Improving Your Company Payment Process

Everyone looks forward to getting paid. Improving your company’s payment process could make things easier for your clients, prevent delayed payments and even generate new leads. Here are just a few ways to make your company payment process better.

Accept Plastic

Nowadays even market vendors are starting to accept card. There’s no reason not to accept plastic in this day and age – there are now cheap contactless card readers that you can attach to your phone for on the go use. Companies that deal with big transactions may also want to consider accepting credit card – whilst this does ensue certain charges, it could allow people who don’t have money in the bank the option of borrowing to pay there and then. Whatever the case, make sure that you’re not just dealing in cash. Fewer people are carrying coins around them making cards more convenient and better for ensuring sales.

Don’t Overcomplicate Online Payment

If you give clients the option to pay online, make sure that you haven’t got a complicated checkout process as some people may grow impatient with it. Avoid pages and pages of admin and allow different payment options. A lot of company sites use Paypal as it’s the most popular payment solution, allowing people to pay in a variety of currencies.

Improve Your Invoicing

If you usually invoice clients in order to get paid, make sure that these invoices are done professionally. Look into invoice templates and consider whether email or post is the best measure (email is often quickest and most convenient, but if you don’t have their email address you may have to rely on post). Make sure that you chase up late payers and send reminders whilst keeping a professional tone.

Keep a Record of All Incoming Payments

It’s important that you’re keeping track of every payment, just in case you need to use a payment as proof. If most of your payments are done electronically, you may be able to rely on bank statements – however when it comes to cash you may have to manually record this information. This is important for tax purposes, but it can also ensure that you’re not losing money that may have been mishandled.

Consider Loyalty Cards/Gift Cards and Vouchers

There are lots of extra forms of payment that can add new incentives for clients to buy from your company. Creating a loyalty card/points system could help encourage return customers by giving them a discounts after a certain amount of payments. Gift cards and vouchers meanwhile could allow you to sell your service as a gift, helping to further encourage customers. You will need to find ways of recording these payment options – most modern types of payment software can do this for you automatically.