters walking away and taking forever to bring the card/check back.

Better Efficiency Means Faster Turnarounds & Happier Customers

All of these features ultimately lead to one thing: a more efficient restaurant. Less time transpires between orders being taken and orders being placed, and less time is needed to complete payment transactions. Tables turn faster, resulting in more customers. And even more important than the faster turnaround is that you’ll have happier customers who arenât stuck waiting. This should also lead to better tips and happier servers!

Updates & Integrations Add Even More Functionality

All of the popular tablet POS systems integrate with other apps. This gives you the potential to extend your system’s functionality ever-further with each new integration that comes out. For example, there are restaurant apps for liquor inventories, tip tracking, social media management, and much more. Web-based systems are also updated frequently to add and improve features, meaning that the system you buy today could be even more powerful with next month’s update.

Cost Is The Biggest Hurdle To A Good Ordering System For Restaurants

There isnât really a disadvantage to having a POS with a solid ordering system. But there is an obstacle: the cash investment required. Some cost considerations for investing in a new restaurant POS:

You need multiple tablets so servers can use them.
You need the space and equipment to charge tablets.
You need additional card readers if you offer pay-at-table.
You need a reliable internet connection, either with cellular data plans or WiFi that reaches across the entire premises. Some POS systems set up local networks as a backup to keep the system functional during internet outages. No matter how you approach it, your internet infrastructure is going to cost money.
Depending on your setup, there are also additional hardware costs such as a KDS, kitchen printers, self-service kiosks, even a digital menu board.
Monthly POS software costs can add up if you have a lot of add-ons or third-party software integrations, e.g., $50/month add-on for loyalty program, $99/month add-on for delivery management, etc.

Whatever you do, donât try to cut costs by leasing POS/credit card processing hardware. This ultimately costs way more and involves contracts. Buy the equipment outright instead. Also, when choosing a restaurant POS system, make sure any system you’re considering offers competitive pricing for payment processing (if in-house payment processing is included) or integrates with a merchant account that offers interchange-plus pricing.

If you need to finance your POS system, this is possible with small business loans. Make sure you research the best options for small business loans for restaurants.

Is It Time For You To Upgrade Your Restaurantâs Ordering System?

Your existing restaurant POS might already support some of the tech-forward ordering features I’ve described in this post. Are you using them? If not, it might be time to consider trying them out. If your POS doesnât support these features, but they sound interesting, it’s probably time to switch to a new POS system. Start shopping around!

So what are the next steps toward implement a faster, more efficient, mobile restaurant ordering system? Talk to your POS provider and learn how to implement existing features you haven’t taken advantage of yet. Or, check out some top restaurant POS providers to find a system that does support the modern ordering features you want and need to make your restaurant all that it can be.

The post Modernize Your Business With A Good Restaurant Ordering System appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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July 16, 2019

What Is Square And How Does It Work?

We at Merchant Maverick like Square. Itâs a great service that opens up the ability to process credit card payments to many small businesses, and weâve written a lot of articles about Square’s point of sale, payment processing, inventory, booking, and invoicing features. These articles can be prohibitively in-depth to the uninitiated, however, so you might want to read this quick overview of Square for a summary before digging into the details.

A Brief History Of Square

Square was founded in 2009 when Jack Dorsey (also of Twitter) tried to help his friend Jim McKelvey take a credit card payment of $2,000.00. Squareâs first product was a magnetic stripe credit card reader that could be inserted into a smartphoneâs headphone jack to take credit card sales.

Square became a public company in November of 2015, and its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SQ. While Square does bring in a lot of money ($3.3 billion for the year 2018), it still has not made a profit. For the moment, the company seems to be more focused on growing by adding new services for its customers.

While Square’s main focus continues to be helping small businesses quickly and easily set up taking credit card payments, it has also expanded its services to point of sale, inventory, and employee management — giving small businesses the ability to run more like large ones (more on these services below). To this end, it has bought the food delivery business Caviar, the catering service Zesty, and the website building service Weebly. It also owns a consumer-centric digital wallet called the Cash App, where users can send money to each other and even buy from any store with the money in the app.

In the span of about ten years, Square has grown from a startup focusing on one aspect of helping small businesses grow to a large business providing a suite of services that help small businesses expand. With so many additional services, what exactly does Square do these days?

What Does Square Do?

At its heart, Square is still a credit card processing aggregator (also sometimes called a third party payment processor or a payment service provider (PSP)). We have a great article on the difference between a merchant account provider and an aggregator, but below is a quick explanation.

Square’s Credit Card Processing Services

Traditionally, if you want your business to take credit card sales, you would work with a provider to set up something called a merchant account. To get a merchant account, you typically undergo a long application process and provide a lot of financial information before you are approved. These providers want to make sure that, based on your businessâs existing history, you don’t present a huge financial risk.

Credit card processing aggregators take more of a see-as-we-go approach and assume financial risk for bad accounts. Aggregators merely need to verify the identity of the applicant before authorizing a new account, and generally don’t ask too much more information. They have more freedom on who they sign up and how they do business with those they sign up.

While this means aggregators can quickly set your business up to take credit card payments without needing an established history, they tend to be cautious afterwards. These types of payment processors have advanced systems in place to analyze each transaction for any red flags. Suspicious transactions can cause the processor to hold funds until it has more information. Worse, third-party processors often have a clause in the contract that says they can terminate your account if they see fit. Usually, this happens to businesses that have high numbers of chargebacks or fraudulent transactions.

Square is an aggregator, so essentially the above is its business model. You can sign up for Square within minutes and without providing detailed financial information. In addition, Square gives you a basic set of free hardware and software so you can start taking credit card payments almost right away. The free items include:

Square Point Of Sale Software: Square’s free POS software is incredibly advanced for being free, though it’s certainly not a full-fledged POS. Still, for most small businesses it is more than sufficient. Square also offers premium iPad POS systems for a monthly fee if you need more advanced features.
Credit Card Reader: You can get a basic magnetic strip reader for free, but if you want support for chip cards, you’ll have to upgrade to another reader, which will cost you.
Invoicing: For those businesses that bill a larger amount but less often (e.g. lawn care services), Square offers an electronic invoicing function. The invoices are free to send, but you will pay a transaction fee when your customer pays with their card.

Square’s Value-Added Services

As mentioned earlier, Square has been adding more services to its core credit card processing business. Some of these services are for free, but others are available for a small fee. These services include:

Employee Management: With this service, you can manage your employees from anywhere. You can add new employees to the system, track their hours, track their register/sales (at either single location or multiple locations), edit and close employee timecards, and give selected employees selected access to various parts of this software (e.g. so they can enter their own hours but not see your weekly sales numbers).
Payroll Services: This service imports data from the employee management software so that you can easily pay your employees and contractors. Square will handle tax filings and withholdings, and they can handle the payments to other employee benefits such as health insurance and 401(k). You can even offer direct deposit to your employees.
Inventory Management: Square offers basic inventory management in its Point of Sale app for free, but the premium iPad POS systems offer a more detailed system that can track and analyze your business’s inventory across multiple stores and multiple registers. You are notified when inventory is low, and items are automatically removed from inventory when they’re sold, whether at one of your physical locations or online.
Business Debit Card (Square Card): When you are paid by your customers through Square, the money goes to an account kept by Square. Rather than moving the money to your bank, you can use it immediately with the Square Card. The Square Card is a debit card sponsored by Mastercard, and you can request it from Square for free. Check out How Does Square’s Instant Deposit Work?Â for more information about how to access your funds.
Appointments: Square provides a booking calendar for professional service businesses (like hair salons). The calendar not only tracks and moves appointments, but it can also send appointment reminders to customers. The POS and booking system is free for a single user, but if you have multiple users you’ll need to pay a monthly fee.
Square Online Store: Pretty much every business needs an online presence, and Square can help you build a professional-looking website even if you’ve never done it before. Square provides tools that can help you track your inventory sold through your online store and helps you with shipping (printing labels, discounted rates). Best of all, when you sell out of state, it tracks all the different sales taxes that you might owe. There’s a basic free webstore, but if you need more advanced features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the other plans.
Other Services: Square offers many more services designed to make a small business owner’s life easier. For instance, Square offers marketing software to help you build email and social media advertising campaigns. It has an installment payment service for certain businesses so that a customer can buy a big-ticket item and pay Square in installments while you get paid right away. Square can help you build a loyalty program where customers can redeem goods or services with points. You can get your own branded gift cards to sell to your customers. Square even provides online store owners with a product photography service so that the items sold through webstores are presented in their best light.

As can be seen above, Square is well on its way to offering an entire suite of software and services that not only help you take credit card sales, but also help you manage your entire business’s operations.

What Are The Advantages of Square?

Every successful business has a few things it does extremely well, and Square is no exception. Square basically provides you with a free, fast, and easy-to-get-out-of way to start taking credit card sales. To elaborate a bit, the following are some advantages for signing up with Square:

Fast Setup: You can sign up for Square within minutes and get a credit card reader shipped to you very quickly.
Easy Termination: If you sign up and find that you don’t like Square, you can stop working with Square any time you want. There are no penalties for leaving, so you can sign up without fear. (There may be loose ends to tie up, but you can still terminate the services at will.)
Easy To Use: Square is focused on small businesses that are just starting out. They provide a simple piece of hardware and intuitive software to help you run your business and help you grow.
Simple Fee Structure: Compared with other pricing models, Square has an easy-to-understand flat fee structure so you can better predict your profits.
Fast Payment: With Square, you can get paid almost right away after a customer makes a charge. You can instantly deposit these funds into your outside account or use the funds directly with the Square Card debit card. In contrast, traditional merchant account providers typically hold the funds for at least 24 hours before releasing it to you. For a small business with tight cash flow, Square’s fast payment can make a difference to the business’s survival.
No Minimums Or Monthly Fees: A small fee here and there might seem insignificant, but they can add up in the long run. Square’s credit card processing service (and a lot of their other services) have no minimum or monthly fees, so a small business doesn’t have to worry about paying for anything other than the transaction processing costs.

These are just some of the advantages for signing up with Square. Of course, no business is perfect, and neither is Square. Under some circumstances and for some types of businesses, Square is not the best option.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Square?

No business can be everything to everyone, so Square is not suitable for every type of business. One of the biggest complaints we see about Square is that Square sometimes withhold funds in a merchant’s account, with or without warning. Sometimes, you never get paid. If you fit into one of the categories below, you might want to think twice before signing up with Square:

Not Suitable For High-Risk Businesses: A “high risk” business is usually defined as a business that deals with guns and ammo, tobacco and vaporizers, pharmaceuticals, gambling and financial services, and similar — anything highly regulated or prone to chargebacks and disputes. If you deal in any of these, Square is likely not the right business partner for you. Specifically, in its Terms of Service, Square reserves the right to terminate service if you violate any export control regulations (for example, sell military-grade items to specific countries) and money laundering laws, sell weapons or devices designed to cause physical harm, or “use the Services except as otherwise allowed” under their agreements.
Not Suitable For Business With Many Chargebacks: If you have a business that causes a high rate of dispute or chargebacks (even if it’s not otherwise a high-risk business), then Square is probably not the right company for you. Going back to Square’s business model, it fronts you the money that you take from your customers so you can collect right away while it waits for the banks to settle the charges. So, if Square can’t eventually get the money from the banks, it might stop fronting you the money (put a hold on your account) or stop working with you altogether.
Not The Best Pricing For High-Volume businesses: Despite its transparent pricing, Square might not be the cheapest service provider for your particular business. If your business is mature, you have an established financial history and are doing a consistently high volume of card payments, and you know how your customers tend to pay for your goods or services, then you might want to shop around a little more to find the merchant account provider that can offer you interchange-plus pricing and volume discounts. (That said, Square does negotiate custom rates for high-volume businesses, but you should absolutely shop around all the same.)

We have an article that gives more details on why Square is not suitable for high risk and high chargeback businesses. If you have an established business and wish to shop around, here’s some information on where you might be able to get a better deal.

What Are Square’s Fees?

Business owners like having predictable operating expenditures every month. Because credit card fees usually have a percentage component and a flat fee component, the cost of allowing credit card sales tend to be less predictable. Compared to traditional credit card processors, however, Squareâs fees are easier to predict.

With Square, you usually only have to worry about just one fee, expressed in a percentage form. Right now, if you use Squareâs free credit card reader and free Point of Sale software, you pay 2.75% of the sale. Thatâs it. If your customers choose to pay online, your rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.Â Having only to keep two numbers in mind makes it easier for you to figure out your markups so you can make a profit for your entire business.

Note, though, that if you use Squareâs premium hardware or software, the charges can get a little complex. Here’s an article giving a more detailed breakdown of Square’s fees.

How Do You Use Square?

When it comes down to it, it’s fairly easy to start using Square’s services. You can do it in four steps:

Sign Up For A Free Account. This only takes a few minutes, and we even have an article walking you through the process. You wonât have to provide a lot of financial information, and they wonât do a credit check on you at this stage (they will later, after youâre all set up).
Get Your Free Square Reader. Youâll have quite a few hardware choices–some of which you will need to pay for–but thereâs always one thatâs free for either iOS or Android.
Download The Free Square App. The app is called Square Point of Sale, and you will need this app to process payments through a mobile device.
Log In To The Free Square Dashboard And Explore. This is a fairly robust piece of software that manages all your credit card charges. You can customize reporting in a centralized hub, and do much, much more (some of which cost extra). Here’s a Merchant Maverick article on the details of the dashboard.

As mentioned above, Square wants to help you run your business. There are a lot of value-added services they offer, so once you’re all set taking credit card sales, you might wish set aside a little time to explore these additional services to see how they can help you run your business.

What Kinds of Businesses Is Square Best For?

Square isnât right for every business, but if your business is small or new, Square is very likely the best bet for you. With Square, youâll get lots of free software, hardware, and add-ons to get you up and running very quickly. You can use Square on the web, at a brick-and-mortar store, and even at mobile locations such as food festivals.

We’ve compared Square with PayPal and Clover Go and believe Square really does offer the best value for the price for a start-up business. As long as youâre not one of the âhigh riskâ businesses, you should have no problems getting payments from Square or with your account being abruptly suspended or terminated. Best of all, if you use Square and then after a while decide you donât like them, you can stop using them at any time.

Is Square right for you? This more in-depth article can help you decide.

The post What Is Square And How Does It Work? appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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July 10, 2019

Digital Wallets VS Mobile Wallets

If you’re reading this article, chances are that some of your customers have recently asked whether you accept Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your preliminary research has yielded the terms digital wallet and mobile wallet, but while you may have heard of these forms of payment before, you don’t yet know many of the details.

What do these terms mean? Is there a difference?

The short answer is that digital wallet is a broad term covering software that electronically stores credit card numbers, debit card numbers, loyalty card numbers, etc. on your laptop, tablet, phone, or the cloud. A mobile wallet is a type of digital wallet that lives only on your phone and allows you to “tap to pay” in stores, often using NFC technology.

Below is a more detailed explanation of what these wallets are, as well as how they might affect your small business.

What Is A Digital Wallet?

A digital wallet is an electronic method for storing payment information. It is a broad term covering many types of functionalities, and not every wallet offers every type of functionality. Below is a list of major functions typically found in digital wallets.

Store Credit & Debit Card Information: All digital wallets can store credit and debit card information. Some, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, will allow payment directly from the card. Others, like PayPal, draw funds from a stored credit or debit card but pay out through the service itself.
Pay At A Store: Many digital wallets will allow a user to pay for purchases made at a brick-and-mortar location. Apple Pay and Google Pay both allow this type of payment when an NFC-capable point-of-sale terminal is available.
Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Payments: Most digital wallets allow users to transfer funds to one another. Typically, these payments are small amounts used to split a lunch bill, pay a babysitter, or even pay a share of the rent. The Cash app, Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, and Google Pay all allow users to transfer money this way.
Online Payments: Digital wallets can be used to pay for online purchases. At checkout, a merchant who takes digital wallet payments will display the appropriate button for the appropriate wallet. PayPal is the most well-known wallet having this type of pay with button, but Apple Pay and Google Pay have similar buttons.
Hold Funds: A digital wallet can store cash in the same way a gift card can hold cash. The funds are held in a cash account, and a user can link a bank account or a credit card to this cash account to cover shortages. Square’s Cash app and PayPal’s Venmo are examples of digital wallets that hold funds, and they even provide their users with physical prepaid cards (Visa for Square and Mastercard for Venmo) so the cash can be used at brick-and-mortar stores.
Hold Coupons & Loyalty Cards: Many digital wallets can hold coupons or loyalty cards so a user can be given the appropriate credit or discount for using a particular card or for shopping at a particular store. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung pay all hold coupons and loyalty cards.
Store ID: Some digital wallets will allow a user to store IDs. For instance, Apple Pay will allow a college student to store a student ID and use it to access various buildings or even pay from a student account.
Store Transit Tickets: A number of digital wallets allow users to store transit tickets. Users can tap the phone (or a wearable linked to the phone) on a reader to enter subway or bus stations in an increasing number of cities in the US and abroad.
Security: All digital wallets have security features that keep the stored information safe. The information is not only protected by password or biometrics (fingerprint scan, iris scan), but is also encrypted in many ways. Credit card information, for instance, isn’t even kept on the phone. Only a token that represents the information is kept on the phone.

Given that digital wallet is an overarching term that includes all the above features, is there a meaningful difference between a digital wallet and a mobile wallet?

How Is A Mobile Wallet Different From A Digital Wallet?

An easy way to distinguish mobile wallets from mere digital wallets is that mobile wallets let the user make a payment at a storeâs point-of-sale terminal. The payment is usually pulled directly from a credit or debit card rather than from a cash balance kept in the digital wallet.

With a mobile wallet, a user typically pays by tapping on a credit card terminal with a smartphone or a wearable device like a smartwatch or a fitness tracker. The device then transmits the payment information from the phone to the terminal via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Other mobile wallets (e.g. Dunkin’ Donuts, Walmart) send payment information through QR codes that a merchant can scan or the user can import through the phone’s camera. A third technology proprietary to Samsung (Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST)) mimics a magnetic swipe and transmits payment information that way.

As a side note, the popularity of NFC technology for payment processing has a lot to do with security. In the US, NFC is favored because it transmits the information only over very short distances. This way, there’s less likelihood that a snooping device can steal the payment information. In comparison, QR codes are less secure because a user can innocently scan a rogue code and be tricked into sending money to the wrong destination.

In this article, we try to draw a distinction between digital wallets and mobile wallets, but, in truth, the nature of these wallets is still in flux. When most people speak of mobile wallets, they tend to only be thinking of Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. While digital wallets like PayPal and Cash can be loaded onto smartphones as apps, they cannot make NFC-based payments, so they are technically not mobile wallets. (PayPal can be linked to Google Pay and Samsung Pay, so it is still possible to pay at a store with PayPal, but the app itself is not capable of handling NFC payments.) However, Google Pay and Apple pay do let users make P2P payments and send cash, and these features tend to be major functions of pure digital wallets. Google Pay and Apple Pay, therefore, blur the line between digital wallets and mobile wallets.

If the line between digital wallets and mobile wallets is blurry, is there even a reason to draw a distinction between them? For a consumer, the answer is likely “no,” but for a merchant who wishes to take these payments, the difference can be significant.

What Mobile & Digital Wallets Mean For Merchants

For a merchant, there is a subtle but meaningful difference between a mobile wallet and a digital wallet. If you operate an online store or sell through a mobile app, then you can take digital wallet payments, but likely it will take a little work because you must add new code to your web store or your app. If you can’t handle coding yourself, you’ll need to hire a developer to implement these payment options. This is a bit different than some other online payment options that allow you to accept credit cards with minimal setup.

If, however, you operate a brick-and-mortar store where your customers pay through a point-of-sale terminal, then you can probably take mobile wallet payments without doing anything extra. If you have an NFC-enabled terminal, then you are all set to take Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. If you are still using an older terminal that only takes a magnetic stripe card, then you can still take Samsung Pay because it has that the proprietary MST technology that mimics a magnetic strip card swipe.

Below are some of the additional advantages of taking digital and mobile wallet payments.

Payment Security

Digital and mobile wallets are secure. Digital wallets store payment information on a specialized, super-secure environment called the Secure Element (SE). Apple uses an SE chip embedded in the phone while Google and Samsung use one in the cloud.

When a customer makes a purchase, instead of the real credit card number, only a tokenized number is sent to the merchant. Hereâs a more detailed explanation of credit card tokenization, but for quick reference, a credit card token is just a random number with the same number of digits as a real credit card number. Only the credit card company has a way to match that random number to a customerâs real credit card number. So, if a token is stolen, the credit card company simply issues another token and disallows payment requests made with the stolen token. The real credit card number is kept safe and other purchases made with the real number (or other tokens) can continue.

From a merchantâs standpoint, the explanation above just means that tokenization takes you out of scope for PCI compliance (meaning less work for you) and you won’t be held responsible for fraudulent charges made with a stolen credit card. Thatâs a great reason for taking digital or mobile wallet payments.

Fast Checkout

Digital and mobile wallets make checking out faster. Whether you operate online only or have a brick-and-mortar store, faster checkout typically translates to more sales.

If you have a webstore or an app that takes in-app purchases, digital wallets often can populate all the payment fields with the push of a button. This means your customer wonât have to dig out a credit card, enter a long series of numbers, triple check to see the number is entered correctly, enter in their email twice, etc. etc. Being able to pay easily and quickly makes a better overall purchasing experience, and that means a better chance of a returning customer.

At a brick-and-mortar store, payment with an NFC enabled phone or wearable also makes checking out faster. Tapping a phone or a smartwatch over a point-of-sale terminal takes a mere second or two. Compare that to digging out a card from a wallet, dipping a card into the reader, waiting for the reader to approve payment, and making sure the customer does not forget to retrieve the card, you can see the time savings right away. Whatâs more, all the customers behind the one making the payment can see their time savings as well. The more happy customers you can move through your checkout, the more sales you can make.

Convenience

In line with faster checkout, taking digital and mobile wallet payments offer additional conveniences to your customers. These days, most people pay for their purchases with a credit or debit card, and mobile wallets are increasingly being used to store these cards, especially by the young and/or tech-savvy. Millennials and Gen Z’ers transfer cash between friends using mobile wallets without a second thought and never seem to carry actual cash on them.

For these customers, it would be convenient to consolidate spending into one wallet, so they can easily keep track of their cash, credit, and debit spending. Most digital and mobile wallets also allow users to pay faster by approving a purchase using stored information. PayPal has a one-touch feature that allows a customer to instantly approve a payment with stored data. Google Pay allows a user to approve a purchase by just unlocking the phone and hovering the phone over the payment terminal without ever opening the Google Pay app.

Of course, digital and mobile wallet users won’t stop patronizing your store just because they can’t pay with their mobile or digital wallet. But, if you do allow it, they might come back to you more often because you take payments in the way they prefer to pay.

Do You Need To Accept Mobile & Digital Wallet Payments?

You probably do not absolutely need to take digital and mobile wallet payments, but allowing them might bring you more sales. If you have an online store, then you might have to invest some time or money to connect up to the wallet services. However, if you own a brick-and-mortar store, you likely already can take them. In fact, if your customers tend to be tech-savvy and/or young–or you want to attract more such customers–the ability to pay with digital or mobile wallets will offer them the convenience they want and induce them to do more business with you.

Whatever you do, if you decide to take digital and mobile wallet payments, be sure to advertise it properly. You can request signs and stickers from the wallet providers and of course download logos and the appropriate buttons for your webstore. Once this is done, you are on your way to taking digital and mobile wallet payments.

If you already take digital and mobile payments, what has been your experience so far? Have you increased your sales? Have you gotten positive comments from (hopefully pleasantly surprised) customers that you have improved your technology to allow for this new way to pay? Leave us a message in the comments!

The post Digital Wallets VS Mobile Wallets appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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April 19, 2019

How To Start A Pet Sitting Business: The Complete Guide

Have you always had an affinity for furry (or scaly) things? Have you ever needed money? If you answered yes to both these questions, you may want to consider starting a pet-sitting business.

But before you pick up the leashes and pooper-scoopers, it’s a good idea to sit down and plan out the trajectory of your business. If that sounds overwhelming, don’t fret. Below, we’ll lay out the steps you can take to start a pet-sitting business.

Decide On A Location

Since you’re going to be dealing with people’s pets, you’ll need to take into account your proximity to your clients. If they’re dropping their pets off with you, you’ll want to be located somewhere easily accessible to most of your customers, and one that can accommodate animals. Depending on where you live, this can be tricky as the space necessary to accommodate animals will usually be cheaper in less centralized locations.

On the other hand, if you’re going to your customers, you’ll need to take into account the amount of time you need to spend with each client’s pets, the costs of commuting to the job, and how animal-friendly/animal-hostile the infrastructure in your service area is (dog parks, etc.).

Register Your Business

Why should you register your business? Depending on your local laws, you may actually be required to register your business in order to legally pet-sit. But even in jurisdictions where it isn’t compulsory, there are some advantages to doing so.

The first is that you can do business under a name other than your own. So instead of Martha Swearingen, LLC, you can do business as Baron Bark’s Pet Pampering Service (you can have that one for free).

The default configuration for businesses is aÂ sole proprietorship (or a partnership, if you’re starting it with someone else). This essentially means that you’ve started a business with your own name or, if you file a DBA (Doing Business As), a name of your choice.

Sole proprietorships have the advantage of being cheap and easy to start. Your taxes will also be easier to file (and lower) than they would generally be with other forms of incorporation. Keep in mind, however, that for liability purposes, sole proprietorships and the individuals behind them are essentially one and the same.

Other forms of incorporation will require a bit more work and come with their own advantages and disadvantages.Â Most pet-sitting companies aren’t going to be interested in forming C-suites for governance, so you can probably ignore S-Corps and C-Corps for now. You may, however, want to consider forming an LLC to provide some separation between your personal finances and liabilities and your business ones.

Here are the most popular ways to incorporate:

Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs):Â If you’ve seen LLC after a corporation’s name, you’re dealing with this type of company. LLCs offer limited liability protection for their owners without the full complexity of a corporation. Each state has its own rules for how to start and maintain an LLC, and you don’t necessarily have to register your LLC in the state where you’re doing business (although you’ll generally want to). LLC owners report theirÂ business earnings and losses on their personal taxes.
C-Corp:Â This is the “basic,” default form of incorporation. Shareholders are considered the owner(s) of the company and receive limited liability protection; however, the business decisions are made by corporate officers who may or may not be shareholders. The corporation is taxed separately and shareholders pay income tax on dividends. To form a C-corp, you’ll file articles of incorporation with your state.
S-Corp:Â S-corps are similar to C-corps in most ways, but come with a few additional restrictions: you have to have fewer than 100 shareholders and they have to all be U.S. citizens or residents. Unlike C-corps, profits and losses are reported on personal taxes, not unlike an LLC. In addition to filing articles of incorporation, you’ll also need to file IRS Form 2553.

Get Business Insurance

As a pet-sitter, you’re not just dealing with property, you’re dealing with animals whose owners often view them as part of their family. In other words, if something goes wrong, things could get ugly.

Depending on your local laws, you may be required to carry certain types of insurance.

The type of insurance that will probably be of most interest to you is general liability insurance. This protects you in the event of a lawsuit or accident, whether it’s an accidental injury to the animal or if you accidentally damage property within a client’s home. It doesn’t only protect you, however; it also makes you look like a safer option than a business that isn’t covered.

There are other, more specialized types of insuranceÂ that are worth taking a look at depending on the specifics of your business. These include:

Property Insurance: Protects the property needed to run your business (as opposed to damages you cause to clients’ property).
Business Interruption: Covers costs related to unforeseen events that make your business unable to function.
Professional Liability (Error and Omissions): Covers the costs of defending your company in lawsuits in cases where your business caused a financial loss.

If you aren’t sure where to look, we can help you.

Invest In Business Software

While not absolutely necessary, you can save yourself and your customers some hassle with strategically chosen business software. For pet sitting, there are probably three types most worthy of consideration.

Payment Processing

Doing business with cash can be convenient when you’re first starting out, but as you grow, you’ll probably be missing out on clients if you can’t accommodate other forms of payment.

Recommended Option: Square

Best Overall Mobile POS	Review Visit Site

Highlights No contract or monthly fee Instant account setup Retail upgrade available Restaurant upgrade available For iOS and Android mobile devices 2.75% per in-person card swipe	Retail POS:Â Free trial ($60/mo value) Â Restaurant POS: Free trial ($60/mo value) Â Square POS: Always free

If you have an iOS or Android device, Square offers an extremely convenient way to accept mobile payments while on the go via a small add-on you plug into your device. It’s also a very scalable service; if you’re running a retail location, there are even more features and service options you can take advantage of.

Best of all, there aren’t any monthly fees to worry about. Square charges between 2.75Â – 3.5 percent per transaction (depending on whether you swipe or key in the info), so you’ll want to factor those costs into your expenses.

Scheduling Software

As you add clients, it will get harder to remember their particular preferences, not to mention more difficult to fit them all into your schedule. With booking or scheduling software, you can track your time, note customer needs, and efficiently plan your days’ work. Many of these offer their basic features free of charge.

Accounting Software

Most businesses can benefit from accounting software. What you don’t want is to spend money unnecessarily on one. Wave offers most of the features you need at no cost.

With no monthly fee, you’ll get invoicing, estimates, contact management, expense tracking, accounts payable, and inventory tracking.

Seek Funding

Pet-sitting, especially, if you’re going to your clients, doesn’t have a lot of overhead when you’re first starting out. In the event that you do need to scare up some money to cover starting expenses or equipment, there are a number of options available to you.

Personal Savings

If you can avoid taking on debt, it’s usually a good idea. It may hurt to part with some of your rainy day funds, but you won’t be accumulating expensive interest and fees.

Tap Your Support Network

If you do need money from an outside source, you can often get a better deal from your support system than you can from a private lender.

Keep in mind that this comes with its own risks. You may stress your relationships, especially if you aren’t able to pay back these so-called friendly loans quickly. One way to avoid this is to formalize any agreements you make with friends and family so that everyone fully understands what they’re getting into and what the expectations are. You may even want to draw up a formal contract that outlines any expected payments and return on investment.

Credit Cards

For the relatively low expenses you will encounter when you start a pet-sitting business, credit cards can probably suffice for most of your needs.

The general rules of thumb when it comes to using credit cards effectively are these:

Use credit cards for expenses that you can pay off within their interest-free grace period.
Pick a card with a reward program that matches your spending habits and needs.
Do not take out cash advances on your credit card.

If you follow these rules, you can actually save money by using your credit card to make purchases.

Recommended Option: American Express SimplyCash Plus

SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card from American Express Compare	Annual Fee: $0 Purchase APR: 14.49% – 21.49%, Variable
Required credit: Good, excellent Bonus offer: None Purchase intro APR: 0% for the first 9 months Balance transfer intro APR: N/A Foreign transaction fee: 2.7% Rewards: 5% cash back at U.S. office supply stores and on wireless telephone purchases, up to $50,000 per year 3% cash back on a category of your choosing (airfare, hotel rooms, car rentals, gas stations, restaurants, advertising purchases, shipping, or computer hardware, software, and cloud computing), up to $50,000 per year 1% cash back on all other purchases Notable perks & benefits: Expanded buying powerÂ â buy above your credit limit with no penalty fees Employee cards available Extended warranty & purchase protection Car rental loss & damage insurance More card details (click to expand) Hide

Amex’s SimplyCash Plus offers one of the best cash back programs available without an annual fee. You’ll get 1 percent back on generic purchases, 5 percent back on wireless telephone purchases and office supply stores in the U.S. But it’s the middle tier that’s most interesting. You can select a category of your choosing (airfare, hotel rooms, car rentals, gas stations, restaurants, advertising, shipping, or computer hardware) to get 3 percent back.

It also carries an introductory 0% APR for the first nine months, which can be helpful if you’re just starting out.

Recommended Option: Amazon Business Prime American Express Card

Amazon Business Prime American Express Card Compare	Annual Fee: $0 Purchase APR: 16.24% â 24.24%, Variable
Required credit: Good, excellent Bonus offer:Â $125 Amazon.com gift card upon approval (if you have an eligible Amazon Prime membership) Purchase intro APR:Â N/A Balance transfer intro APR: N/A Foreign transaction fee:Â None Rewards: If you have an eligible Amazon Prime membership:Â 5% back or an extra 90 days interest free on purchases at Amazon Business, AWS, Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market If you do not have an eligible Amazon Prime membership: 3% back or an extra 60 days interest free on purchases at Amazon Business, AWS, Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market 2% back on purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, and on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers 1% back on other purchases Notable perks & benefits: Employee cards available Employee purchase control withÂ multi-user accounts, shared payment methods, approval workflows, and spending limits Purchase protection, extended warranty, and travel coverage Access to Amex Offers More card details (click to expand) Hide

This one’s a little more niche. But if you find yourself buying supplies and random pet-related doodads on Amazon frequently, you can get a lot of value out of the Amazon Business Prime American Express Card.

If you have a Prime membership, you’ll earn a whopping 5 percent back on purchases made at Amazon.com, Amazon Business, AWS, and Whole Foods Market — or an extra 90 days interest-free grace period for purchases made at those places. Even if you’re not a Prime member, you’ll get 3 percent or 60 days, respectively. You’ll need to spend around $6,000 to recoup the cost of a $119 Prime membership with points alone, but that’s without factoring in money saved through Prime’s programs (shipping, deals, etc).

Personal Loans

If you need more money than you can safely put on a credit card, or need longer to pay it off, you should consider getting a personal loan that can cover business expenses.

There are some disadvantages to taking this route, namely that you’re on the hook rather than your business, but if your credit is good, it’s not the worst option out there.

Recommended Option: Lending Club Personal Loans

	Review Check Rate

Time in business: N/A Business revenue: N/A Personal credit score: 600 Credit history: 3 years Borrower requirements for personal loans (click to expand) Hide

Lending Club is a good option for individuals who may not have the strongest credit, but have a good debt-to-income ratio. The borrowing range is fairly narrow at $1k to $40k, but when you’re just starting out, you don’t want to go too deeply into debt anyway. You’ll have three-to-five years to pay it off, which makes it fairly manageable.

Recommended Option: Lendio

	Review Visit Site

Time in business: 6 months Business revenue: $10,000 per month Personal credit score: 550 Borrower requirements (click to expand) Hide

If you’re just entering the alternative loan market for the first time, it can be pretty overwhelming. Lendio takes some of that burden off of you by allowing you to effectively apply to their whole network of lenders with one application.

Need more options? Check out our feature on startup loans.

Create Contracts

If you’ve just been watching your friends’ pets, you’ve probably had an informal agreement about the services you’d provide and the expectations of safety and liability involved. And that was probably enough.

When you’re dealing with strangers in a professional capacity, however, it’s smart to formalize these elements in a contract. This can save you a lot of headaches, if not legal troubles, down the road. You’ll want to include critical information about the pet (when and what they eat, how they are with strangers, pertinent medical history, etc.), what’s included in your services, and the client’s expectations for how their home will be treated under your care (if applicable). You’ll also want to include your fees and rates.

If you can, have a lawyer look it over to make sure it checks out legally.

Market Your Business

Getting the word out is always one of the most challenging parts of getting a business off the ground. The easiest place to start is through word of mouth. Are you already looking after the pets of a family or two? Let them know you’re looking to take on more clients, along with your friends, family, and social contacts.

At some point, you’ll probably want to expand outside the reach of your current contacts, which means advertising. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can post flyers on bulletin boards and leave business cards in places trafficked by pet owners. Online classified sites like Craigslist can also cover a large audience in your area.

Bolster Your Web Presence

When it comes to promoting small business, the internet is one of those things that’s easy to both over- and underestimate. On the one hand, simply buying an ad and hoping for the best likely won’t yield amazing results. On the other, you do need an internet strategy to grow your business.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, but you’ll probably want a website that details your basic services and contact information. Don’t overthink it. There are a lot of great tools available that can help youÂ build a website.

Remember, too, that social media isn’t just for sharing pictures of your dinner with your friends. You can use to communicate with customers, make engaging content that makes them keep your brand in mind, and announce special deals and service changes.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, everything we covered doesn’t look too intimidating. If you’re good with animals and don’t mind turning that love into a source of revenue, you can get a pet-sitting business up and running in no time!

Having second thoughts about pet-sitting but are still looking to open a business? Check out our other beginners’ guides.

The post How To Start A Pet Sitting Business: The Complete Guide appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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April 4, 2019

How to Accept Online Payments With Square

When you are ready to start selling online, Square (read our review) offers a wide variety of options depending on your skill level and needs. For example, if time is of the essence or you donât want to fuss with code, build a free online store from Squareâs templates and get up and running by the end of the day.

Already have a site? Choose a plugin integration from the Square Dashboard that solves your problem â without the need for code.

But those aren’t all of your options. If you do have developer expertise, you can build your checkout flow with Square Transactions API and start accepting all major credit cards with digital wallet support, too.Â Â Square Checkout is yet another developer option that requires less coding with a pre-built payment form and digital wallet support.

In this post, we’ll explore each path so that you can get the facts and navigate to the choices right for you. Before you know it, youâll have launched your own online storeÂ and can move on to more exciting business matters.

Note: If youâre also curious about in-store payments, check out our related post, How To Use Square To Accept Credit Cards In Person.

Webstore	Integrations	Developers
Build Your Webstore Quickly & Easily	Integrate With Popular eCommerce Software	Developer-Friendly Tools For Customization

Get Started	Get Started	Get Started
Highlights: No coding required Free personalized URL Premade customizable themes No hosting fees Manage from your Dashboard Mobile-ready storefront Integrate with your in-person store	Integrate with: WooCommerce BigCommerce Ecwid 3dcart OpenCart Zen Cart Weebly WordPress.com Wix +More	Highlights: API for custom solutions In-person solutions Online solutions Card reader SDK Customer management solutions PCI and EMV compliance End-to-end encryption Dispute management Fraud detection
Instant Account Setup Fast Funding No Monthly Fees 2.90% + $0.30 for online sales	Instant Account Setup Fast Funding No Monthly Fees 2.90% + $0.30 for online sales	Instant Account Setup Fast Funding No Monthly Fees 2.90% + $0.30 for online sales

How Much Does Square Charge For Online Payments?

The cost question can be a very loaded one when it comes to payment processing. The great news is that Square offers a transparent pricing model.

To process credit cards online with Square, you’ll pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. The significant thing to note is that this flat fee encompasses much more than is typical with traditional merchant accounts. For instance, you donât need to worry about a payment gateway (and the expenses that go with it) when you process through Square. Read on below to learn the differences between Square and a traditional merchant account â and why they matter.

Traditional Merchant Account Vs. Square

Squareâs hardware and services encompass an end-to-end processing system that captures payment information and encrypts it through the payment chain with no need for a separate payment gateway.

What this means for you is cost-savings compared to a traditional merchant account. You wonât be paying initial set-up fees, PCI compliance fees, monthly account fees, batch fees, or higher rates for processing cards like American Express. Square also doesn’t assess any chargeback fees and offers merchants up to $250/month in chargeback protection. All of this is a pretty big deal because Square spares business owners from the laundry list of itemized charges that can come with traditional merchant accounts.

So if Square isnât a traditional merchant account, what is it? Square is a third party processor. This means that instead of opening a merchant account directly, you are basically a sub-user on Square’s giant merchant account, along with all of Square’s other customers. Square acts as a payment processor and also assumes the financial risk associated with your business to do so. The whole premise behind Square is that it makes setting up a shop very easy for the busy entrepreneur. In fact, you can get an account set up and running to take payment the very same day. The Square sign-up process doesnât even require a credit check!

While you donât need to jump through a lot of hoops to open up an account with Square (as you would working directly with a bank), Square is more apt to terminate or put a hold on an account if certain red flags are raised. While the overwhelming majority of businesses will never have a problem with an account hold, it can be disconcerting if it happens to you. Check out our post How to Avoid Merchant Account Holds, Freezes, and Terminations to find out more. Again, most merchants will likely never have to face this issue, but it helps to cover your bases.

Now that we have covered Square Payments as a third party processor and the cost of processing, letâs dig into Squareâs offerings when it comes to going live and selling online.

Option 1: Build A Free Square Online Store

As I said in the introduction, you can get a free Square store up and running today with no technical expertise needed. This whole process is powered by Square Payments andÂ Weebly (read our review). After creating a Square account, you can go back into your dashboard and select âOnline Storeâ in the menu. Then, Square leads you through the process of selecting the categories that most closely apply to your business. You’ll get a suggested template, but you can choose a different one if you fancy another one better. You can also add your logo, choose from limited fonts, and have some color choices, but overall the design freedom here is limited to the template itself.

Again, for being free, there isnât much to complain about. A Square store is the simplest solution to get your shop up and running. All you need to do is add your products — your eCommerce shop syncs with Square POS and all of the other Square software and tools. Your inventory automatically updates when you sell an item, too.

One potential drawback to the freemium option, however, is that you are bound to the Weebly logo in your domain name and the footer of your website, and your shipping options are minimal. The screenshot below shows the shipping options available when setting up the free Square store with Weebly. Note that you must upgrade your Weebly plan to calculate real-time shipping rates:

If you want a bit more customization and dynamic shipping calculations (among other upgrades), you can purchase a domain and upgrade to a professional or premium account through Weebly.

Square Online Store Upgrade Options

The free online store option, although robust in its own way, limits you a bit. As you can see from above, for example, if your company relies heavily on shipping items with large size or weight ranges, it may be worth it to you to go to the Premium eCommerce plan for the real-time shipping rate calculator and accurate rates for UPS, FedEx, or other third party carriers.

The free store also has a 500 MB storage space limit, which could limit the number of photos on your site. The paid tiers give you a considerable upgrade with unlimited space, along with website analytics and insights.

As far as accepting payment goes, you can accept all major credit cards. Digital wallets like Apple Pay are not supported at this time, but I suspect they will be soon. For more about the pros and cons of this solution, check out our Square Online Store and eCommerce Review.

Option 2: Connect Square To An eCommerce Platform

Whether you already have your site up and running or you are building your site from the ground up (or somewhere in between), you can probably find what you need in the Square App Marketplace. Square integrates with many eCommerce platforms, including:

3dcart (read our review)
Wix (read our review)
BigCommerce (read our review)
WooCommerce (read our review)
Ecwid (read our review)

And of course — let’s not forget that Square also integrates with Weebly, as well asÂ WordPress and WP EasyCart.

On the topic of app integrations and Square, itâs worth noting that Square can easily integrate with a range of different types of apps that you can shop for right from your dashboard. You can find everything from accounting to invoicing, employee management, loyalty and rewards, and marketing, to name a few. Pricing depends entirely on the apps themselves, but the Square App Marketplace is set up to compare costs easily.

All of Squareâs basic eCommerce features integrate with these apps, so youâll be able to enjoy the same payment processing rates, security protection, and inventory updates as you sell. Of course, each app platform has specific features and benefits, so the finished product (and look) varies depending on the integrated solution you choose. Check out The Best eCommerce Integrations That Work With Square Payments for our top picks!

Option 3: Build Your Own Checkout With Square APIs

If you already have your own site and you have developer expertise, then you have two more options thanks to Square API: Square Checkout and Transactions API. The most significant difference between the two is that Square Checkout is much closer to an out-of-the-box solution. With Square Checkout, Square is actually hosting the payment form, and the UI is already done for you. If you want more freedom in the checkout and payment UI and you want to host the payment form on your site with customized branding, you can opt for Square Transactions API.

Here is a handy side-by-side comparison chart to give you an overview of what you can expect with each solution. Note: All Square APIs and SDKs are free to use. As always, you pay only the payment processing fees.

Square Checkout	Feature	Square Transactions API
Yes	Requires Developer Support	Yes
No	Can Customize	Yes
Yes	Square Hosted	No (You host)
Yes	Store Customer Data	Yes (With integration)
No	Card on File & Recurring Payments	Yes (With integration)
Yes (Customer data & itemization)	Detailed Dashboard Reports	No (Transaction amount only)
Recommended, not required	SSL Needed	Yes, with separate integration
Yes	Eligible for Chargeback Protection	Yes (with conditions)
Yes	Data Encryption	Yes
Yes	PCI Compliance Included	Yes
Yes	Itemization	Yes, with Orders API
No	Dynamic Shipping Calculations	No
Yes	Accept Google Pay	Yes
Yes	Accept Apple Pay	Yes
No	Accept MasterPass	Yes
Yes	Accept All Major Credit Cards	Yes
Yes	Inventory Syncing	Yes, with Inventory API

The choice between Square API and Transactions API largely depends on your particular needs and what you find most important in the customer journey.

Other Ways To Accept Online Payments With Square

Though we have explored several options in Square payments, there are yet a few more to keep in mind. Before we go on, itâs worth mentioning that you canât add an embeddable âBuy Nowâ button to any site like you can with PayPal or even Shopify. However, there are still ways to take payments online — even without a website! Letâs check out the last two ways you can take payments via Square from your customer online â through invoices and in-app payments.

Invoices

You donât need an online store to send and collect payment from your customers if you use invoices. Square allows you to send one-off invoices for single orders, or to set up recurring invoices for subscriptions or even installments.Â Itâs easy to track the status of invoices and follow up right from your Square Dashboard, too. Want more info on invoices? Check out How To Use Square Invoices To Ensure You Get Paid On Time so you can leverage this option for your business.

In-App Payments

With all the cash being exchanged through in-app purchases, it was only a matter of time before Square decided to join the party. Thatâs right; now Square offers in-app payment support with a few lines of code! You can update elements to match your appâs style and have the freedom to customize the look and feel however you want. It’s all in Square’s Transaction APIs and completely free for you to use with your Square account.

Is Square Online Payments Right For You?

Square offers solutions for both the tech-savvy and those who want something ready to run out of the box. With that being said, the more appropriate question is, âWhich of Square Online Payment solutions are right for you?â And that answer comes down to your needs. From a quick-to-set up Square Store to Transaction APIs that are customizable and free to us, or plug-ins apps that add eCommerce to your existing site, there are many solutions to choose.

Keep in mind that you can add or subtract Squareâs services and other integrations to scale up or down with you as needed, so you donât have to make a final decision today. Setting up a Square account is the first step to get the ball rolling and see the options along the way. With no sign-up fees, binding contracts, or credit checks, Square is one of the least intimating companies to deal with if you are just checking things out.

The post How to Accept Online Payments With Square appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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March 1, 2019

Best Accounting Software For Freelancers

There are over 55 million freelancers in the US. With perks like being your own boss, setting your own schedule, and the flexibility to work from anywhere, it’s easy to see why freelancing is becoming such a popular choice.Â Whether you are self-employed full-time or are freelancing on the side to earn some extra income, there are key software tools that can help you run a more effective and profitable business — the most important being accounting software.

As a freelancer, it’s easy to focus on growing your business, finding new clients, creating marketing campaigns —Â anythingÂ but accounting. However, having a strong accounting process and being in control of your business’s finances is the key to running a successful business.

Luckily, there are plenty of easy to use, affordable accounting solutions that will help you manage your freelance finances and taxes quickly so you can get back to doing what you love.

In this post, we’ll share the top accounting software for freelancers. We’ll also share some other great freelance tools that you should know about to help your business succeed, including everything from email marketing software to website builders to mobile payment apps and more. We’ve spent hours researching and testing software so that you can find the perfect software solutions to run your freelance business.

heading	QuickBooks Self-Employed	AND CO	Wave


	ReviewCompare	ReviewCompare	ReviewCompare
Pricing	$10 – $17/month	$0 – $18/month	$0/month
Size of Business	Self-Employed	Self-Employed	Small
Ease of Use	Very Easy	Very Easy	Very Easy
Customer Service	Fair	Very good	Poor
Number of Users	1	1	1
Number of Integrations	4	10	4
Cloud-Based or Installed	Cloud-Based	Cloud-Based	Cloud-Based
Mobile Apps	iOS & Android	iOS & Android	iOS & Android

Characteristics Of Good Freelance Accounting Software

In terms of accounting software, freelancers have very specific needs. Most traditional small business accounting software simply won’t fit the bill. Freelancers need an easy-to-use financial management solution designed specifically for the self-employed. Here are some of the key characteristics a good freelance accounting software should have:

Affordable:Â For freelancers, every penny counts. With a slim or nonexistent accounting budget, freelancers need a solution that is free or offers affordable, low monthly payments.
Easy To Use: Good accounting software should be easy to use as most freelancers don’t have time to spend hours balancing the books. Many also may have little to no previous accounting experience so they need something that is easy to learn and understand.
Time-Saving Automations:Â All accounting software should feature automations, but freelancers are in particular need of any way to save time. Standard automationsÂ include automatic receipt uploading, mileage tracking, and live bank feeds.
Manage Personal & Business Finances: While freelancers should open a separate business banking account to safeguard against tax audits, this simply isn’t the reality for many self-employed individuals. Because of this, many freelancers need to be able to separate their personal expenses from their business expenses using their accounting software
Good Organization: As a freelancer, it’s easy to put finances on the back burner, but knowing your exact income and expenses is key to running a successful business. Accounting software should help you stay organized, run key financial statements, and make more informed business decisions.
Tax Support: With estimated quarterly taxes and ever-changing deductions, freelance taxes can be overwhelming.Â The best freelance accounting software will include tax support to help you manage your self-employed taxes.
Support Resources:Â Good accounting software will also provide you with ample learning materials to help you better your business.

We weighed all of these factors when selecting the best accounting software for freelancers. Each of the top three accounting options displays many, if not all, of the features listed above to help make managing your freelance finances as simple as possible.

1) QuickBooks Self-Employed

Best For…

Overall freelance accounting and tax support. Ideal for filing directly with Turbo Tax.

Created in 2014, QuickBooks Self-Employed was designed specifically to help freelancers manage their finances and file their taxes easily. QuickBooks Self-Employed is incredibly easy to use, offers great mobile apps, and has the best tax support of all three programs on this list. The software helps you calculate your estimated quarterly taxes, track your mileage, find other deductions like the home office deduction, and even has a Turbo Tax integration for easy filing. On top of tax support, QBSE also helps freelancers keep track of their income and expenses.

The software is ideal for freelancers looking for tax support, a way to separate personal and business expenses, and basic expense tracking.

Pros	Cons
Suited for freelancers	Limited invoice features
Calculates estimated quarterly taxes	No state tax support
Easy to use
Turbo Tax integration

Pricing

QuickBooks Self-Employed offers two pricing plans ranging from $10 – $17/month. The difference between the two is that the larger plan includes a built-in Turbo Tax integration and the ability to pay estimated quarterly taxes online.

Features

QuickBooks Self-Employed supports a good amount of features, especially where taxes are concerned. Here’s an idea of what QuickBooks Self-Employed has to offer:

Track income and expenses
Separate personal and business expenses
Invoicing
Record tax deductions
Fixed asset management
Calculate estimated quarterly taxes

Ease Of Use

QuickBooks Self-Employed is incredibly easy to use. It has a modern, well-organized UI that takes very little time to learn and offers strong mobile apps that are also easy to navigate.

Customer Support

QuickBooks Self-Employed’s customer support has its pros and cons. There’s no phone support, but there is a live chat feature if you want to get in touch with a representative directly. The good news is that QBSE provides a great selection of learning resources for freelancers including a comprehensive help center and a small business center chock full of business advice.

Takeaway

QuickBooks Self-Employed is one of the best accounting and tax support solutions out there for the self-employed. The software offers the most advanced level of tax support on the market, and while this isn’t a full-fledged accounting app, it allows freelancers to manage their income and expenses.

Read our full QuickBooks Self-Employed review to find out if this software is right for your business.

2) AND CO

Best For…

Freelancers looking for strong accounting, good customer support, and the ability to create and send contracts to clients.

Founded in 2015, AND CO is an up-and-coming freelance accounting software that was recently acquired by Fiverr, one of the leading freelance marketplaces. The software is easy to use, offers great customer support, and provides traditional accounting features like time tracking and project management. While the software does not offer tax support, it does have a one-of-a-kind contract feature that allows you to create legal contracts for projects that are compliant with the Freelancers Union. This allows you to dictate who retains rights to your work and accept signatures directly from clients.

AND CO is ideal for freelancers who don’t need the extra tax support of QuickBooks Self-Employed and would rather have more traditional accounting features, contracts, and better customer support.

Pros	Cons
Suited for freelancers	No tax support
Easy to use	Unsuited for product-based businesses
Good customer support	Limited integrations
Strong mobile apps

Pricing

AND CO has a free plan for freelancers with a single client and a paid plan which costs $18/month. The larger plan includes unlimited reports and more advanced proposals and contracts.

Features

While AND CO may be lacking in tax support, the software has a lot of great features going for it. Here are some of the features AND CO has to offer:

Invoicing
Contact management
Expense tracking
Time tracking
Project management
Proposals
Contracts
Subscriptions

Ease Of Use

AND CO is incredibly easy to use. The software was originally designed solely as an iPhone app so the mobile apps are also easy to navigate.

Customer Support

AND CO offers great customer support. Representatives are generally kind and quick to respond to questions. The company also offers great business tools and support resources for freelancers, as well as all of Fiverr’s extensive freelance resources.

Takeaway

AND CO is a great accounting and finance management tool for freelancers. The main drawback is that there is no tax support. However, you won’t find such developed proposal and contract features anywhere else.

Read our complete AND CO review to see if this freelance tool is right for you.

3) Wave

Best For…

Freelancers looking for a complete accounting solution for free.

Wave is a free accounting software solution that offers an incredible number of features for $0/month. While the software wasn’t designed specifically for freelancers like QuickBooks Self-Employed and AND CO, Wave is one of the best accounting programs to fit the needs of freelancers. It’s affordable, easy to use, and allows business owners to separate personal and business accounting.

The software is ideal for self-employed individuals looking for a full accounting solution or those who need an affordable way to manage their freelance finances.

Pros	Cons
Free	Limited integrations
Easy to use	Poor customer support
Good feature set	Limited mobile apps
Positive customer reviews

Pricing

Wave only offers one accounting package and it’s completely free. There are no user limits or feature limits. You get all of the great features of Wave for $0/month. The only extra costs are payment processing, payroll, and professional bookkeeping services.

Features

Of all three options on this list, Wave offers the most features. While you won’t find tax support, Wave does offer strong accounting and is full-fledged accounting software. Because of Wave is actual accounting software, it’s the only program on this list that will allow you to actually balance the books. Here are the features you’ll find with Wave:

Invoicing
Estimates
Contact management
Expense tracking
Accounts payable
Inventory
Reports

Ease Of Use

Wave is well-organized and its modern UI is easy to navigate.

Customer Support

Wave offers many great support resources; however, getting in touch with an actual representative is difficult. There is no phone support and response times are slow.

Takeaway

Wave is an affordable accounting program that gives you strong accounting and tons of features without breaking the bank. The software does not offer tax support, but it does offer payroll, making it a scalable solution if you plan on growing your freelancing business. The professional bookkeeping services are also great for freelancers who aren’t comfortable doing their own accounting or simply don’t have the time.

Read our full Wave review to see if this accounting software is right for you.

Other Great Freelance Tools

Your freelancing business is your baby, and as it takes a village to raise a child, it can also take an army of integrations to run a business. There are tons of great freelancing tools that can help you manage and grow specific areas of your business, like email marketing, invoicing, ecommerce, and more. Here are some of the top freelance software tools we recommend.

The Best Invoicing Software For Freelancers

If your freelance business reliesÂ heavily on invoicing and isn’t quite ready for all of the other features included with accounting software, invoicing software could be a simpler alternative to meet your business needs.

Zoho Invoice

Zoho Invoice is an easy to use, cloud-based invoicing program with incredible invoicing features. With over 15 invoice templates to choose from and international invoicing options, Zoho Invoice has a lot to offer. Read our complete Zoho Invoice review to learn everything this software is capable of.

Invoicera

Invoicera is also a could-based program with a good feature set and attractive invoice templates. A forever free plan and over 35 payment gateway integrations are just a few of the perks of this invoicing option. Read our complete Invoicera review to learn if this software is right for you.

Visit our invoicing software reviews for more options or compare our top favorite invoicing solutions for small businesses.

The Best Receipt Management Software For Freelancers

Business owners are all too familiar with the dreadedÂ receipt shoebox. Receipt management software or expense tracking softwareÂ can help freelancers get organized and handle reimbursements with ease.

Expensify

Expensify is a cloud-based expense management solution with mobile receipt scanning, expense approval workflows, and next-day expense reimbursements. The software also integrates with key accounting programs for a seamless expense tracking experience.

Shoeboxed

Shoeboxed is also a cloud-based expense management solution with receiptÂ scanning, mileage tracking, expense reports, basic CRM, and even tax prep. Shoeboxed also integrates with key accounting programs.

The Best Payment Processing Software For Freelancers

Need to accept mobile payments from your customers? Mobile payment apps allow freelancers to accept payments anywhere — whether that be at a home show, a small storefront, or even a client meeting at Starbucks. If your freelance business could benefit from accepting payments on the go, mobile payment processing is a must.

Square

Square is one of the most popular mobile payment apps. It offers affordable flat rate pricing and free tools for selling online, making it easy to accept payments from your customers in multiple ways. Read our complete Square review to learn how Square could benefit your business.

Take a look at our other mobile payment processing reviews or compare our top five payment processing solutions for businesses.

The Best Website Builders For Freelancers

A website is key for many freelancers who sell goods online or who need a professional online portfolio to showcase their work to clients. Luckily, there are plentyÂ of affordable, easy to use website builders that can give yourÂ freelance business the edge.

Wix

Wix is an easy to use website builder that is ideal for ecommerce and blogging. Wix offers a compelling free version with unlimited pages and hundreds of customizable templates to choose from. Read ourÂ complete Wix review to learn more about this affordable website solution.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that is perfect for ecommerce and blogs While there’s no free plan, the software offers amazing templates with a huge degree of customizability. Read our complete Squarespace review to see if this website builder is right for you.

Read our other website builder reviews and ecommerce reviews to find the perfect solution for your business.

The Best Email Marketing Software For Freelancers

One of the most challenging parts of freelancing is finding clients. Email marketing software can be a great way to market your services and target clients so you can grow your business.

MailChimp

MailChimp is an easy to use email marketing software with affordable payments. The software offers email campaigns, email automations, and even analytics and reporting. Read our complete MailChimp review to learn how this software could help your business.

Benchmark

Benchmark is another great email marketing option that is easy to use and offers good customer support. The software has hundreds of templates to choose from and the unique ability to send video emails and online surveys. Read our complete Benchmark review to see if this software is right for your business.

Read our other email marketing software reviews or compare the best email marketing solutionsÂ to find the right option for your business.

Picking The Perfect Freelance Accounting Software

Running a freelance business can be difficult, but with the right tools, you can set your business up for success. With accounting solutions like QuickBooks Self-Employed, AND CO, and Wave, you can manage your finances and gain valuable insight into your business’s income and expenses.

QuickBooks Self-Employed is ideal for freelancers in need of tax support; AND CO is ideal for legal, professional contracts; and Wave is ideal for the complete accounting package. Identifying your freelance needs and examining your current financial process can help you decide which program is the perfect fit for your business.

Then ask yourself, what other tools could benefit my business?

Email marketing software could help you grow your clientele. A website builder could help you create a professional brand. A payment processing app could help you increase your sales. Here at Merchant Maverick, our goal is to help you find the best software to help your business succeed. We have hundreds of reviews across multiple software industries so you can find the perfect software combo. Check out our comprehensive reviews and our other freelance resources as well.

Top 10 Tax Deductions For Freelancers

Loans For Freelance Businesses: Your 13 Best Options

heading	QuickBooks Self-Employed	AND CO	Wave


	ReviewCompare	ReviewCompare	ReviewCompare
Pricing	$10 – $17/month	$0 – $18/month	$0/month
Size of Business	Self-Employed	Self-Employed	Small
Ease of Use	Very Easy	Very Easy	Very Easy
Customer Service	Fair	Very good	Poor
Number of Users	1	1	1
Number of Integrations	4	10	4
Cloud-Based or Installed	Cloud-Based	Cloud-Based	Cloud-Based
Mobile Apps	iOS & Android	iOS & Android	iOS & Android

The post Best Accounting Software For Freelancers appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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